Media types view themselves as public watchdogs, with a responsibility to scrutinize government officials, the motives behind their decisions and the impacts they may have on their constituents. For their part, politicians often claim that reporters have agendas and biases of their own.

But a phenomenon that is unprecedented in my experience as a Utah journalist has emerged over the past two weeks that seems, in at least one case, to raise the stakes in the relationship between the news media and members of the Legislature. Several lawmakers have posted blogs accusing a major newspaper of lying and, in so many words, calling for a reporter's head.

Depending on your point of view, this multi-pointed attack on the Deseret News and its political editor, Bob Bernick, is either an attempt by legislators to temper criticism of their actions, or it is a burst of pent-up frustration about what lawmakers see as a history of unfair and inaccurate reporting by the news media.

The bottom line is that legislative blogs are changing how the public gets information about the Legislature, a development that Deseret News assistant city editor Josh Loftin sees as a good thing, despite the recent attacks on his paper.

The dust-up began Aug. 19 when Bernick and staff writer Leigh Dethman co-wrote a story that said lawmakers were poised to make it more difficult for citizens to get referendums placed on the ballot. It's been a sensitive issue since a successful voter referendum last year repealed the law passed by the Legislature that allowed parents who enroll their children in private schools to receive tuition tax credits in the form of cash vouchers.

The Bernick-Dethman story was based on a meeting that Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, had with the Deseret News editorial board. Valentine and Bramble say the news story described their position as being directly opposite from the one they had outlined in the meeting, which was that there was no movement toward changing the referendum law.

Loftin said Dethman had attended the meeting and written the original draft of the story, and that Bernick had added information based on a conversation he had had with Valentine months earlier.

"The mistake we made was not making the follow-up call when we did the story to see if things had changed," Loftin said. "But the information was accurate based on what Valentine said before."

Two days later, the Deseret News wrote another story which said that the Legislature had no plans to change the referendum law. But on-line comments from readers about that story left the impression that legislators had changed their minds after the first story was published.

That infuriated lawmakers, who have called Bernick "a liar" and accused the Deseret News of fabricating stories.

Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, has written five blogs over the span of a week questioning the integrity of the Deseret News, and Bernick in particular. Some posts on his blogs have suggested that Bernick be fired.

Meanwhile, on the Senate Web site, which represents the views of the Republican majority in the Senate, Valentine, Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse; and Senate chief of staff Ric Cantrell have all posted blog entries questioning Bernick's accuracy and/or ethics. They also challenge the wisdom of the newspaper in allowing Bernick to fill dual roles, as a news reporter and as a columnist - often expressing opinions in his columns about issues and events that he has written about as a news reporter.

Jay Evensen, the Deseret News' editorial page editor, says the attacks from legislators will not affect the way the paper covers the Legislature in future.

"It will be a cold day in Death Valley before I ever allow an elected official to tell me what to put in the paper," he said.