Be careful with the truth

Mayor Rocky Anderson is my younger brother. He is honest, diligent and scrupulous and demands the same from those in city government. In stark contrast to his predecessor and many other elected Utah officials (including legislators), soon after he was elected he promulgated policies that city officials would not accept gifts, including free lunches. I have seen that firsthand from Rocky and others in city government who have refused my offers to buy lunch.

Perhaps your paper should require the same honesty and forthrightness from your writers and editors. It is appalling that you would publish continued misleading and inaccurate reports under the byline of Brady Snyder such as that of March 14 claiming a food bill for Salt Lake City of $80,000. In that story Snyder stated that "$5,400 was for dinners or lunches Anderson bought for himself and people he was meeting with during mealtimes." The truth — that the amount is actually only $410 — was only disclosed in the Deseret Morning News in an inconspicuous "correction" on an internal page of the newspaper. There you said the prior story "gave the impression Anderson had spent the entire $5,400 on individual meetings." It was not merely an "impression" — it was a damaging and erroneous statement by the reporter that apparently was not reviewed or corrected by an editor.

Journalistic ethics and professionalism demand that reporters and editors be far more careful with the truth. Those who are written about in news stories, and the readers of the newspaper, deserve much better than they are getting from the Deseret Morning News.

Robert M. Anderson

Salt Lake City