A number of staff-written stories about the presidential prospects of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are causing some readers to react like the princess to the pea under her mattress:
“Are you kidding? Another Romney story? Two in just a few days.
“What are you? Part of Romney’s presidential bid? It is ridiculous. . . . Don’t you think a newspaper has the responsibility to run stories in a balanced manner? Democrats? Do they exist? Not according to your paper. Romney appears to be the only one running for president.”
Or this reader who expands on the thought:
“The last time you had a featured article about Mitt Romney I was nearly moved to write to complain, but knew it might do no good. But after today’s front page article, it was the last straw. I realize there are many Mormons who advocate his candidacy, but the many, many articles as of late on Romney was just too much for me to take.
“How about a little fair play? After all, you are a newspaper and not a Republican arm of Mitt Romney’s campaign. Where are the locally written articles about Joe Biden or Barack Obama? Romney has appeared in lengthy articles many times more than any other.
“Sure he is Mormon. Sure he headed the Olympic bid, but he is not a Utah native. His presidential bid is no more newsworthy than the dozens of candidates out there. Please bring even a semblance
of fairness to this issue. Many Utahns do not support Romney nor do we care whether he drinks tea at political functions. . . . No more Romney.”
Peg McEntee, The Tribune’s assistant managing editor for news, explains the paper is “working on the premise that many of our readers take an interest in Romney.”
After all, McEntee adds, the news staff assumes Romney’s campaign has a number of elements that make him of special interest to Utah readers:
* Romney is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is only the fifth Mormon in history to have made a run for the presidency. (Three of the others were Joseph Smith, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Romney’s late father George, the former governor of Michigan.)
* Many consider him to be the savior of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. When Romney was called in by then-Gov. Mike Leavitt to rescue what had become a scandal-plagued Olympics, Romney pulled to activity out of the mire and made it arguably the most successful Olympic Games ever.
* Romney is a BYU graduate.
* Romney maintains close family and political ties in Utah.
“What we are seeking to do is look at Romney campaign issues and developments of particular interest to our readers,” McEntee said. “We know he will run in an immensely crowded field during a long political season.”
So, Tribune editors are sensitive to the fact there are other candidates and a long time to go before the 2008 presidential election.
“Last Sunday we ran a story about Romney in New Hampshire, written by Tribune Washington Bureau reporter Thomas Burr who interviewed the former governor,” McEntee said. “Romney seemed to be less interested in the fact he is LDS than most observers.”
Today, readers will find a “story about his views on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage,” McEntee said. “Since he ran against Ted Kennedy for the Massachusetts’ seat in the U.S. Senate, Romney has grown more conservative, more to the right of the LDS church,” she added.
“We don’t plan to carpet bomb our readers with this, but we will have a story on Tuesday about his formal announcement to run for president and we will take a look at Utah people working on his campaign.”
So, see? We will not be all Mitt, all the time.
Some readers are concerned we are not giving adequate coverage to all the candidates in both parties.
Should The Tribune have a weekly space devoted to what’s happening with the candidates for the presidency – even those who are only dangling toes in the water to test the temperature? This weekly approach would allow readers to catch up on what happened in the previous seven days, even if the editors had chosen to run individual stories on campaigns during the week.
