Credibility » Support for open government doesn’t hurt independence.

By Joel Campbell

Special to The Tribune

Last week, the Utah Media Coalition announced plans to rate legislative bills which affect open government and transparency in Utah. Already the rating system is drawing both praise and ridicule. Most interesting is the grousing going on among legislators and pundits.

The coalition has created a simple but effective rating scale for bills: "Bright light" for proposed laws that would improve public access to records and meetings, "pale light" for bills which would have a neutral effect and "lights out" for legislation that would harm transparency. This system is an important aid for busy Utahns to monitor legislative actions.

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The critics’ screed goes something like this: Because media owners and publisher take a particular editorial position on any given issue, then all reporting on an issue will be biased. Unfortunately, the argument is a non sequitur.

Here’s what LaVarr Webb, Deseret News political columnist and owner of the lobbying firm Exoro Group, wrote this week online in Utah Policy Daily:

"The media certainly have a right to attempt to influence legislation just like any interest group. But when they do so, they are no longer disinterested observers. They forfeit their objectivity in favor of their bias and agenda like any advocacy group. So, when you read their stories on this topic, be aware that they’re promoting a cause."

Webb, who once worked as a reporter and editor at the Deseret News, should know better. He’s perpetuating a stereotype that is as banal as the one of the press in the classic movie, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." In the movie, the corrupt political boss Jim Taylor turns the state’s media against Jimmy Stewart’s naive character, Sen. Jefferson Smith. Critics sound like they’ve borrowed Frank Capra’s script from this wonderful, but wildly inaccurate movie. They would have the public believe that a monolithic media is working as an evil lock-step machine. Anybody who knows about the differences in Utah media ownership knows that’s impossible.

Just because media owners and publishers take an editorial position on any given issue, whether it be endorsing a candidate or opposing a ballot initiative, shouldn’t mean the reporting on that issue will take the owner’s slant. In fact, journalists covering the news have a professional obligation to fairly and accurately report it. Journalists would quickly lose their credibility if they simply wrote puff pieces supporting media owners’ points of view.

It’s interesting that the same day that some claimed the media had become a "special interest," it was apparent some legislative reporters didn’t get the directive lawmakers said existed.

In the Standard-Examiner, one reporter gave SB18, which anticipates restricting public information on voter registration records, a fairly one-sided report which parroted proponents’ arguments that the restrictions are needed to protect individual privacy. The story had no mention of the fact that the Media Coalition had given any attempt to shut off access to birth dates in voter registration records a "lights out" rating. Nor was there any mention of the public access concern that shutting down birth day and month may make it harder to investigate voter fraud.

By vilifying the media, lawmakers want people to forget last session’s HB477 and the wide spectrum of citizens who opposed the bill’s provisions to shutter Utah government records. Media owners should support open government and raise awareness of issues on behalf of the public. Such a role is implicit in the reasons why this nation’s Founders wrote the First Amendment dictum restricting Congress from abridging the freedom of the press.

Open government and a free press are inexorably linked. The involvement of news media owners in keeping Utah government open is more than a special interest. It’s more than selling newspapers or boosting ratings, which the cynics say is behind it all. Instead, it is part of the news media’s obligation to the public interest.

Joel Campbell is a former reporter and current associate professor of communications at Brigham Young University. He is also a consultant for GRAMA Watch. He writes on First Amendment and open-government issues for The Tribune. He can be reached at foiguy@gmail.com.