In a spat in mid-June of this year, the Utah Republican Party went after local media station KSL for what it alleged was “libel” and defamation in a post that KSL made on social media about the party. The media outlet took the post down but refused to apologize with a retraction, leading to the state party’s fury and statement on the matter.
The spat began with a post that claimed the state party had run into trouble and asked social media viewers if they were “tired” of the antics of the Republican party, though it did not clarify if that was a reference to the state party or national party. In the post, KSL said, “Utah’s Republican Party has been running into tough times. Are you tired of the Republican party’s antics?”
Describing the post and what it did in response, the Utah GOP said in a statement, “Yesterday, KSL published this statement and follow up question. When the party reached out to KSL – even visiting the station manager in person – about the post, KSL acknowledged verbally that the post was inappropriate and factually inaccurate.”
Continuing, the part said, “It was also acknowledged that the nature of content in their morning show went against their guidelines while criticizing the Utah Republican Party.” Further, the party’s statement added, “The Utah Republican Party gave KSL all day to issue a statement and retract the accusation. After 8+ hours they took the post down.”
Then, after the Utah GOP responded with outrage and KSL took down the post, it described why and said that it went against its dedication to neutrality, saying, “KSL NewsRadio has long maintained a stance of political neutrality. As our guidelines state, ‘The more emotional, divisive and partisan an issue becomes, the more we present it factually as journalism rather than persuasively as opinion.'”
Continuing, KSL said that the post, which was about fundraising, went against that neutrality standard. It said, “This morning, we did not live up to that standard in our treatment of a story about political fundraising and the Republican Party in Utah. We take our journalistic standards seriously, and we are handling the matter internally.”
The Utah GOP insisted that that statement on the matter wasn’t enough, saying, “Later yesterday afternoon, KSL issued the [above] statement. This statement neither retracts the accusation nor appropriately addresses how the post was even made in the first place. It also did not provide a repudiation of their biased on air attacks.”
Utah GOP Chair Rob Axson, commenting on the matter, wrote, “While the statement from KSL in response to their defamatory post is a start, it misses the mark. First, it does not admit to falsely attacking and slandering the Utah Republican Party on radio and in social media posts. Second, there is no evidence of corrective action or immediate follow-through to ensure that libelous and biased attacks won’t happen again.”
Continuing, he added, “KSL should conduct an internal audit of the bias displayed yesterday and in recent years, including a review of the culture or policies that have allowed opinion to masquerade as “news.” Utahns deserve news outlets that accurately report facts instead of equivocating about “doing better” next time when caught pushing nonsense.”
Featured image credit: By Ricardo630 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34955038
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