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Pease says LDS fears about Olympic image are overblown By
the USU department of journalism and communication The head of Utah State University's journalism and communication department is cited in Sunday's Deseret News story about Newsweek magazine's latest issue, whose cover story, "Mormons," looks at Utah, the LDS Church and the 2002 Winter Olympics. The magazine, which comes out this week, has raised fear among Salt Lake City Olympic organizers about perpetuating the myth of the "Mormon Olympics." SLOC President Mitt Romney has said in an email to SLOC trustees that he was concerned that the Newsweek article would be "divisive and demeaning." But USU journalism professor Ted Pease told Deseret News reporter Jennifer Toomer-Cook that he thinks Romney's fears are overblown. Cook wrote in Sunday's Deseret News page-one article, "'Utahns might not have any other choice. Media from around the globe are looking at Utah and its culture because, frankly, they've not experienced it before,' said Ted Pease, head of Utah State University's journalism and communication department. 'I think it's inevitable that more international and national scrutiny will come to Utah as a result of the Olympics, and that's not a bad thing.'" Speaking to students at USU Tuesday, Pease, who is not a member of the LDS Church, added that most non-Utahns associate the state with Mormons, so it's no surprise that the Newsweek story, and other reporters, make a similar connection between the LDS Church and the 2002 Games. "This should be no more a 'Mormon Olympics' than games in Sweden would be the 'Lutheran Olympics,'" Pease said. "But it is naive to think that Utah, which is unique among U.S. states in terms of its dominant religion's influence, would not pique reporters' interest. "These are legitimate questions for reporters and their audiences," Pease said. "What will the Olympics in Utah be like? What is Utah like? Most Americans don't know. What journalists do is try to answer those kinds of questions." "I don't think the Newsweek story is unfair. I do think Mitt Romney may have been a little overprotective, which I guess also is understandable," Pease said. "But there's more to come. You can be sure that there will be more, not fewer, of these kinds of questions before the Games are over." SLOC official Ken Bullock said in the Deseret News story that he thinks some SLOC leaders are being "overly paranoid about our culture." Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson told the newspaper, "Perhaps the greatest thing that is going to come about from all this media attention . . . is that people visiting this state are going to be pleasantly surprised at what they find." (For the Deseret News article by Jennifer Toomer-Cook, see http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,300006985,00.html. For the Newsweek article, "Mormons," see http://www.newsweek.com)
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