By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

The Latter Day Sentinel for May 6, 1983, reported the following:

The country’s most famous investigative reporter, Jack Anderson, has a new target: Anti-Mormon groups.

The well-known newspaper and TV personality has announced he plans to a [sic] publish a magazine later this year titled For Mormons Only which will investigate and expose Mormon hate groups in America.

“We don’t plan to do it in a negative way,” Brother Anderson, a high priest in the Chevy Chase Ward, Washington D.C. Stake, told the Latter-day Sentinel. “We’re not interested in getting into any rhetoric exchanges. We want to look into their backgrounds and let Mormons know what they’re doing.

“What we want to do is isolate these hate groups and keep this sewage from seeping into the respectable and responsible press. Once our findings are published under my name, then responsible journalists are going to have to deal with me before they use their (the hate groups’) material.”

He said the magazine, to be published monthly, will be produced by a team of investigative reporters completely separate from his own corps of column writers.

“I’m not doing this for any purpose except to help the Church and my fellow members,”. . .

Brother Anderson said he decided to start such a publication when he was approached by a number of “high-powered Mormons” who offered to come up with the financing of such a project.

He said the idea has received “neither approval nor disapproval” from Church leaders.

The idea of Jack Anderson and his “team of investigative reporters” looking into the backgrounds of critics of the Church might intimidate some people. We feel, however, that since we have nothing to hide, the publicity would only do us good.

The reader will notice that Anderson claims that the Church itself is not sponsoring his activities. Instead, he says “He was approached by a number of ‘high-powered Mormons’ who offered to come up with the financing of such a project.” Newsweek for March 14, 1983, page 15, says that it will be a “nonprofit publication.” Although we cannot actually prove it, we feel that this new organization is suspiciously similar to another group set up by the Church itself last year. Sunstone Review learned of this Church group and reported that Jack Anderson was a part of it:

Ending a long tradition, which goes back at least as far as Brigham Young, of disregarding all the barbs and errors regarding the Mormon people, the Church has decided to fight back. It has formally organized a “Public Communications Advisory Council” which will be composed of twenty-five prominent media representatives and business leaders from all over the country. They met for the first time on April 2, 1982, in Salt Lake City under the direction of Gordon B. Hinckley of the First Presidency of the LDS church and will continue to meet semi-annually . . .

According to Heber Wolsey, managing director of LDS Public Communications Department, “We have organized this group to coalesce the best thinking of those familiar with or involved in the media.”. . .

At the initial meeting . . . items of press coverage were mentioned and ways of handling them were discussed, for example, the 60 Minutes presentation of the Baum lawsuit against the Church . . . Jack Anderson suggested, however, that we should have organized a large-scale letter campaign as well as numerous phone calls from well-placed Mormons in the media. We should be applying subtle pressure, he said, so they begin to realize they can’t get away with that sort of irresponsibility . . .

The Church’s media problems surrounding the Equal Rights Amendment and, specifically, the excommunication of Sonia Johnson were of obvious concern. . . . Anderson proposed that one-half of the speeches given at General Conference be by women, but his idea was met with some resistance . . . When the Sunstone Review called Wolsey for a list of members of the committee, he seemed both surprised and a bit rankled at the request. . . . he refused to give out the names . . . Such secrecy does not bode well for the future of this group. One inside observer called it “the Public Communications Council of 50” (referring to a nineteenth-century secret Mormon political group.) . . .

Other questions arise from the formation of such a committee. Once a group becomes institutionalized (in this case, it is a Church “calling” and therefore a religious obligation), it is forced to protect institutional interests. It then becomes suspect as an objective source for information . . . Does the presence of non-media, high-powered corporate representatives indicate a willingness to use economic or political pressure to insure a positive media image? Would the group in any way attempt to abort potentially damaging news items even if they were true? (Sunstone Review, May 1982, pages 1 and 5)

There are a number of reasons why we suspect that Anderson’s group may be an outgrowth of the Church committee. To begin with, both groups were set up to deal with criticism of the Church. The Sunstone Review claimed that at the initial meeting of the Church committee, “there was some talk of modelling this group after the Jewish Anti-Defamation League.” This is very interesting because after Anderson announced the formation of his organization, Newsweek reported: “Anderson will also alert his readers to criticism of the church in the press and elsewhere, in the manner of the Anti-defamation League of B’nai B’rith” (March 14, 1983, page 15).

In both cases powerful Mormons seem to be involved. According to Sunstone Review, the famous businessman J. Willard Marriot, Jr., president of the Marriot Corporation is involved with the Church committee. Jack Anderson admits that a number of “high power Mormons” are in his organization. When we add to all this the fact that Anderson himself is involved in both groups, we cannot help but wonder if the publication For Mormons Only is a part of the plan formulated by the original Church committee. The Church, of course, would probably not want to give any outright endorsement to Anderson’s work. If his efforts were to fail, this would give Church leaders “deniability” and save the Church from embarrassment.

According to the Latter-Day Sentinel, Jack Anderson says “he plans to use some of the material produced by the Religious Research Association based in Mesa.” This is the organization headed by Robert Brown, a man who has used misrepresentation in an attempt to discredit us. It is also a non-profit organization and has asked for a donation of $1,000 for Charter membership. Mr. Brown has some important Mormon businessmen on the board of his organization. The Latter-Day Sentinel for May 6, 1983, reports that, “Henry W. Richards, president of Granite Furniture” is now serving on the Board of Directors. The addition of Mr. Richards is a very important development because of the “special” work he does in behalf of the Church. The Sentinel East (not to be confused with the Latter-Day Sentinel) reported the following on January 17, 1980:

Regional Representative Henry W. Richards . . . has served in various church assignments . . . He is also under special assignment from the First Presidency to work directly with Elder Mark E. Peterson regarding apostate groups or apostate related problems.

From all this the reader will see that we have some “big guns” pointed at us. Jack Anderson and Robert Brown will undoubtedly have large sums of money to use to try to discredit us. In addition to all this, we have a lawsuit facing us. While we have no fear of losing the suit, it may cost thousands of dollars to win it. In spite of all this opposition, we feel that we have the truth on our side. If we can obtain the necessary support from our readers, we are confident that we will prevail. As we indicated earlier, any gifts give to Utah Lighthouse Ministry are tax-deductible. The most important thing, however, is the prayers of God’s people. Prayer is the most powerful force in all the world.

---

---