You gotta admit, it’s a pretty fucking great time to “work” for the Deseret News.* Mitt Romney is the one to thank for that.
You see, the Deseret News loves Mitt Romney. Like, a lot. Like, more than my 10-year-old niece loves Justin Bieber. Like, staff writers of the Deseret News have been accused** of masturbating to the audiobook version of No Apologies.
Consider the following: today is only the 3rd day of the New Year, and yet the Deseret News has already published 13 articles† about Mitt Romney:
- Mitt Romney’s top Iowa adviser: ‘I don’t believe we have to win here’
- Romney’s chief Iowa rivals press electability
- Romney criticizes Santorum as career politician
- Mitt Romney seeks votes in Iowa
- Romney stays low key during Mormon services in Iowa
- Gingrich: Romney would buy White House if he could
- Gingrich: ‘I feel Romney-boated’
- Chaffetz hits campaign trail with Romney; Ann Romney foresees another Romney in politics
- Mitt Romney kicks off day-long bus tour of Iowa day before caucus vote
- Analysis: GOP race has yet to fully test Mitt Romney
- Mitt Romney looks to fend off Rick Santorum, Ron Paul
- Rick Santorum’s slippery surge against Mitt Romney
- Mitt Romney sounds confident before tonight’s Iowa caucus
Count them. 13. That’s more articles about Mitt Romney than homes owned by, well, Mitt Romney.
Yes, the Iowa Caucus is today, and therefore Mitt Romney is an ‘important’ news story, probably. Which explains such absolutely necessary articles as “Romney stays low key during Mormon services in Iowa.” But you see, Mitt Romney isn’t the only GOP candidate running for president of the United States. In fact, a whole clown car of other people are running for president.
Including Utah’s very own former governor.
Therefore, one would assume that the Deseret News, the second largest fucking newspaper in the state, would cover the GOP candidates with relative objectivity. And would certainly donate as much coverage to Jon Huntsman as they have to Mitt Romney.
So, out of pure curiosity/alcoholism, I went to DeseretNews.com (it was rather difficult, because I was at a public library and they filter out inappropriate websites) and searched for articles on each of the GOP candidates.
In the past 12 months, Deseret News has written the following number of articles about the following candidates:
- “mitt romney” (1,775 articles)
- “rick perry” (1,058 articles)
- “newt gingrich” (897 articles)
- “jon hutsman” (858 articles)
- “michele bachmann” (845 articles)
- “herman cain” (614 articles)
- “ron paul” (505 articles)
- “rick santorum” (488 articles)
- “fred karger” (4 articles)
I believe the Deseret News co-founder and first editor, Willard Richards, said it best: “What kind of fucking biased bullshit is this?”
Of the articles written about the GOP candidates, a mere 12% have been about Jon Huntsman — less than half of the coverage donated to Mitt Romney. And you know how annoying Ron Paul supporters often complain that the media ignores their favorite candidate/skeleton? Of the articles about the GOP candidates, only 7% have been about Ron Paul… thus leading me to make the uncomfortable declaration: Ron Paul supporters are correct.
Yes, we get it: the Deseret News makes no qualms about being
- Conservative.
- Republican.
- Mormon.
- In love with Mitt Romney.
But it is also:
- A newspaper.
As one of the largest news sources in the state, doesn’t the Deseret News have a editorial responsibility to give the GOP candidates — and particularly those who actually governed our state — equitable coverage?
After all, it must be difficult to tell your critics that you’re a legitimate news source, when your mouth is already full of Mitt Romney’s dick.
*And by “work for the Deseret News,” we mean “receive a ward calling from your bishop to write for the Deseret News.”
**by Telestial State.
†Including news wire stories, like the Associated Press.