Rocky relations: Rocky, newspapers at loggerheads

The day after the 2002 Olympics began, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called Deseret Morning News Editor John Hughes at home to complain about his newspaper's coverage — as Anderson often does to news outlets.

"I felt that their coverage had deleted the host city and its mayor. It (the phone call) wasn't about me. I wasn't calling for myself," Anderson says.

Hughes, in contrast, says, "He said he — Rocky — was chagrined at the coverage that he had gotten." He says he told Anderson, "We did have the president of the United States in town, and rightly or wrongly depending on how you see it, that's a pretty big story for us — and that was the focus of our attention."

Hughes says Anderson "went on a long rant" that included accusing the newspaper and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns it, of a conspiracy "to downplay his role and not accord him the respect and attention that he deserved," which Hughes says he told Anderson was ridiculous.

Anderson denies saying that then. But he does assert that the Morning News "is the most divisive force in the community" and that it unfairly accuses him of being anti-Mormon and twists its news coverage and uses religion to attack him and his work.

The incident is one of many battles Anderson has waged with local news media to correct what he says is sloppy reporting that hurts the city. Critics say it is bullying that seeks to improve coverage of him personally or even remove or intimidate reporters who write critical stories.

Regardless who is right, it may show that Anderson is the state's most vigorous media basher ever.

Rocky's views on press

"There's so little of the truth being told to our public either locally or nationally," Anderson says about the press, adding that it is too often "dishonest," "nasty" and "divisive."

Josh Ewing, a former communications director for Anderson, says, "He's an attorney by trade and very committed to truth to the minute detail. . . . It gets under his skin when he reads something that slants things in a way different than what he sees."

But Dave Owen, another former communications director for Anderson, who is now an outspoken critic, says, "He absolutely can't tolerate anyone who dissents from his opinion, including the media. It can be a just fairly innocuous, slight departure from the party line" that will draw his full wrath.

Anderson says, "If I see a reporter conveying less than the truth to readers, I am going to point it out. I don't do that just when it relates to me."

Rocky vs. S.L. Tribune