OFFICIAL RESPONSE to The Deseret "News"

Yesterday was a joyous moment for so many young people at Brigham Young University who have shed blood, sweat and tears to organize their own "alternative commencement" in light of BYU's baffling invitation of Dick Cheney to speak at graduation. These students had only 3 weeks to organize an entirely different graduation ceremony, book the speakers, secure a venue and then raise the needed $20,000 (plus expenses) to pull it all off.

At the beginning of the day on Monday, April 23rd, they had raised about $9,500. I posted a heart-felt blog entry on The Daily Kos asking for help nationwide and, 4 hours later, the funds reached an unprecedented $21,000. This help came from people I've never met and will never have to opportunity to hug and thank. The help came from a pure grass roots effort of activism and love for a cause.

There were shouts of joy and celebration at the announcement and there was an air of democratic success.

The local press called all those involved to get the details. The Salt Lake Tribune and The Daily Herald were taken aback and surprised at this absolute miracle and they went to the protesters' website to confirm that the impossible had indeed occurred.

And then The Deseret Morning News called me. And not Tad Walch, the Deseret reporter who's been covering this from the beginning, but a sports writing intern named David Rasmussen. He asked briefly about the amazing fund-raising that day and then he went on the attack. For the next 20 minutes, he grilled me about a video clip (clip meaning a segment of a bigger picture) that I had edited and posted on YouTube earlier in the week. He said the Carri Jenkins, BYU's spokesperson, claimed that the video "misrepresented" what happened and that things had been taken out of context. She didn't, however, deny that the events in the video never happened. Seems that she's in serious spin mode.

Rasmussen then grilled me about my comments on my blog about BYU President Samuelson basically telling a student to go f##k himself. He said "Samuelson didn't say 'f##k', did he?" I said, "No, I said he BASICALLY told the student that." Rasmussen, with an obvious attitude said, "Yeah, but you kinda said that". I said, "Dude, how the hell do you interpret that? I said he BASICALLY told the student to go f##k himself. Read it for yourself, the word "basically" is right there." I think it's obvious to anyone that I was using a euphemism to characterize Samuelson's attitude toward the students leading the protest.

But Rasmussen wouldn't budge. For 5 more minutes he tried to get me to say something negative and damning. He then accused me of editing Cecil Samuelson's answer to Adam Barlow's question. This is absolutely absurd. Here's the transcript (and Adam Barlow will back me up):

(Adam gives Samuelson a description of the events following the previous day's protest and then:)

Adam: My question is: Why, as an institution of higher learning, does the university so severely limit free speech and what is the school so afraid of?

Samuelson: The school is not afraid of anything, Adam. Thank you for your input. (points to the audience) Next question.

I noticed David Rasmussen left out that last part of Samuelson's response in his biased article. For Rasmussen to criticize me for "editing things out" or "taking things out of context" is both hypocritical and in poor journalistic taste. Not to mention completely unprofessional. Not only did he take my words out of context, he refused to print my support of the video and my affirmation that it was true and that any denial on BYU's part was clearly false.

I also offered to show him the raw footage, to prove that nothing was misrepresented. Since a fair, balanced and accurate view didn't fit the article he was writing, he declined my offer.

So, to boil it down, Rasmussen's article brought up 2 main complaints:

1) The video doesn't represent what happened that day. Well, duh. It's a 4 minute clip of a much larger story. We're in the middle of filming a feature documentary on all this hooplah and we aren't even close to being finished. I mean, there's MUCH more controversial stuff that's going to be in the final project. Rasmussen, Jenkins, etc should wait until the final project comes out to be worried about BYU's image. I mean, if I showed you a 4 minute clip of my hour long vacation video, it obviously wouldn't represent the entire vacation would it? Jeez, what are Rasmussen and Jenkins thinking?

2) That I misquoted Cecil Samuelson. Ok, I already explained this above. It's just plainly a false accusation by The Deseret News and they should be ashamed. They really pulled at strings to print this baffling connection of words. And, seriously, what you saw in the video is just the tip of the iceberg. Samuelson pulled out some real zingers after that. You'll get to see them soon in all their objective glory.

So, in light of all the grass roots triumph yesterday, The Deseret Morning News (with financial ties to the Mormon church) decided to throw a fly into the soup by lazily spinning the BYU web of Public Relations. I must say, I'm extremely disappointed by it. But that's to be expected, I guess. I learned this when I made my first film about free speech in Utah County, This Divided State. When you hit the record button and capture the reality of bigotry and oppression, those perpetrating these qualities don't react too happily. Sometimes they sue you, as happened to me 2 years ago. Or sometimes, they get The Deseret News to make you look bad.

Either way, my camera has never stopped rolling.

I'll see you at the movie theater.

-STEVEN GREENSTREET

(Bryan's two cents can be read here.)