This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A wise former editor of mine once told me that - given our human genes - the public never should expect journalists to be objective. But the public should, he said, expect journalists to be fair.
In the era of Fox News, citizen journalists on the Internet, "The Daily Show" and television pundits like Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann, the line between news and commentary is blithely crossed every day.
For the most part, Utah has seemed immune from such ethical lapses and blatantly sensationalistic news presentations.
Until last week.
KTVX Channel 4 news anchor Terry Wood reported on thousands of comments the public had sent the station about the Divine Strake proposal, which would involve detonating a 7,000-megaton bomb in the Nevada desert.
Wood set out to deliver the comments to the Department of Energy. He drove to DOE headquarters in Las Vegas, where he was stopped by government guards. He gave them the stack of letters and left.
Here's the kicker: After the report, Wood was live in the studio, where he launched into a commentary (labeled as such at the bottom of the screen) about the station's stance against the bomb test, saying it would create a nuclear mist that would shroud Utah.
Normally, such editorial comments appear at the end of the news broadcast - not mixed in with a news story.
Wood acknowledged he was putting 40 years in journalism "on the line" by making his opinion known. KTVX News Director Jon Fischer said he and station management decided before Wood's broadcast to editorialize against the bomb test because they consider it dangerous.
"[Wood] does feel very personally about it. Our general manager takes it personally. I take it personally. We feel there haven't been enough answers," Fischer said. "This affects not just us but our families and our kids."
But when journalists sign on to do their jobs, they forgo the right to make public their thoughts about any issue. If they don't, they risk losing even the appearance of being fair.
With this Divine Strake story, KTVX willingly threw out that notion, seemingly without regard for the responsibility to present both sides without favoring.
In fact, a week before the Wood broadcast, the station had published a short story on its Web site that said it was working with Gov. Jon Huntsman, who opposes the Divine Strake testing, on public service announcements criticizing it.
Now, the station continues to report on the governor's fight against Divine Strake, even though KTVX has been working with him. In news stories before and since Wood's controversial broadcast, I have not seen a disclaimer stating the station's position on the issue.
Is that fair? Are we getting the whole story? Of course not. And that's a disservice to viewers, who should be allowed to make up their own minds. But it also destroys the credibility of KTVX's news department.
Here's how Louise Degn, associate professor of communications at the University of Utah and a 20-year veteran of TV news, put it: "They have every right to do that, but it breaks faith with the viewers when they do it."