Voice in Deseret
Salt Lake City's Deseret* News (circ. 79,589),published by the Mormon Church, ran a fiery Page One editorial last week denouncing a "flagrant, gratuitous and scurrilous insult to the people who laid the foundation of Utah's greatness . . ."
What the Deseret News was shouting about were the "scatological gleanings" about Mormonism in the centennial issue of Pen, the student literary magazine at the University of Utah (TIME, March 13). Like the News, the university was founded by the Mormons; unlike the News, it is now nondenominational and state-supported, though 76% of its students are still Mormons. Among other things, Pen had offended the straitlaced News by printing retrospective reviews of two books by
University of Utah alumni.* Both books still raise many Mormon hackles by their rough handling of Mormon dogma.
In reply, the undergraduate Daily Utah Chronicle, ran a page of open letters to the Deseret News. Sample: "If some of these [Pen] writers speak unkindly of the church, could it be [because] in their youth they became sickened with an overdose of such dogmatism as the Deseret News prints with monotonous regularity?"
No Brother. Though some Mormons may dislike the Deseret News's dogmatism, that is, nevertheless, the reason for its success. The official voice of the church, the News is run by Editor and General Manager Mark Edward Petersen, 49, who is also one of the Twelve Apostles (a high governing body) of the Mormon Church. A lean, intense and handsome man, Petersen started out as a News cub at 20 and is still very much a newsman; his staffers' call him "Mark," instead of "Brother," as is customary with other high church dignitaries. Obedient to the Mormon "Word of Wisdom" no News staffer smokes or drinks alcohol, tea or coffee at the News, though it employs some non-Mormons.
When he is not battling theological error at the University of Utah, Editor Petersen wages war against his powerful competition--the morning Tribune (circ. 88,930) and the evening Telegram (circ. 35,799). Both are owned by the family of the late mining king and U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns of Utah. In two years, the Mormon Church has invested about $2,000,000 in expanding and improving the News, including a type-face-lifting.
No Cheesecake. Under Editor Petersen, the News avoids cheesecake, generally shies away from sensationalism, but is not above reporting an occasional sex murder. As circulation builders, it uses giveaway contests, with prizes as high as $50,000 in cash. For non-Mormon readers, the News also gives faithful objective coverage to news of other churches.
In June, the News will celebrate its centennial. The first issue (circ. 225), reporting TERRIBLE FIRE IN SAN FRANCISCO (which had happened six months before), was edited by Willard Richards, Prophet Smith's secretary. It was printed on presses shipped from the East; the early Latter-Day Saints had paid the expenses by chipping in beans, hams and venison. Today's Latter-Day Saints are still made to feel responsible for the paper's support. The church sends the paper free to a nonsubscribing Mormon for two weeks. Then, if the new reader wishes to cancel the "subscription," he is expected to notify Apostle Petersen first--and give a good reason.
* From the Book of Mormon, meaning honeybee, now the symbol of Mormon industriousness. Deseret was also the Mormon name of Utah.
* Vardis Fisher's Children of God (1939), a historical novel about Mormonism, and Fawn McKay Brodie's No Man Knows My History (1945), a biography of Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. They attribute Prophet Smith's visions to his "imagination" instead of divine inspiration, and picture the early days of the church as filled with sexuality and violence.
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