Prop 8, Church Involvement, and the News Media
Mark Twain once wrote, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” It looks like we’ve seen that phenomenon in action over the last weekend. John and I will have more to say about this after we’ve spent a little more time putting bread on our tables, but under the circumstances we wanted to get this quick hit up.
Over the weekend there were many news reports arising from the required report that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filed regarding its contributions to Proposition 8. (Here’s the report.) The Sacramento Bee story, for example, gave the clear impression that the Church had withheld information and was only now admitting to substantial expenditures in support of Prop 8.
When John first told me of this story, I was perplexed and dismayed. I found it especially worrisome that, according to the Bee report, “Mormon church officials could not be reached Saturday for comment.”
Now, it turns out, the Bee’s story is essentially bunk, according to this rather dry, factual, but devastating press release from the Church. It notes:
Because media coverage about this filing ran without a comment from the Church, the following statements of fact from the Church add context to this story and should help correct the record:
We’ll do some analysis later, but for now the release will speak for itself. It will be interesting to see if any of the publications that went with the story do any follow-up reporting that comes close to matching the visibility of the first story.
John comments: I was grossly dismayed by this – grossly. You must remember that it was the “Mormons deceive” meme that resonated most strongly on the right. When I saw the story, even though I assumed it was purely some sort of oversight as opposed to a purposeful attempt to deceive, I was ready for the “I told you so’s” to come crashing my way at a breakneck pace. I contacted not just Lowell, but all the Mormons I knew, urging them to do whatever they could to get the church off the ball on this.
Somehow it is pleasing to find that this is simply once again, media bias at play. But what is truly amazing is that media bias – liberal media bias – will in this case provide ammunition to people on the right – unless of course they are smart enough to dig into things just a bit. Strange bedfellows indeed.
Posted in News Media Bias, Proposition 8 | 1 Comment » | 
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TVHall on 02 Feb 2009 at 10:10 pm #
It is becoming more and more evident that the first thought upon reading, or hearing, anything in today’s news media should be, “Gee, I wonder if that’s actually true?” And that thought should likely be quickly followed with, “probably not.”