Stop the Press: How the Mormon Church Tried to Silence the Salt Lake Tribune

While it is not uncommon for newspapers that have a religious bent to go after more secular newspapers that feel like a throwback to the early 20th century, generally those are well-told and balanced stories. Alas, this book is not incredibly interesting or that balanced, which is sad because it got off to a decent start. Utah is a heavily Mormon state and almost went to war not to join the United States. After it lost and decided to join, two newspapers started at about the same time, one with direct connections to the Mormon Church and the other a more secular newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune. While newspapers are in competition with each other, James Ure tries to make the argument that the Mormon Church has tried to silence the Tribune since its founding, making a claim that it relates to the Tribune’s investigation into the murder of a wagon train in 1857. But most of the time is spent talking about more modern events, takeovers, and revenue sharing from advertising, etc. I do not find his argument compelling at all, or that interesting. He often fails to properly acknowledge that all newspapers are hurting because of the Internet.