| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Taking aim at Utah bashing
By James Thalman
Deseret News staff writer
There's poking fun and there's ridicule, and Utah is taking an unfair amount of both in news media coverage of the Games.
So says conservative television talk show host Alan Keyes, who devoted his Monday MSNBC show to discussing "Is Mormon bashing the newest Olympic sport?"
Bashing is black and white and read all over, Keyes believes, citing several national newspaper headlines in recent weeks that have implied or announced outright that the state is a land where weirdos run rampant, is holier than thou and a backwater place that would be Dullsville were it not for the incredible terrain that surrounds it.
The pageantry and fervor toward athletic achievement have also unleashed a barrage of hypercritical coverage of the host that is not a friendly ribbing but is anti-Mormon, not to mention contrary to the spirit of the Games, Keyes said.
Hugh Hewitt, a syndicated talk show host in Los Angeles, said on the hourlong program that he sees an intentional, mean-spirited edge to some of the coverage. He noted that a recent story in the Los Angeles Times labeled Utah a theocracy, the same term the paper has used to describe pre-Sept. 11 Afghanistan. "That is not a subtle slam."
Richard Goldstein, editor of the Village Voice newspaper, said he didn't think the issue was worth discussing, was not worth covering and that it had become a story in part because the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sends missionaries around the world to proclaim their beliefs on other people's doorsteps.
Goldstein, who is Jewish, said, "What if we got up and over and over again said, 'Jesus is not the Christ'? It is tremendously offensive for people to try to covert me."
That comment set off assertions that the American news media are loaded down with people who couldn't care less about giving religion a voice in politics or government and that the latest articles about Mormons and Utah are merely an indication of a larger bias.
Yaaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute said the media areactually biased toward Christian values, which are presented in prime time television every night.
The only time those values are presented are when they are made fun of, Keyes said. The newspapers are telling people to stigmatize the state because of religious beliefs. "This is ridicule. Most people's biggest fear is to be laughed at, and when you have mobilized ridicule, you have mobilized one of the most powerful tools to change attitudes."
Only three listeners called the show. Dave from Washington state said he thought it was interesting that in these days of political correctness, it's odd that religion is the only institution that isn't off limits for poking fun.
Joe from New Jersey, who identified himself as LDS, said "realistically, all this doesn't bother us. We know we're a little different, but we can take it."
E-MAIL: jthalman@desnews.com
|
|
February 12, 2002
|
