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Show THE ZEPHYR DECEMBER 1990 PAGE 4 a puppet's manifesto one dilemma in an election reporter's year by Kenneth F. Davey hatchet job, unfairly, unethically, dishonestly carved someone up with the Elections can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. supercilious smugness that all you news people have because you think They can mean a chance to make changes, or a chance to stop them, a chance to dream about a glorious, or nightmarish, future, a chance to get youre God Almighty. But I never seem to get that much credit. that someone When I write something in the yourself or your cousin or your nephew a job, a chance to remain or become a power broker. doesnt like, nobody blames me, they blame Sam. "He must have really For some, the elections were a way to reassert the primacy of edited what you wrote, huh? Well, actually, no. In all the articles Ive minerals extraction, or a chance to make the town a showcase for given Sam, there was only one time that he ever removed a line, and that environmental concerns, a way to guarantee the Book Cliffs Road, or a was In a piece about Steven Ray Allen trial, where he took out a quote he felt bordered on bad taste. Never in a city council story, never In a report way to kill It, a way to send David Adams down the road to the governors on the county commission, has Sam ever tried to change what was written mansion, or a way to chase Elaine Coates out of town. For me, It was a chance to make some money. There are three places to get some local news here In Moab, the weekly cable televisions Channel 6, and finally, the monthly Canyon Country Zephyr. All 3 are very different, focusing on different topics, run by owners with wildly different backgrounds and opinions. The Tlmes- -I ndeoendent has been around for close to a century, and has been owned by the Taylors for generations. Sam Taylor is a rock-sol- id Republican, strongly conservative In a strongly conservative A state. politician as much as a publisher, Sam was a leader In the state senate, and currently chairs the Utah Department of Transportation. Channel 6 is run by Jim Mattingly, the reverse side of long-tiMoab. In He grew up in the area, went to school Grand County. He left for a few in Air the Force, then Arizona, before returning to town. A free years, thinking liberal, hes been active on and off In the local Democratic Party. The Zephyrs editor Is Jim Stiles, who represents a third basic group In town, the people who consciously moved to Moab for the unique terrain of the high desert. He naturally sees political questions In terms of what they do to the environment. The politics and perceptions of all three news organizations reflect their owners. I work for all three. In February and April and June, thats not too much of a problem. I do a solid, If not flashy job, going to the meetings, writing down the quotes, setting up the Interviews. But when October rolls around, and elections for the control of the county commission take place, suddenly the meetings I cover, the articles I write, the interviews I transcribe, they all suddenly take on a tinge of bias. It ve was Bferschled, anti-CrBigler. I tried to make David Knutson look good, tried to make him look bad. I let Manuel Torres off the hook, or tried to hang David Adams (too many Davids run for office). I can accept all that. People care passionately about their candidates to make his candidate look good or his enemy bad. Its not my place to or causes. They see something I write and they dont like It, its defend Sams or his editorials, or his choice of other articles. expected, politics, legitimate, in some cases justified that they feel I screwed up. When you But I can say he doesnt edit what I give him. sign your name to an article, you take responsibility for what goes in it, before the Right special election on the courthouse referendum, pearls of wisdom and misquotes alike. I can accept the Idea that Channel 6 ran a couple of pieces on how the mailing put out by the someone thinks I wrote a biased news story, that I messed up, did a county may have been illegal, that using county funds to call for a yes Tlmes-lndeoend- ent Tlmes-lndeoend- ent. me pro-Da- aig Merry Christmas from La Hacienda |