So, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Salt Lake Tribune get bought out by the LDS church and/or The Deseret News?

If so, why has it not been censored/controlled more for its articles about the church as well as all the "anti-Mormon" comments that get posted there?

Do they allow it more independence than Deseret News because they have to for various reasons? Will it one day be just another DN?

I thought the salt lake tribune endorsed Barack Obama for President? Or is that another Salt Lake news paper?

I would hardly think an LDS run news source would endorse Obama over Romeny.

I've heard the same rumor. Yet the paper was begun by the Godbeites, who were LDS but thought that Brigham Young had taken the church off-track with his politics.

I just checked Wikipedia, and you're right in a way. It says:

"[The Tribune] is owned by the Denver-based MediaNews Group, and operated in a joint operating agreement with the Deseret News through Newspaper Agency Corporation."

I would guess that even operating in agreement with Deseret "News" that it would have to retain it's political and religious stances in order to operate legally so that it is not part of a monopoly on thought. Besides, it says "joint operating agreement," which really means nothing to me, but may not mean that it is owned and operated by the church.

I have had "anti" mormon comments of mine deleted from that site so fast! Nothing terribly rude or insulting, just not pro mormon so I would say it's less mormon than deseret and SE, but still biased to some degree.

I constantly post anti-Mormon things on the trib forums and maybe have only had one or two in the last five years deleted. I also casually know the two people most in charge of moderating the comment section and they are definitely not Mormons.

Perhaps they deleted your comments for other reasons.

I ALWAYS post comments in the Trib, and I've had a couple deleted, as well. I've talked with admin about it, and once was even publicly corrected in the comments section by admin. Anyway, all that any offended soul has to do is press the "flag" button, and your comment gets reviewed. Then they have to make a judgment call, like is the offended person just being oversensitive, or is the comment just over some arbitrary line. By and large, I'd say they're pretty good about it.

Deseret "News", on the other hand, is something else. Comments are all reviewed before showing up on-line. If your comment does not dovetail with church beliefs, it is not included. You will get an E-mail that insists that the comment was "off-subject" or something.

Well it can't be in complete control of the church, because if you google, you will find the salt lake tribune did endorse Obama for president in the 2012 election. So obviously, this Denver based media news group has more clout in decisions on behalf of the paper then the church.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2013 02:11PM by jl1718.

It is not owned by the church at all. The D-bag News and the Trib have an agreement with NAC -- That is all. This NAC co-op is only about advertising and classifieds.Notice they get the same classifieds but not the same content.

I don't think it is owned by the Mormon church.

The comments suggest that regardless of ownership, "anti-Mormons" can freely post there, which is fine, since the D-News is the newspaper for TBMs, who freely post there and censor counter opinions.

Somebody else already mentioned this, but joint operating agreement just means sharing classified content and sharing the same printing and distribution channels. Editorial direction and content are completely independent of each other.

It is owned by a company out of Denver called Media News Group, which also owns a company called Media One which operates the JOA between the SLTrib and the DesNews. The ownership of Media News Group is a little harder to pin down but the vast majority is owned by hedge-funds and the Hearst Corporation.

Well, that's certainly good news to me! I was under the mistaken impression that DN bought them out about a year to two ago. Sometimes my memory sucks though.

One more post to vouch for the NAC thing. DW used to deliver newspapers for the NAC and put the same ads/classified/comics in each paper even though the rest was different content. FWIW the NAC also deals with USA Today, the New York Times, the Wall St Journal, and a handful of smaller newspapers. In Ogden, if you're not reading the Standard examiner, odds are it came from NAC distributing.

Deseret 'News' sounds like the Mormon version of the Soviet-era newspaper Pravda.

You are probably right jl1718. Personally I would endorce Charles Manson over Romney.

in some cities with a morning/afternoon print mix... the printing facitilies were operated jointly. I believe the Seattle PI & Times did that just before the PI went to e only.

Not owned or operated by the LDS church. Newspaper Agency Corporation was a third entity created by the two papers to make survival of two newspapers in a small market feasible. (The Deseret News used to have the larger share of the market, but over the decades the Tribune has become dominant.)

They work out of separate buildings with separate newsrooms. But they both use NAC (conveniently located near both) to print and deliver the papers. Back in the day of classified ads, their classified sections were identical and had both newspaper names printed at the top.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2013 12:39PM by crom.