The Media Scrum

23/03/2024

As I've noted previously -- along with others -- there is absolutely no reason for public officials to hide their activities except they are ashamed of their behavior and don't want voters to find out what those shameful activities are. (As noted in the article, the open-records law already contained protections for private/family/health/safety concerns.) This is what supermajorities in government breed: dishonesty, deception, corruption. And to know that most of these people worship at the same church I do makes me grieve their actions all the more. But they will not pay a price at the ballot box because they are Republicans in Utah. That they do this and feel no guilt whatsoever makes me nauseated.

The Utah Legislature says it will not release lawmakers' public calendars, even though the requests were made before Gov. Spencer Cox quickly signed new legislation that shrouded elected officials in secrecy.

30/01/2024

“As local journalism declines, government officials conduct themselves with less integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness and corporate malfeasance goes unchecked,” observed PEN America in a 2019 white paper. “With the loss of local news, citizens are: less likely to vote, less politically informed, and less likely to run for office.” Not all citizens, though. A weakened local press corps is a gift to someone like George Santos, whose serial fabrications went mostly (if not entirely) unreported during his campaign for Congress.

The news industry has been in decline for decades, but the latest round of layoffs is especially ominous.

08/06/2022

The Media Scrum podcast is on hiatus. Here are the details:

We haven't published an episode since April. Here's why, and the plans for Season 3.

19/04/2022

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Rep. Steve Handy, who represents House District 16 in the Utah Legislature. Steve’s a six-term incumbent who just got tossed by delegates to the GOP Davis County Convention. He talks about that, and other things – including his 17 years at the Standard-Examiner and Deseret News, and a lot more. Our sincere thanks for listening; we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/10420728-rep-steve-handy

05/04/2022

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Amy Joi O’Donoghue, a reporter for the Deseret News’ Utah In-Depth team with decades of expertise and award-winning writing in land and environmental issues, public safety and government beats. Mark and I have known Amy since 1985, when we all worked together at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden. Amy’s family lives in Weber County with their horses, chickens, Irish Wolfhounds and Jack the cat. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/10304430-amy-joi-o-donoghue

22/03/2022

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Jim Burton, longtime sports writer and columnist for the Standard-Examiner. Since leaving the Standard, Jim has dabbled in PR and marketing, and even did some editing at the Deseret News. But now he's enjoying work at El Monte golf course in Ogden. We sure enjoyed talking to our old friend, Jim, who definitely has some feelings and observations about journalism and where it’s at now. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/10278730-jim-burton

10/03/2022

Our most recent guest at The Media Scrum podcast is Chris Carlson, who worked in TV News for 42 years. As an ABC network news cameraman in Washington, D.C., Carlson had a front-row seat to history. In covering Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, Carlson logged scores of unique experiences. He retired three years ago, and has self-published an eBook, “9/11 with POTUS,” that’s available for purchase at your favorite online bookseller. In this clip from the podcast, Carlson talks about being in the room when George W. Bush was told terrorists attacked the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here to listen to the entire episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/10205548-chris-carlson-9-11-with-potus

08/03/2022

This time at The Media Scrum we venture outside the Utah media bubble and speak with Chris Carlson, who worked in TV News for 42 years. As an ABC network news cameraman in Washington, D.C., Carlson had a front-row seat to history. In covering Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, Carlson logged scores of unique experiences. Over the decades he spent at the White House, Carlson witnessed many leaders of the "free world" from just 12 feet away, filming the nation’s political history as it was happening. He retired three years ago, and has self-published an eBook, “9/11 with POTUS,” that’s available for purchase at your favorite online bookseller. We really enjoyed talking to Carlson, and we hope you enjoy listening. Listen via your favorite podcast app.

22/02/2022

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Lori Buttars, longtime reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune. Lori covered the Olympics, arts and music, and other beats at the Trib. She also was a “visiting professional” at Utah State University where she was editor of the student newspaper. Back in 2007, Lori fled journalism for public relations, and became public information officer for the Weber-Morgan Health Department. Indeed, we actually spend a fair amount of this conversation talking about local public health's response to the coronavirus pandemic, which we found fascinating. We sure enjoyed talking to Lori, and we hope you enjoy listening. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/10114887-lori-buttars

08/02/2022

This time out things are a little different, since Mark had a conflict the evening of the interview, and I ended up speaking with our guest, the Deseret News’s Jay Evensen, one-on-one. Jay is the DNews’s editorial columnist and an editorial writer. He got his start in journalism at BYU, interned at United Press International in New York City, wrote sports in Oklahoma, and was a government and consumer affairs reporter in Las Vegas before landing at the Deseret News. We haven’t talked to many folks from newspapers’ opinion pages on The Media Scrum, so this was fun reconnecting with Jay – I hadn’t communicated with him for years and years – and hearing how he got his start and what it's like to be the editorial voice of a newspaper’s ownership. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/10009132-jay-evensen

25/01/2022

Our latest episode of The Media Scrum podcast revisits our summer 2021 conversation with Mary Nickles, whose career at KUTV in Salt Lake City has passed the 30-year mark. 30 years is forever in ultra-competitive TV news, and Mary has been the morning, noon or evening anchor on KUTV’s various news programs for almost all that time. Not only is she a pro on the news set, but she’s done health stories over the years that have actually saved lives – including her own. She talks about that, and lots more, on this episode. We had lots of fun talking to Mary, and we hope you enjoy our conversation. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/9945848-mary-nickles

28/12/2021

We sincerely hope you’ve been having a terrific holiday season. We have, and that’s the reason we’re revisiting one of the earliest episodes of the podcast, from August 2020, with our friend Holly Mullen, because all the holiday stuff has taken up our time and that of our coming group of guests. Holly, bless her heart, was one of the first people we asked to be a guest on the podcast. She’s a certified institution in Utah journalism. She currently serves as a member of The Salt Lake Tribune's board of directors, but Holly's career has taken her around the country working for both legacy newspapers and alternative weeklies. In Utah, she's worked as a reporter, editor and/or columnist at the Deseret News, Standard-Examiner, The Salt Lake Tribune and City Weekly. We got to know Holly at the Standard-Examiner in the mid-'80s, and we’ve remained friends ever since. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/9795259-holly-mullen

14/12/2021

The latest episode of The Media Scrum is our conversation with Maria Shilaos, host of Utah’s noon news and the national desk anchor at KSL Newsradio, where she’s worked since 1991. Maria was born and raised in Utah, graduating Olympus High School, and she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Utah. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/9698686-maria-shilaos.

30/11/2021

This week we speak with Dave Greiling, who was the Standard-Examiner’s managing editor for a decade from 2003-2013. Dave grew up in Green Bay, Wis., and worked for newspapers in Rickford, Ill., Lansing, Mich., and Ft. Collins, Colo., before landing in Ogden. Any list of well-regarded and highly respected editors in Utah newspapering would include Dave, who served as a voice of reason, sound judgment and was a mentor to many reporters who came through Ogden during his tenure. Dave retired to Ft. Collins eight years ago, and we had fun talking with our old friend and daily lunchmate. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/9621652-dave-greiling

16/11/2021

This week on The Media Scrum podcast we speak with Bob Evans, who co-anchors the evening news at Fox 13. Bob’s won numerous awards over the years for his work, and is one of those TV anchors who still reports his own stories. Bob grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and studied the violin on a music scholarship at BYU before switching to journalism. Bob worked his early years in TV news in Boise, Spokane and Kansas City before landing in Salt Lake City, where he’s been for decades now. He’s a fun guy to talk to, and very passionate about journalism in this day and age. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/9555835-bob-evans

12/10/2021

This week we speak with Sheree Josephson, former chair of the Department of Communication at Weber State University who has taught journalism and other communication classes at WSU for more than 28 years. She was recently honored with the Clifford P. Cheney Service to Journalism award by the Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Mark and I used to work with Dr. Josephson at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden. She’s also worked at Logan’s Herald-Journal and the Colorado Springs Sun in Colorado Springs, Colo. So, sit back and listen to this former reporter, editor and current moulder of journalistic minds, Dr. Sheree Josephson. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-media-scrum/id1527430995?i=1000538307757

28/09/2021

This week we repeat our September 2020 conversation with KUTV reporter Morgan Saxton, who near the start of her career worked with Mark at the Standard-Examiner. In retrospect, it’s been quite a year for Morgan, who not long after this interview revealed she was expecting her first child and has since given birth to her beautiful daughter, Charlotte. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/9270811-morgan-saxton-repeat

21/09/2021

This week we thought it would be fun to repeat an episode from December 2020 with Calvin Grondahl, without a doubt the king of Utah editorial cartoonists. Cal began his career at BYU, was hired by the Deseret News and later fled to the Standard-Examiner in the quest for some freedom to draw what he wanted. Mark and I worked with Cal for many, many fun and eventful years at the Standard-Examiner, and remember those years fondly. Cal’s now retired, and has been for a number of years, but he shares lots of stories about what it was like to be the cartoonist who broke ground for all those who followed. Listen via your favorite podcast app, or click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1215551/9232251-cal-grondahl-repeat