I praise the courage of Robert Rees and Clifton Jolley’s March 18 commentary: “Evangelicals, Mormons and Trump’s Perfect Storm.” They observe that Republicans are shutting down the House Intelligence Committee’s (HIC) investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russian interference in the 2016 election.
This was illustrated during a baffling exchange on last Sunday’s “Meet the Press” between host Chuck Todd and Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, member of the HIC. Todd asked Conaway whether, during the HIC’s hearing with Andrew McCabe, he expressed support for the contention from his former boss, former FBI Director James Comey, that Trump fired him to shut down the Russian investigation. Conaway astonishingly claimed that he could not remember that part of McCabe’s testimony and further stated that it was not the HIC’s purpose to determine whether there was collusion, that task belonging to the Mueller investigation.
Todd then asked why the HIC chairman, Devin Nunes, R-Calif., states publicly that his committee found no “evidence” of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Conaway defended Nunes’ statement as correct because the committee had not pursued facts or testimony that might have established collusion. What a clever characterization by Nunes, who’s mastered the art of blurring the truth in a way that feeds Trump’s base and gives fodder to Fox News and to Trump’s tweets that the Mueller investigation should be shut down.
I agree with Rees and Jolley that “evidently we don’t care that much [about the truth]. ... Nearly 1 out of every 2 voters in Utah voted for Trump, as did an overwhelming majority of evangelicals. Commentators frequently excuse this as ‘voting for the issues’ rather than for character.”
But Rees and Jolley raise the question: “How can believers who condemn false witness and adultery, while insisting on the sanctity of family, continue to support Donald Trump?”
So, what has created this “cognitive dissonance,” or embracing two opposing views as valid?
Utah Mormons’ cultural and political views are greatly influenced by their leaders. KSL Radio is owned and operated by the for-profit arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Over nearly a decade, from September 2001 until October 2010, every weekday for three prime-time hours, KSL broadcast Sean Hannity’s largely unopposed, unfiltered “infotainment.”
During that span, Hannity made statements like: Every Democrat in Congress should be “tortured and killed” in Gitmo; and, anyone who believes homosexuality is a natural phenomenon is “brainwashed.”
KSL finally canceled his show, concluding that his on-air style was not in line with Deseret Media Company’s mission statement, which called for “civility and other ethical stances and for the dissemination of light and knowledge, along with the promotion of integrity, civility, morality and respect for all people.”
Indeed, Hannity’s style and content would not have been allowed under the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine, in place for nearly four decades, from 1949 to 1987. It required broadcasters to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was honest, equitable and balanced. It also required broadcasters to to air contrasting views. I grew up in that era, listening to KSL editorials presented by Don Gale. He produced honest, factual commentary and invited listeners with opposing views to call or write. These views were regularly aired. Those days are long past.
So, absent the fairness doctrine, Hannity was able to spew his right-wing propaganda with scant regard for compassion or civility, let alone factual content. And all the while the LDS Church allowed this to go on unchallenged, seemingly giving silent assent to Hannity’s message. The fallout has had a lasting effect.
As Rees and Jolley observe: “What appears to be most treasured by conservative Christians who support Trump is not truth or morality, but power of cultural politics … to control the agenda over abortion, gun control, sexuality and social programs for the needy.”
Hopefully, people are awakening to this, as we’re witnessing in recent special elections in Alabama, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Jim Wightman, Bountiful, was the internal audit director in the Salt Lake County Auditor’s office, retiring in 2012.