Salt Lake Crawler

Elder Dallin Oaks' recent speech that outraged gay rights activists by linking Mormons to the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement has triggered  an online squabble over journalism ethics.

You can attempt to follow Oaks' logic here.

If this latest Mormon-gays controversy wasn't enough to make your head hurt, a side brouhaha has blown up on blogs, Facebook and the church-owned Mormon Times over how the story has been covered. Suffice to say, MT columnist Joel Campbell doesn't think much of The Tribune's Mormon Church coverage that "helped fan the flames of the 'backlash.' " (Interestingly, Campbell pretty much admits the DNews coverage missed the only news in the speech.)

Then, Campbell cranked up that tired old chimera of journalistic objectivity that has been laid bare by social media. He called out Monica Bielanko, an executive producer at Utah's Fox 13 News, for thrashing Oaks and other church leaders in her personal social media. Here's what Bielanko tweeted:

LDS apostle gives speech at BYU-Idaho. The contents of which has my head exploding and FOX seeking a response from the NAACP. More at Five.

Bielanko, a former Mormon, followed her tweet with an extraordinary blog entry:

But my lingering rage anger doesn't negate that when the church is full of shit, the church is full of shit.

Today I arrived at work to find that during a speech to BYU students in Idaho, a leader of the Mormon church, an apostle, if I'm to use their terminology, compared the backlash against those who voted for Prop 8 to the African American struggle for civil rights in the south.

After I picked my eyeballs up off the floor and shoved 'em back in my head I read the entire story being reported by the Associated Press. Did he really say that? I thought those cagey, old, white dudes hid their true feelings better than that.

He did. He said it. And elaborated for ages about why he totally believes it.

Well, that's just plain wrong and fucked up eight ways to Saturday, the special day, the day we get ready for Sunday."

With that, Bielanko opened the door to an examination of journalism ethics in the age of Facebook. Journalistic objectivity has always been mirage. But it's gotten totally twisted as reporters and editors are encouraged to tweet and blog to reach out to readers online. How can mainstream media continue the pretend objective purity when its employees are spewing their personal lives on social media?

Renai Bodley, Fox 13 news director, says her policy is "to not get involved in my employees' personal expressions of their religious beliefs." She told Campbell:

"I understand how Monica's blog could be seen as offensive. What I want to reassure is the professional, objective way we handle the editing process in the Fox 13 newsroom is gold standard.

"I want to reassure our viewers that we handled this story the same way we do all stories — in a balanced, thoughtful and professional way. And that should be reflected in what they see on air."

Bielanko's response to Campbell is here.

My personal animosity toward the church doesn't affect my ability to objectively cover LDS-related stories any more than that of an LDS journalist, such as our good pal Joel Campbell or the lovely Carol Mikita over at KSL. Any perceived bias a news viewer might infer from my blog would be the exact same perceived bias a viewer might have reading BYU professor Joel Campbell's piece, watching KSL knowing it is church-owned or watching Mikita's report knowing she considers Oaks to be a beloved, spiritual leader of her church. Hell, a a quick look at Mikita's bio has me wondering why more of you aren't questioning her journalistic integrity . . .

Bielanko is gutsy, if wordy. Maybe she'll get a book or a full-time blog out of this mess. I love the Mikita shot. Who in Utah ever names names?

By the way, The Trib, which does not allow reporters and editors to display political lawn signs, has no policy on reporters' personal blogs and Facebook accounts, hoping, I'm sure, that we have the sense, if not the good taste, to avoid putting something slanderous or embarrassing out there. Fat chance.