Whitney Sorensen Brother Gardner ELang 410 20 May 2011

Choose the Write: Ethics in Magazine Editing

This was a big week for me. I got a byline—for the first time. This summer, also for the

first time, I’m getting paid to be a writer. I think I’ve been dreaming of this day since I first said

the word “magnazine,” which I insisted for years to my parents was the correct pronunciation.

Okay, so I’m just an intern, but in my book, writing and editing for LDS Living magazine is a real

job. To get the position, I had to submit a resume and then interview with one of the editors.

Now, I have to commute to a big city (well, Salt Lake) to work in the downtown corporate

headquarters of a long-standing publishing company. They even gave me an elevator pass! This

is the big time.

When I used my elevator pass for the first time, I didn’t realize that the big time does

have a dark side. I’ve only been an intern for three weeks, but I’ve already seen issues I didn’t

even anticipate. I imagined that starting a new job would have its challenges, but I didn’t think

they would be ethical. I’m working for an LDS magazine—what are the ethics involved in ward

party tips and Family Home Evening lessons? The ethical issues may not concern our subject

matter (although sometimes they do, but more on that later), but they exist, and if this is to be my

career, I’ll have to face them. Knowing I will face the ethical editing issues of reporting facts

honestly and selecting the right stories to publish, I need to resolve now to have integrity

and civility as my primary goals.

But, back to the byline. I learned last week that part of the dark side of magazine editing

is a time crunch. Because LDS Living has both print and online magazines, they are constantly

producing new stories. With a staff of less than ten people, the interns get to do some of the

Goodrum� 5/23/11 9:20 AMFormatted: Font:Italic

Goodrum� 5/23/11 9:37 AMComment [1]: I  changed  it  to  italics,  because  without  it,  the  sentence  became  a  “garden  path”  sentence  and  I  thought  for  a  minute  that  LDS  Living  was  your  book!    

writing, which means a story a week from here on until the end of the internship for me. I found

out about this first assignment on a Thursday afternoon and had to quickly compile some story

ideas so I could get moving for the deadline: Tuesday at noon. At first, I had a difficult time

contacting the sources I needed for my article. As the time kept ticking in my head, I faced a

dilemma: can I write the story anyway, even without all the facts?

To me, this is the first major issue of magazine editing: reporting facts honestly.

Publishing is a world full of deadlines, and often the concern exists that another magazine or

news source will publish the big story before you do. I heard that little voice in my head

whispering, “Go ahead. Publish the story. It’s fine if it’s mostly true.” Even if the deadline is not

imminent, writers and editors can still question the factuality of their articles because they have

sources giving conflicting answers. What’s a good editor to do?

The answer is creating a standard of integrity, an inner conviction that will combat the

voice of temptation. As President Hinckley writes in his compendium on the necessity of virtue,

Standing for Something, “The strength and safety of any organization . . . lie[s] in the integrity of

its members. Without personal integrity, there can be no confidence. Without confidence, there

can be no prospect of permanent success” (21). Publishing a “mostly factual” article to get ahead

of a competitor versus waiting on credible sources to confirm the truth is really a choice between

having many readers now but few later, or having a steadily growing audience of readers who

trust you. Economically, the second option just makes more sense. But I don’t see money as the

bottom line here. I think confidence is the more important result of integrity. When I submitted

my story on Tuesday, I’m happy to report that it was factually all there, my integrity sewn into

every word. I was proud of it, confident even.

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My story was about the web reality series “The Mormon Bachelorette,” a take-off from

the notorious ABC series where scantily clad women compete for one rich, but naughty bachelor

in hopes of receiving an expensive diamond engagement ring. Doesn’t sound very Mormon, does

it? Well, the Mormon version is different. It’s basically a mixture of online and internet dating,

but the dates (which all fit Mormon standards and have the early curfew of ten o’clock) are

filmed and posted on the show’s blog. It was surprisingly successful and the first couple actually

got married in March. Now they’re starting the series up again for a new bachelorette, which was

the subject of my story. I went to sleep with more than a little anticipation on Tuesday night.

There’s that confidence again.

Wednesday morning dawned and I jumped out of bed to look online. There it was: my

name in lights, er, on the internet beneath the title of my article. Joy bubbled in my stomach. I

couldn’t have been happier. Until I read the comments at the bottom. “No Latter-day Saint

should be supporting that sleazebag show,” and, “This is the worst thing LDS Living has ever

come up with.” Ouch. It took about thirty seconds for me to envision myself getting fired the

next day, my elevator pass disintegrating in a puff of proverbial smoke. My gut reaction was to

try and post something back to them, maybe along the lines of, “Did you even read the article? I

said this show is totally different from the original?” But something made me stop, another little

voice—a good one this time.

Without even trying to, I had run straight into the second major issue in magazine editing:

picking the right stories for the readers. I hadn’t anticipated that some portions of our readership

would be appalled at any mention of the word “Bachelorette.” I thought they would say, “Isn’t it

great that more of our young single adults are finding ways to date and get married after leaving

college without spouses?” because, that’s what my reaction had been. But I needed to have a new

reaction here. One of civility.

Sure, I could have thrown a lot of angry words at those mean-spirited comments, but that

good little voice in my head said, “That won’t solve anything. Pause and let it rest.” Still, what

hurt the most was thinking that now with my name blazing at the top of this article, those people

thought I was that kind of girl—a very non-Mormon bachelorette. Knowing that I am not that

kind of person started me thinking a little more rationally. Again, the sage President Hinckley

has some words of wisdom for this situation, too, “The example of our virtuous living will carry

a greater influence than will all the preaching, postulating, and theorizing in which we might

indulge” (45). In the end, a commenter on an online article cannot get to know the author of that

article just through reading her words. Commenters may feel that judging that author is their

place, but throwing words back at them would be just an unnecessary war of words. If I know I

am right before God, have written about a positive thing, and have nothing to hide, they can say

whatever they like. And in fact, the surest way to undermine myself, and to draw attention away

from the truth reported in my article, would be to start slinging comments back and forth.

Civility was really my only option, and I’m glad to say I used it.

What have I learned in my first few weeks in the world of magazine editing? I think this

quote from President Hinckley sums it up: “Men and women of integrity understand intrinsically

that theirs is the precious right to hold their heads in the sunlight of truth, unashamed before

anyone” (34). At the end of that rollercoaster Wednesday, I was more than the owner of a brand-

new byline. I knew that I had done my job with integrity and civility—even if others had judged

me by the title of my article. Also, I knew I’d be just as careful next time about selecting an

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article as I was about reporting the facts correctly. I could walk with my head high in the

sunshine—even though it was raining.