A communist organized a recent protest of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
The protest took place on November 8, 2015 to express opposition to the "new policies issued by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding same-sex couples and their children" (KSL story - linked below).
This post is not about those policies. They have sparked tremendous debate on the issue and many good people have widely divergent views on the matter.
It focuses, rather, on how the organizer was portrayed.
Channel 4 (ABC) did not mention who organized the event.
Channel 2 (CBS), Channel 5 (NBC), the Deseret News, and the Salt Lake Tribune all merely mention Gregory Lucero as the organizer.
Only one, Fox 13, gave any information about Mr. Lucero. They state that he is from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
This group sounds rather far left as a socialist group. However, when looking a bit deeper, a distressing picture emerges.
This is from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization's website:
"Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a revolutionary socialist and Marxist-Leninist organization in the United States. The members of Freedom Road are very active in movements fighting for justice, particularly in labor, oppressed nationality, anti-war and anti-imperialist, and student movements. Freedom Road is characterized by our understanding of national oppression in the United States. Freedom Road was founded in 1985 with the merger of 3 groups that were born in the New Communist Movement of the 1970s. Since then other groups and many new activists have joined our ranks."
Sounds like a warm and cuddly group, doesn't it?
The six news stories might have struck the public differently if they had begun with: "Communist leads protest of LDS policy!"
It would be nice if the media would bring this to the public's attention when giving us quotes from Mr. Lucero.
Sources:
Channel 4 (ABC): http://www.good4utah.com/…/lds-policy-met-with-protest-at-t…
Channel 2 (CBS): http://kutv.com/…/demonstrators-stage-vocal-protest-outside…
Channel 5 (NBC): https://www.ksl.com/…
Deseret News: http://www.deseretnews.com/…/Group-protests-LDS-policy-on-s… (the text posted at Channel 5 appears to be the same as that posted at the Deseret News site)
Salt Lake Tribune: http://www.sltrib.com/…/protesters-rally-against-lds-policy…
Channel 13 (Fox): http://fox13now.com/…/rally-near-temple-square-protests-ld…/
I like that headline better. I told everyone I was from the FRSO, but sadly only one station posted it.
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