This document discusses the history of media coverage of Mormonism from the 19th century to present day. It provides examples of interactions between Mormon leaders like Brigham Young and journalists like Horace Greeley. It also summarizes several news articles about key events and issues involving the Mormon church such as the 1978 lifting of the priesthood ban for black members, opposition to MX missile deployment in Utah/Nevada, and the church's approach to media coverage during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

1. Joel Campbell

2.  Nauvoo City Council
 Honorary Degree
 Brigadier General of the
Nauvoo Legion
 “Very liberal and
unprejudiced course towards
us as a people, in giving a fair
hearing in his paper, thus
enabling us to reach ears of
proportion of the community
who otherwise would have
remained ignorant of our
principles and practices.”

4.  For being obscure, the church has
certainly always been in the media
spotlight.

5. Horace Greeley, NewYork Tribune
and BrighamYoung

6. • H.G. - Am I to regard Mormonism (so-called) as a new religion, or as
simply a new development of Christianity?
• B.Y. - We hold that there can be no true Christian Church without a
priesthood directly commissioned by, and in immediate communication
with the Son of God and Savior of mankind. Such a church is that of the
Latter-day Saints, called by their enemies Mormons; we know no other
that even pretends to have present and direct revelations of God's will.
• H.G. - Then I am to understand that you regard all other churches
professing to be Christian as the Church of Rome regards all churches not
in communion with itself - as schismatic, heretical, and out of the way of
salvation?
• B.Y. - Yes, substantially.
• H.G. - Apart from this, in what respect do your doctrines differ essentially
from those of our orthodox Protestant churches - the Baptist or Methodist,
for example?
• B.Y. - We hold the doctrines of Christianity, as revealed in the Old and New
Testaments - also in the Book of Mormon, which teaches the same cardinal
truths, and those only.
• H.G. - Do you believe in the doctrine of the Trinity?

8.  Stories in 19th
Century were filled with
stereotypes
 Villians
 Criminals
 UnAmerican


14.  Themes
 Racial Discrimination
 Equal Rights Amendment

16.  Mormon church strikes down ban against blacks in
priesthood, June 10, 1978
"The 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the
Mormon priesthood was struck down by the church's leaders
yesterday.
"Spencer W. Kimball, president of the 4.2 million members of the
worldwide Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, made the
declaration from church headquarters in Salt Lake City. It was a
result, he said in a letter to all church leaders, of a revelation given
to the top leaders of the church.
" 'He has heard our prayers,' the letter reads. "

17.  Mormon church at 150:Thriving on Traditionalism, March 30,
1980
"SALT LAKE CITY — Once all but cast out from the nation, the
Mormon church is now a burgeoning and influential religion
whose members eagerly espouse the traditional values of
patriotism and capitalism.
"On the 150th anniversary of the founding of the church,
membership is soaring, buildings are going up at an unparalleled
rate and coffers are bulging. But at the edges of the optimism and
prosperity, many Mormons are worried that the roots they have
sunk in the mainstream may also draw up dissent and elements
that corrode their way of life."

18. Mormon church opposes MX missiles
in Utah and Nevada, May 6, 1981
"SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon
Church, saying church pioneers had
chosen Utah as a "base from which to
carry the gospel of peace to the peoples
of the earth," today announced its
opposition to deployment of the MX
missile system here and in Nevada."

20.  Mormons step into the past footsteps
of their ancestors, June 22, 1997
"One summer day in 1847, P. G. Sessions, aYankee
farmer following the Mormon leader Brigham Young to
Utah, inscribed his name on Independence Rock, a
gray dome rising from the Wyoming prairie.This week,
his great-great-granddaughter, Shauna Dicken, riding a
covered wagon that traced the Mormon route, waded
the frigid shallows of the Sweetwater River and ran her
fingers across her ancestor's name."

21.  In spotlight of the Olympics, a quieter Mormon mission, Jan.
20, 2002
"When the Olympics in Salt Lake City were well over a year away,
Mormon officials met in New York City with NBC executives and
said they were considering spending several million dollars on
advertising time to create a positive impression of their church
during the network's broadcasts of the Winter Games ... Not long
after the meeting, though, the church officials contacted NBC and
said they had decided against conducting any advertising
campaign during the Olympics, said Randy Falco, the network's
president. A church spokesman said today that church officials
had concluded that a large advertising campaign would have sent
the wrong message."

23.  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/0
1/31/60minutes/main3775068.shtml