The public lobbyist reports are used to "crucify" legislators who have done nothing wrong, said Stephenson, who called it appropriate to spend downtime attending Utah Jazz games or eating a $100 meal with lobbyists as solace for "those empty evenings" away from their families and businesses.

No one wants to run for the Legislature because of the yellow-journalism media, causing a direct "threat to representative democracy," said Stephenson, who is president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, one of the most active lobbyists groups on Capitol Hill. (The UTA itself doesn't spend money entertaining legislators.)

The media are "like a swarm of killer bees," said Stephenson, "using snide innuendo and invective to attack their prey."

He criticized the House, whose members pay for their own caucus lunches, saying the Senate is right to have their caucus lunches paid for by lobbyists, who then get to present their views to senators.

There is nothing wrong with legislators taking gifts from lobbyists, said Stephenson. And the current lobbyist reports, which name a gift-taking legislator only if the gift is more than $50, just provide "fodder" for the media.

Stephenson slammed the Deseret Morning News' annual ranking of state legislators — an annual story the newspaper ran from the early 1990s to the early 2000s but does not run anymore — for including anonymous sources who praised some legislators, criticized others.

"Anonymous sources are OK if someone's life is in danger, if there's criminality," he said. But to use them on legislators "is ridiculous, it's about the media (selling newspapers) and making money."

All the media want to do is paint "good legislators as crooks," Stephenson said.

Alexander later declined comment on how he was treated in the Senate committee. Even though the gift reporting level was not lowered to $5, "there is still some good" in including lobbyists' conflicts of interest and other items in HB101.

"I want to get the bill through the rest of the Senate — there's still time" in the session, Alexander said.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com