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Show : [ re Howa Rebel Ended Up In No-SmokingSection . The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH D-Newsblames miscommunication in altering of James Dean photo LDS Church Presents Journalistic Challenge Newshoundsshare views at Sunstone symposium BY HANNAH WOLFSON BY HANNAH WOLFSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS News media outlets in Utah face special He's a rebel withouta cause. And in a recent edition ofthe Deseret News, film icon James Dean was also a rebel withouta cigarette. The Salt Lake City newspaper, which is owned by the LDS Church, digitally altered a photograph of Dean to remove the cigarette so ia seen dangling from the movie star’s mayalso hit during the 2002 Winter Olympics, according to a panel ofjournalists. The difficulties range from oe access to church authorities to angering local audiences, said participants in Wednesday’s discussion at the opening session of the annual Sunstone Symposium, a conference on Mormonissues. “The dominance of the church in Utah society has to have some effect on how journalists do their work,” said Ed Hula, the panel’s moderator and the editor and publisher of the Olympic magazine Around the Rings. Februey Olympics will highlight the problems, he "The manipulationviolated the paper’s Policy against changing photographs, said managing editorRick Hall. The paperran a clarification in ‘Thursday’sedition. “Tt was a mistake the way it happened,” Hall said. “It’s one of those things you hate to fess up to.” Thepicture, whichfills a considerable portion of the front page of last Friday’s Weekend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long had a contentious section, accompanied a story on television movie about Dean'slife. Hall said he and editor John Hughes saw the planned page layout late last week and were concerned the cigarette, projecting from Dean’s Anonsmoking James Dean was featured on the front page of the Weekend section of the Deseret News’ Aug. 3 edition. The paperdigitally focal point. Most of the paper’s 66,000 subscribers are altered the photo to remove the cigarette fremembers of The Church of Jesus Christ of ety even Canin Hom) Be eve 5s We. Latter-day Saints who eschewtobacco use in any The original picture of Dean is shown above. form. mouth into the story’s text, was too striking a “As we looked atthe page, the cigarette was yery dominant,” Hall said. “And we ‘have no apologies aboutnot wantingto have the cigarette dominate the page, frankly less because of ownership than general portrayal of tobacco.” The paper does not accept tobacco advertising. » So Hall and Hughes ordered their staff to “change the picture,” Hall said. They wanted them to find a new, tobacco-free photo,he said. Instead, because of a misunderstanding or tight deadline pressures, the photo was digitally altered. . (The action first came to public light Wednesdayin The Salt Lake Tribune in a column by Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells.) “Our policy is very firm. We don’t mess around with the content of pictures, and this went against that. There’s no two ways around that,” Hall said. “I don’t want to back away. We did wantthe cigarette to be less dominant. But when youstart messing aroundwith a picture, that’s wrong. That’s bad.” Theclarification that ran in the News Thursday read asfollows: “A picture ofJames Dean that ran in Friday’s Weekend section was mistakenly digitally altered. “ Because of the way the picture was placed on thepage, wefelt it gave too much emphasis to Dean's cigarette. We're not in the business of promoting tobacco usage. So we decided to put in anewpicture,’ News ManagingEditor Rick Hall Friday, August 10, 2001 “But due to a miscommunication,the picture was instead digitally altered to eliminate the cigarette. ‘That simply should not have happened,’ Hall said. ‘We make no apology for downplaying tobacco usage, butdigitally altering a photo is against the paper’s ethics policy. We have taken steps to ensure thatit won't happen again.” Photo alterations have made news before, perhaps most notably when Time magazine darkened and added stubble toa mug shot ofO.J. Simpson onits cover in 1994, labeling it a photo illustration. Shortly after, managing editor James Gaines wrote letter admitting that “altering newspictures isa risky practice, since only documentary authority makes photography ofanyvaluein the practice of.‘journalism.’ Thepractice is generally frowned upon,said Greg Garneau,executive directorofthe National Press Photographers Association. “You're in essence with that becoming a participant as a journalist as opposed to a reporter. You're there tilting the public opinion toward an outcome, which, of course, in OJ.’s case, is guilt,” he said. TheDeseret Newscase is muchless serious, he said, in part because it was done with good intentions.“It’s not something thatsets off alarm bells,” Garneausaid. “Butit’s just the sort of thing that should be part of the ongoing discussion in regards to digital technology.” ——- withthe meKUTV News re- porter nedecies) Hetras e sentiment times it’s hard for people to distinguish tween covering the public acts ofthe church and criticizing the faith.” Utah’s largest paper has been chastised for recent articles on‘such controversial issues as the church’s purchase ofa block ofMain Street and an examination ofa 143-year-old massacre in southern Utah by a Mormon militia. In some carenoanatenets have di‘Adamesais measly injec elt writi sianwhere et cent residents — 90 percentof the state Legis- «« set fi 1 Journalists ne general like 9 afflict the comfortable. lature — follow the same But in this town, there’s no Ne . an you're going to run gas . backto 184, when church onetheybedi. affict more these churchstatefaith i founder Joseph Smith convinced the town ofNauvoo, TL, to shut down a local paper afterit attacked the than rmons. . eS ROD DECKER sues,” At the same time, panelists said, the news media is drawn to church stories in Mormons’ polygamous KUTV News reporter part because readers and practices. ae viewers are. “The church has this “Journalists in general long history of problems with the press,” liketo afflict the comfortable.But in this town, Decker said. “I would think it’s hard to find there’s no onethey liketo afflict more than the anotherinstitution that has that long of a Mormons,” Decker said. “No business, no relationship.” other organizations would get such thorough Part of that, he suggested, stems from a and provocative coverage as the Mormon Mormonsense of pride in being outside the church.” mainstream. Reporters from outside Utah may end up Butat the same time,participants said, the going out of their way to report on Mormonchurch has become more concerned aboutits ism’s darkerpast, such as the practice of poimage in recentyears. lygamyordiscrimination against blacks. That has resulted in the hiring of a New Thatis in part because the church’s proseYork public relations firm,the creation of the lytizing message is not very dramatic, said church public affairs department and the ex- Jerry Johnston, religion writer and columnist pansion of that departmentin advance of the for the church-owned Deseret News. Olympics. Think ofthe old cartoons characters withan The public affairs department has made the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the jobs of local journalists easier, said Renai Bod- other,he said. ley, newsdirector for KSTU-TV,the Foxaffili“The angel was boring. You would rather ate in Salt Lake City. talk to the devil because he’s more interestBut she said access is still limited and ing.” Johnston said. “When you come to Utah, churchofficials rarely are willing to appear on you wantto talk to the devil. . Beinga good camera, making it difficult for her station, Mormon and paying your tithing is not very which estimates 65 percentof its viewers are YY ONE PART CHALLENGING. ONE PART PAMPERING. THE SUM OF LUXURYLIVING. Atlast the challenge of « Tom Faio desigied ol Socitee and the indelgeaces-of a.peivate ope unite ; a to create a living experience like no other. Where the majestic mountains of Park City rise as the backdrop toa roe destined to become a classic. And the DOWin ‘SQ: YD. pampering treatments of the Spa at Glenwild await to renew your senses daily, Welcome home to Glenwild - the West's preemineitt private golf community. raemae Zalenusi a | ibe sign eds $300,000to $1.5million. 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