The Salt Lake Tribune has flourished as a fiercely independent statewide newspaper with a circulation of 136,000 Utahns. But it is a reckless use of independence for the staff and management at the Tribune to unduly influence public opinion using their visible position in the news market to undermine the sale of a business they do not own.
Hundreds of businesses are bought and sold every week against the will of management without similar means to rally public opinion to their cause. It is regrettable that the Tribune has chosen to stir divisiveness in the Salt Lake news community that suffers from far too much editorial fingerpointing.
The claims of Tribune management and employees against the LDS Church and the Deseret News — two entities the Tribune staff consider competitors — are at best a desperate attempt to influence the outcome of a business deal they oppose and at worst a shameful use of independence gone out of control. The MediaNews group of Denver may come to regret having purchased an organization which revels in such irresponsible independence.
David G. Woolley
Provo