Std-Ex: Southwick Investor Fraud Case Broadens

But the Std-Ex drops the ball, and inexplicably omits key material facts

By Curmudgeon

In this morning's Standard-Examiner, there is a long story, by Tim Gurrister, reporting that "Two Val Southwick cohorts have been charged as accomplices in the financial escapades that landed the Ogden financier in prison this year. William J. Hammons, 64, an investment counselor in St. George, was charged last week in the 5th District Court in Washington County with multiple counts of fraud." Sad to report, the Standard Examiner has dropped the ball on this story, however.

Nowhere in the story, will readers of the SE learn that Mr. Hammons was bishop of his LDS ward in Las Vegas. That would not be a problem if Mr. Hammon's role as an LDS bishop was unrelated to the crimes he is alleged to have committed. If his status as bishop of a ward in Las Vegas was wholly unrelated to what he's charged with doing, throwing it in as anything but an aside would have opened the paper to the charge of Mormon-bashing.

But, sadly, yesterday's SL Trib story makes clear what the SE failed or refused to report: Hammons is alleged to have traded on his position as bishop to peddle Ponzi scheme investments to his co-religionists. His religious affiliation and his religious post are important elements of the story and the allegations made against him, not irrelevant incidentals.

In reporting crime stories, it's the SE's job to report all the significant elements of the story it has discovered to its readers. It is not its job to coddle the religious sensibilities of many of its readers by deleting important parts of stories because they may find those details uncomfortable, embarrassing or disconcerting. I suspect that may have happened in today's SE story. It shouldn't have.

Reader comments are invited, as always