<em>Deseret News</em> of Utah: Admit It. You're Hacks.

of Utah: Admit It. You're Hacks.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

align="left">Man, I have so much to do today. I should never have
read the Huffington Post this morning. They linked me to a Deseret
News
story about Cheney's upcoming commencement address and honorary
doctorate(!) from Utah's Brigham Young University, which I should not
have read. Because it was so full of bad writing and worse cover-ups
that I had to laugh... and then write the paper a letter explaining
why I couldn't stop laughing. I suggest you write them too. I'm
including their emails at the bottom of this rant, which I fired off
to them just now. Enjoy it. It's hilarious, just like the piece.

Dear Deseret News Hacks:
Come on, I know there are some at BYU and Utah in general who might be
interested in having Cheney give a commencement address there, but you
could have at least worked harder to lie about it in your piece
"20,000 to hear Cheney at BYU: He'll get honorary doctorate," href=" http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660215205,00.html"
target="blank">which is here:

Let's break this down, shall we?

Your thesis: "The vice president's visit is expected to be popular
with the majority of graduates, their family members, faculty and
staff."

Your support: "More than 1,000 people signed an online petition
supporting Cheney's visit."

Great. Except further down in the piece you throw in this contradiction:

"At least three demonstrations taking issue with Cheney are planned
today in Provo and Salt Lake City, and a student-organized alternative
commencement featuring Ralph Nader will be held at Utah Valley State
College at 7:30 p.m. Nearly 4,000 people signed an online petition
asking BYU and the church to withdraw the invitation to Cheney."

Now, I'm no math scholar, but last I checked 4,000 was about 400
percent more than 1,000. (Can you get the BYU math department on that
for me?) That to me would seem like a majority rather than a minority.

So where exactly did you gather the evidence for the assertion that
"the majority of graduates, their family members and staff" are happy
with the Cheney invitation? And given the possibility that you need no
evidence since you are owned by of Deseret Management Corporation,
which is in turn owned by the Church of the LDS, why would you
boneheads throw in numbers to counter your empty assertions? That's
just bad journalism, even for bad journalism.

If you're going to lie, at least be smart enough about it not to offer
contradictory evidence for your empty assertions a mere two paragraphs
down. And I can't figure out what's more ridiculous: The fact that you
did this, or the fact that it took two of you dunces to write it. Man,
are you guys hiring? It's obvious you don't need much skill to write
for the Deseret News, especially if you've got someone to help you
screw up each piece you write.

Do you think the Deseret News is lame as well? Email the story
authors and tell them.
Tad Walch: twalch@desnews.com
Sara Israelsen: sisraelsen@desnews.com

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot