Mayor Mike Winder aka Richard Burwash Propaganda Spin Master West Valley City, Utah |
Mayor Mike Winder writes bogus news stories about his city of West Valley City, Utah.
Utah mayor used alias to write upbeat news stories
By PAUL FOY, Associated Press
Friday, November 11, 2011
Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Trib / AP
Disguising himself with an alias, the mayor of Utah's second-largest city has been writing upbeat freelance articles about his town for area news outlets because he claimed the media spent too much time on crime coverage.
He unapologetically revealed himself this week, insisting the balance was needed.
"I thought about all the people just reading about crime in our city and nothing better," West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder said Friday. "I'm trying to stand up for us because we do get the short end of the stick — negative stories."
Winder had been writing under the name Richard Burwash, an alias he actually swiped from a real man — a one-time professional tennis player from California — that he found on the Internet.
He said getting stories published by the Deseret News, KSL-TV's website and a community weekly was as easy as setting up a Gmail account and Facebook page. He communicated with editors by email and phone, never showing his face.
As an unpaid writer for several months earlier this year, the so-called Burwash even quoted himself as mayor in some stories. In one published piece, he wrote about the opening of a Buddhist Temple in his Salt Lake City suburb, quoting himself as saying, "We applaud any time a group builds a place to celebrate peace and to encourage people to live better lives."
"I was an easy source," he quipped Friday.
He even let his sister write one story under his alias. But he maintains all the stories were "100 percent factually correct" — except for the byline, of course.
Executives at the Deseret News, one of Salt Lake City's two daily newspapers, were not amused.
"While we appreciate that Mayor Winder would, of his own accord, quit writing under the assumed name and then detail the error to us, we remain highly concerned that someone would purposely misrepresent himself," Clark Gilbert, president and CEO of the Deseret News and Deseret Digital Media, told the newspaper. "We deeply regret that Mayor Winder would do this."
Gilbert didn't return messages left Friday by The Associated Press.
The Deseret News said it has published about 5,500 articles by 2,000 contributors in the past year. The paper began accepting contributions after cutting its newsroom staff and consolidating operations with affiliated television and radio stations.
That's when Winder saw an opportunity and hatched the idea of writing his own news stories. He complained crime stories made up 56 percent of the coverage of West Valley City by the Desert News over three months earlier this year.
Now eyeing a run for mayor of Salt Lake County, Winder decided it was time to come clean.
"I'd rather disclose it on my own terms than by a political enemy," he said.
Winder walked into the publisher's office at the Deseret News this week and asked about the paper's policy on pen names. He was told they aren't allowed.
"I said, `Well, we have a situation,'" Winder said.
Reaction from residents in West Valley City was mixed. Some compared their mayor to historic figures who wrote under pen names during the American revolution. Others questioned whether the politician might have other secrets.
"He's the mayor, but I don't see him doing anything," said Pat Gonzales, a dry-cleaning assistant at Century Laundry and 30-year West Valley resident. "Maybe he's too busy being a news reporter."
Winder, who said he just likes to write, is now giving up his side job.
"It was interesting to be a journalist for a few months," he said. "The only crime was my name."
Will pen-name articles hurt Winder’s political future?
By Pamela Manson and Christopher Smart
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Nov 11 2011 08:34PM
Despite condemnations of West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder’s decision to write positive news stories about his city under a false identity, it’s unclear what impact the deception will have on his future political aspirations.
The tactic raises "serious ethical questions," said Matthew Burbank, University of Utah professor of political science. "What could this say about his judgment? The very fact that he is writing under someone else’s name means he was trying to fool people."
But, Burbank added, "I can see West Valley City residents saying, ‘Why can’t our mayor be an advocate for the city?’... Will future voters say, ‘I will never vote for you because of that’? I think that’s unlikely."
Winder, director of public affairs for the Summit Group, a public relations and lobbying firm, used the name "Richard Burwash" to submit 11 articles published in the Deseret News , KSL.com and Oquirrh Times, a newspaper serving West Valley City, Magna and Kearns, between September 2010 and May 2011. He frequently quoted himself in the articles.
Winder said the Times’ editor, Howard Stahle, knew he was the author; Stahle could not be reached for immediate comment.
Winder said he was frustrated that the Deseret News had drastically reduced its city government coverage after layoffs last year, but not its crime coverage, and he wanted to "try to restore balance."
While Winder has not formally announced his candidacy for Salt Lake County mayor, he has said he’s considering running.
Tim Chambless, a University of Utah political science professor and former journalist, said Winder’s subterfuge was unethical and raises the question of whether he would betray the public trust as a county mayor. Story continues below
"I can fully appreciate and respect his desire to portray West Valley City in a positive light," said Chambless, a staff member at the Hinckley Institute of Politics. But, he added, public officials "have to be open and transparent in their dealings with the public."
Winder defends his use of a pen name and said his articles were accurate. He said he stopped posing as Burwash this spring and voluntarily informed the Deseret News on Monday because "I do believe in transparency and openness."
He acknowledged his admission will have some effect on the public’s perception of him. "I think it shows that I am human and I had a lapse in judgment," he said.
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Ethics in public »Winder’s strategy violated the ethical principles of public relations professionals and was "clearly a conflict of interest," said Dennis Scott Jolley, a University Hospital spokesman and president-elect of the Greater Salt Lake Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
"He has stated that the information he gave was accurate and truthful," said Jolley, noting he was speaking for himself, not the chapter. "But the way in which he chose to [present] it undermines the public trust and is dishonest, in my opinion."
The mayor said he could not respond to the assertion that he violated public relations ethics because, as Summit’s public affairs director, he advises clients on government-related issues.
"I’m not in the public relations department," Winder said. "I’ve never had a public relations class."
Deseret Connect: Whom Can You Trust?
by Jerre Wroble
Many of his constituents don't get it. Those who admire Mike Winder, the once up-and-coming mayor of West Valley City, don't readily fathom the upset over his penning four articles that were published through Deseret Connect in the Deseret News and on KSL.com under the nom de plume of Richard Burwash.
The mayor also admitted getting articles published in the Oquirrh Times under Richard Burwash's byline.
He justifies the deception by arguing that staff cutbacks at the Deseret News had resulted in scaled-back coverage of positive stories about West Valley City, so he was attempting to fill in the void.
Winder tried reporting under his own name in May of this year (luckily, a few weeks later, a smidgeon of journalistic integrity kicked in when Deseret Connect determined that those holding or running for political office could only write opinion columns for the paper).
But why the change of heart? Why did he lose the pen name to try to write openly as Mike Winder? According to a Nov. 11 Trib article by Pamela Manson, it was in the spring, "after Mark Willes, CEO and president of Deseret Management Corp., told him that Deseret Connect preferred that its writers not use pen names."
Did we read that correctly? They "preferred" that writers not use pen names? It isn't written in stone?
And does that also mean Mark Willes, who runs the parent company overseeing all LDS Church-owned news media, was in on the caper?
We're finally starting to see the disturbing cracks in the plaster of the D-News makeover since non-journalist Clark Gilbert took over in 2010. In his mad pursuit to wrangle the digital frontier, the CEO refuses to be shackled by the high-minded code of ethics embraced by the Society of Professional Journalists. Policies at the media company appear to be made up on the fly, and those that they have allow writers to trick the system.
Upon being named president of the D-News in the summer of 2010, Gilbert laid off 43 percent of the workforce and announced plans for a citizen-journalism Website known as Deseret Connect. In an August 2011 D-News article, he described it as "an innovative system to collect writers and editors who will provide high-quality, relevant stories on a regular basis.
"'The content will be qualified, edited and peer-reviewed,' said Gilbert. 'We have attracted people from across the nation with impeccable credentials and the highest respect of their peers.' Deseret Connect will complement journalists working at the Deseret News."
You see the part about "impeccable credentials," right?
Ironically, as this story is now going viral, Winder has achieved his goal of garnering astonishing publicity for West Valley City, only it's the kind that makes most people cringe.
Here we have an elected official who wants voters to trust him. And here we have a newspaper that promises to tell the truth. Both have duped the public. How many other lies has Mike Winder told? How many other writers has Deseret Connect published who haven't been adequately vetted? Who can answer that? Whom can we trust?