It looks like Nelson Wadsworth, a legend in Utah Photojournalism, penned a letter to the editor in this morning’s Tribune:

When I see Deseret News executives frothing at the mouth about “innovation” as they eviscerate their own staff, I want to run to the nearest bathroom to throw up.

Can these be journalists making such prophetic statements? No, they are merely bean-counters demonstrating that old Mormon saw: “You can be forgiven for almost any sin except losing money.”

There’s nothing “innovative” about merging the staffs of the News and KSL. It’s merely the creation of a giant platypus, as photojournalist Dirk Halstead called such fused reporting more than a decade ago. Halstead was lamenting the impending demise of American photojournalism and urged still photographers to pick up mini-cams, shoot video and post stories on the then-emerging Internet. It didn’t work then. It won’t work now.

And Deseret Connect? Nothing more than glorified, opinionated blogging.

What’s the result of the combined newsrooms? I see the News morphing into a slanted Mormon version of The Catholic Register … just pure, unadulterated flack.

Hard-hitting, objective journalism is dead at the Deseret News, and I mourn its passing. So, I’m jumping ship for The Salt Lake Tribune, where some semblance of credible journalism is still practiced.

Nelson Wadsworth
Murray

If you haven’t heard of Wadsworth, here is the first paragraph of his impressive bio:

Nelson B. Wadsworth is a professor emeritus at Utah State University. He retired from active teaching in 1994 and currently resides in the Village III Condominium complex in Salt Lake City. He taught journalism and photojournalism at three Utah universities and has been in the journalism profession for more than 50 years. His professional experiences include general assignment and beat reporting for daily newspapers in California and Utah, regional correspondent for Time Magazine, Life Magazine, People Weekly and Dow Jones’ National Observer, and staff reporter for the Associated Press, Intermountain Bureau. He is founding editor of the Utah Journalism Review, editor and contributing author of the Utah Media Law Handbook and editor of the National Press Photographers Association regional magazine, The Rangefinder.