Salt Lake Tribune Editorial: West Valley City Mayor Harmed his City, Deseret News Readers - Updated

Sodden Sunday Reader Query: Is the Deseret News actually not a newspaper, but rather a mere stenography service run by idiot MBAs hired by crazy old cultists?

In the interest of provokoing a little WCF discussion, We'll direct our readers' attention this morning to an eye-opening editorial in yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune, lambasting West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder, for his perhaps ill-considered recent foray into "anonymous" citizen journalism. SLTrib editor Terry Orme's lead paragraphs provide the gist:

Mike Winder, mayor of West Valley City, didn’t like what he read about his city in the Deseret News. So he did something about it.

Winder became Richard Burwash, citizen journalist. Under the Burwash byline, Winder submitted news stories he thought would balance the way West Valley is perceived by that newspaper’s readers. He felt the Deseret News’ coverage was too focused on crime in the city.

The Deseret News took the Burwash copy. After all, it fits into the newspaper’s year-old strategy of using citizen-submitted news stories to replace content once produced by a large, and now much smaller, staff of reporters. Last week, Winder came clean about his alias, admitting it wasn’t the best idea he’s ever had, but defending his motive for improving the image of his city.

So much is troubling about all this that it is hard to know where to begin.

Read the full blistering editorial here:

• Editor column: West Valley City mayor harmed his city, Deseret News readers

In a curt comment beneath the editorial, one SLTrib reader offers this:

The Deseret News is not a newspaper. It is a stenography service run by idiot MBAs hired by crazy old cultists.

This jagged remark is of course a reference to last year's Deseret News staff "housecleaning," wherein Deseret News CEO and president Clark Gilbert decimated the DNews professional staff, "reduced the DNews' print work force by 57 full-time and 28 part-time employees, which reflects just over 43 percent of [their] work force," abandoned all recognized standards of professional journalism and adopted a bone-headed "strategy of using citizen-submitted news stories to replace content once produced by a large, and now much smaller, staff of [professional] reporters."

This isn't the first time the DNews has landed in journalistic hot water as a result of Mr. Gilbert's new cheapskate, "bean-counter driven" business model either. Deseret news readers will of course remember the unfortunate incident back in mid-summer of this year, when the "DNews amateur act" fell for a ludicrous (and what should have been a facially-obvious) "hoax" press release, and published a too-good-to-be-true story "erroneously report(ing) that a Southern Baptist leadership group ha(d) recommended that the Southern Baptist Convention approve gay marriage."

Whether this most recent blunder descends to the level of that earlier world-class foul-up we don't know. What we will ask our readers this morning however is this:

Does this all simply boil down to a "no harm no foul" circumstance as Mayor Winder contends, in that these DNews "puff pieces" were merely a relatively innocent and innocuous (although admittedly clumsy) attempt to to "balance the way West Valley is perceived by that newspaper’s readers?" Or is the SLTrib right in arguing that Mayor Winder's DNews contributions exhibited a reprehensible lack of "honesty, integrity, accountability — and transparency" on Mayor Winder's part?

And aside from generally obvious defects in the the DNews's questionable new cost-slashing business model, is there more that the DNews editors should have done to "pierce the veil" of Winder's bogus "Richard Burwash nom-de-plume" in this circumstance?

Of course we probably ought to at least restate SLTrib reader FUtah2011's original statement in the form of a question: "Is the Deseret News actually not a real newspaper at all, but rather a stenography service run by idiot MBAs hired by crazy old cultists?"

And what other important issues, ethical or otherwise, can our sharp-eyed WCF readers spot in this curious set of facts?

That's it for now, O Gentle Ones.

Who will be the first to toss in their own 2¢?

Update 11/14/11 8:22 a.m.: Here's some additional background material for our WCF readers' consumption, as they consider the queries posed above, gleaned via an impressively broad variety of media sources:

• West Valley mayor admits writing articles using false name
• Utah Mayor Used Alias To Write Upbeat News Stories
• Mayor Used Alias to Promote Town
• Utah Mayor Admits He Used Fake Name To Write News Stories About Himself

Looks like this embarrassing story ain't going away any time soon.

Special thanks to the good professor Dan S. for originally assembling this array of stories on his Facebook wall.

Update 11/14/11 11:40 a.m.: Yesiree, this story's now "goin" viral. Here's the latest from Salt Lake City Weekly:

• Deseret Connect: Whom Can You Trust?

Gotta admit we loved this selected paragraph:

Ironically, as this story is now going viral, Winder has achieved his goal of garnering astonishing publicity for West Valley City, only it's the kind that makes most people cringe.

We're still waitin' around for a few more WCF readers to comment about this highly-embarrasing DNews credibility dilemma, by the way.

Please don't let the cat get yer tongues.