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Show WASATCH COUNTY COURIER MAY 30, 2001 Ls | A6 Why We Do What We Do, The Way We Do COMMENTARY BY DAN STEPHENS Tribune. Unfortunately, inches versus the negative inches since the start of this the Commentary (that’s why we call it the Opinion Page.) } WILE JUIN I think the public reporting often with \\ GAIN CONTROL san press. Given the choice of having the Founding Fathers on my side or Michael Wren (see Letters to the Editor) Ill take the Founding Fathers LLL UL | 4 amendment is obviously intended to protect -written opinion in the press. It doesn’t say, “The press shall be fair and objective.” The: Founding Behera. clearly understood the importance ofa parti- every time. If advocating a position you feel strongly about is a crime then I plead guilty, guilty as sin ( also plead guilty _ for Sam Allen in his absence.) I firmly believe newspapers should be advocates. Being a partisan press is not a bad thing. Being a white bread, mid- ee tei Oped and still make the same money? The © same holds true for monopoly papers _ like the Park Record and used to hold true for the Wave. With no competition you can hide under the skirt of enlATCHe impartiality api take the easy. way | out. The _papers problem, as I see it, is that and eatclic thee “Fairness Doctrine” -like The has The™ ‘Wave, Park become. a:.relic sof the past: Look, the reason we say ae things we do.on this page is because we Record, The Deseret’ News and The Tribune don’t challenge the establishment, they are the establishment. There is no vitality in the press because everyone is trying to be neutral and/or impartial. It is in their _ best interest (business interest) not to rock the boat. Until recently that- the valley. We would have done better . putting the money in the stock market. | - Silver King Media Group subsidizes this paper out of belief and conAgency Corporation Joint Operating | -Yiction, not profit motive. We aren’t Agreement, which was created after trying to be inflammatory or critical. congress countermanded the Taft‘just to get a rise out of folks. We see Hartley Anti Monopoly Act, and was things in the community we feel are authorized by what is commonly wrong, dead wrong, and feel the need called the Failing Newspapers Act, to speak out. Someone had to do it designed to save failing newspapers and The Wave certainly wasn’t. (mostly afternoon dailies) and preBelieve me, it would be much easier vent large cities from having a onefor us just to keep quiet and melt into paper monopoly. The Newspaper the background. Aside from working _ Agency Corporation owns the presswith a great staff, this isn’t a fun job. es, which print both the Tribune and Both Sam and I have been threatthe Deseret News. It distributes both ened, more than once. papers. It also provides a joint sales We often ask ourselves why we do force which sells advertising for both it. The answer is we do what we do © papers. Ever wonder why when you because we believe we are doing the place a classified in the Tribune it right thing. Period. Question our also appears in the Deseret News opinion, question our approach, but automatically? It is because you are not our sincerity or motivation. was never the purpose of the press. The press (the print press that is) has historically ALWAYS been partisan. It was the purpose of the press to advocate a position. In the history of Salt Lake City, the Tribune and the Deseret News always represented strongly opposed factions. There was even ne instance where the 7T7ibune and Deseret News publishers duked it out on Main Street (the Deseret News publisher won.) | It wasn’t until the advent of TV that the “Fairness Doctrine” was con- ceived. Only the broadcast press was subject to the “Fairness Doctrine” because the broadcast press was using the public airwaves under license from the government. This use of the public’s airwaves allowed the government to sidestep the First Amendment as far as the broadcast to have adopted _ truly, believe_ what we. write. It sure . isn’t the money. There are easier the “Fairness Doctrine” theory, while the broadcast medium has ways to lose money. The cash it has. cost to run this paper during the 22 . been discarding it as rapidly as possible. I think a lot of the local print months of its existence would buy a very (VERY) nice home anywhere in Somehow; during . print press media seems recent times, the: malaise stems from small town newspaper monopolies, and in larger cities, from newspaper joint operating agreements. In Salt Lake City, we have The Newspaper The Courier is looking for guest commentators. If there’s something that fires you up, send it to us and we might print it. Speak out. Let Wasatch County know how your feel. - Wasatch County Courier| 210 East Main street, Midway, UT 84049, (435 ) 654-2531 fax or email: editor@wasatchcountycouriercom 5 nce OmRBOE ES Be our Guest Commentator agian APPT ae HUB LA Ht dle of the road, relayer of government and advertiser press releases dressed up as reporting and generally being ORE ARID local powers wine you and dine you _ as the partisan press and. the pillars on which this ~ established. This ability to freely advocate a posi- or of the press.” The wording of the Newspaper Corp. Why knock yourself out when you : can just run press releases, let the confuses of the Constitution that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, the revenue from the Newspaper Agency advocacy tion was so important to the framers through uted to both papers on a preset percentage. When that happened there was no incentive to out-do the other paper, because no matter how much_ better your paper was, the Deseret News still got 40 percent and the Tribune still got 60 percent of the ad \ IN SENATE© reporting. This style of journalism is also known was one of country was of the press goes Agency Corporation and is distrib- DEMOCRATS- much of which is in the Editorial and negative structure where all advertising rev- enue - LLL LL it is the negative people remember, and Tribune into a revenue sharing — Tne CIPD. GOP... the most positive it.) And to Silver li will see that by far been devoted to (I’ve actually done sale of the paper bl paper you space has reporting since the A iow aS | I know if you add up the positive column Newspaper Agreement locked the Deseret News — JEFFORDS DEFECTS FROM not being fair and impartial. column the Agency Corporation Joint Operating - for only reporting the negative and Nevertheless, reporting most | stations. But with the advent of cable paper we have been criticized King Media Group, and the hiring of Lb placing your ad with the N ewspaper Agency Corporation, not the. of the of this new reporters, the articles have had -much less opinion and more of the objective reporting style. : “Fairness Doctrine” on TV and radio instrument Mie inception press was concerned and impose the an robaat nwt: ince the establishment rather than a questioner of the establishment is. : |