How One Reporter Challenged the Official Story on Texas Polygamy

[madmusic]

With the Texas Supreme Court's recent order to return all of the children of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to their families, it's worth noting that at least one reporter was questioning the raid's legality from day one.

Brooke Adams has worked for The Salt Lake Tribune for nearly nine years. She started covering polygamy first as a family reporter. For the last two years, it's been her full-time job. The reasons for covering polygamy in Utah are complex and often misunderstood. It's a divisive issue in the state. Utah has more polygamists than anywhere else, but they are a small minority of the overall population. They are often vilified by the Mormon Church which long ago renounced the practice. Yet many Mormon families have polygamous backgrounds.

It's an important topic not always appreciated by the local audience. I compare it to covering white supremacy in my old stomping grounds of North Idaho. There's a duty to shine a light of understanding in a dark place. If journalists don't tell the story, who will?

As a result of her work, Adams has perhaps more expertise on polygamy than any other reporter in the country. So, when Texas authorities began the process of raiding a FLDS camp on April 3, Adams went to work. Well-sourced and knowledgeable, she began making phone calls to people within the FLDS church and to anti-polygamy activists. It was a source in the latter group who first raised doubts in Adams' mind about the legitimacy of the raid. That source suggested the initial phone call from a teenager did not come from the ranch at all.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=67&aid=144620

[notesdev]

1. I got called

all sorts of nasty names for pointing out the blatant illegality of the state actions in this case, and that if there were any actual crimes that the illegal government action would undermine any case. I still maintain that we should be far more concerned about a government that ignores and violates the law than anything that was alleged to have happened on that ranch.