The Media Scrum

We haven't published an episode since April. Here's why, and the plans for Season 3. Support the Show.

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Rep. Steve Handy, who represents House District 16 in the Utah Legislature. Steve’s a six-term incumbent who just got tossed by delegates to the GOP Davis County Convention. He talks about that, and other things – including his 17 years at the Standard-Examiner and Deseret News, his dealings with reporters, his work on various legislation including clean-air initiatives and gun bills, and more. Support the Show.

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Amy Joi O’Donoghue, a reporter for the Deseret News’ Utah In-Depth team with decades of expertise and award-winning writing in police, government, land and environmental issues. Mark and I have known Amy since 1985, when we all worked together at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden. Amy’s family lives in Weber County with their horses, chickens, Irish Wolfhounds and Jack the cat. Support the Show.

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Jim Burton, longtime sports writer and columnist for the Standard-Examiner. Since leaving the Standard, Jim has dabbled in PR and marketing, and even did some editing at the Deseret News. But now he's enjoying work at El Monte golf course in Ogden. We sure enjoyed talking to our old friend, Jim, who definitely has some feelings and observations about journalism and where it’s at now. Support the Show.

This time on The Media Scrum we venture outside the Utah media bubble and speak with Chris Carlson, who worked in network-TV news for 42 years. As an ABC News cameraman in Washington, D.C., Carlson had a front-row seat to history. In covering Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, Carlson logged scores of unique experiences. Over the decades he spent at the White House, Carlson witnessed many leaders of the "free world" from just 12 feet away, filming the nation’s political history as it was happening. After retiring three years ago, he has self-published an eBook, “9/11 with POTUS,” that’s available for purchase at your favorite online bookseller. We really enjoyed talking to Carlson, and we hope you enjoy listening. Support the Show.

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Lori Buttars, longtime reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune. Lori covered the Olympics, arts and music, and all sorts of beats at the Trib. She’s also been a “visiting professional” at Utah State University where, like yours truly, she edited the student newspaper when she was a student there. Back in 2007, Lori fled journalism for public relations as public information officer for the Weber-Morgan Health Department. We actually spend a fair amount of this conversation talking about local public health's response to the coronavirus pandemic, which we found fascinating. We sure enjoyed talking to Lori, and we hope you enjoy listening. Support the Show.

This time out things are a little different, since Mark had a conflict the evening of the interview, and I ended up speaking with our guest, the Deseret News’s Jay Evensen, one-on-one. Jay is the DNews’s editorial columnist and an editorial writer. He got his start in journalism at BYU, interned at United Press International in New York City, wrote sports in Oklahoma, and was a government and consumer affairs reporter in Las Vegas before landing at the Deseret News. We haven’t talked to many folks from newspapers’ opinion pages on The Media Scrum, so this was fun reconnecting with Jay – I hadn’t communicated with him for years and years – and hearing how he got his start and what it's like to be the editorial voice of a newspaper’s ownership. Support the Show.

This time out we’re revisiting a conversation we had last summer with Mary Nickles, whose career at KUTV in Salt Lake City just passed the 30-year mark – and 30 years is forever in TV news. Mary has been the morning, noon and/or evening anchor on KUTV’s various news programs for about 25 of those years. Not only is she a pro on the news set, but she’s done health stories over the years that have actually saved lives – including her own. She talks about that, and lots more, on this episode. We had a lot of fun talking to Mary, and we hope you enjoy our conversation. Support the Show.

This time we’re repeating an episode from March 2021 which has us talking to Cathy Free, who’s been a journalist for 40-plus years for the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, Spokane Spokesman-Review, People magazine, Reader’s Digest and, currently, The Washington Post. While Mark and I worked in Utah newspapering for decades ourselves, we never crossed paths with Cathy, but we were familiar with her byline. So, it was interesting to meet her via Zoom and to hear about her unquestionably impressive career path. It was a fun and interesting conversation; we hope you think so, too. Support the Show.

We sincerely hope you’ve been having a terrific holiday season. We have, and that’s the reason we’re revisiting one of the earliest episodes of the podcast, from August 2020, with our friend Holly Mullen, because all the holiday stuff has taken up our time and that of our coming group of guests. Holly, bless her heart, was one of the first people we asked to be a guest on the podcast. She’s a certified institution in Utah journalism. She currently serves as a member of The Salt Lake Tribune's board of directors. Holly's career has taken her around the country working for both legacy newspapers and alternative weeklies. In Utah, she's worked as a reporter, editor and/or columnist at the Deseret News, Standard-Examiner, The Salt Lake Tribune and City Weekly. We got to know Holly at the Standard-Examiner in the mid-'80s, and we’ve remained friends ever since. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Support the Show.

This time on The Media Scrum we speak with Maria Shilaos, host of Utah’s noon news and the national desk anchor at KSL Newsradio, where she’s worked since 1991. Maria was born and raised in Utah, graduating Olympus High School, and she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Utah. Support the Show.

This episode we speak with Dave Greiling, who was the Standard-Examiner’s managing editor for a decade from 2003-2013. Dave grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and worked for newspapers in Rickford, Ill., Lansing, Mich., and Ft. Collins, Colo., before landing in Ogden, Utah. Any list of well-regarded and highly respected editors in Utah newspapering would include Dave, who served as a voice of reason, sound judgment and was a mentor to many reporters who came through Ogden during his tenure. Dave retired to Ft. Collins eight years ago, and we had fun talking with our old friend and daily lunchmate. Support the Show.

This week we speak with Bob Evans, who co-anchors the evening news at Fox 13. Bob’s won numerous awards over the years for his work, and is one of those TV anchors who still reports his own stories. Bob grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and studied the violin on a music scholarship at BYU before switching to journalism. He is also, believe it or not, father to 18 children. Bob worked his early years in TV news in Boise, Spokane and Kansas City before landing in Salt Lake City, where he’s been for decades now. He’s a fun guy to talk to, and very passionate about journalism in this day and age. Support the Show.

This week we’re repeating our conversation with Lois Collins, a longtime reporter for the Deseret News. Neither Mark nor I had ever met Lois, but we’ve seen her byline often over the decades and know our friends at the DNews hold her in high regard. It was a fun and interesting conversation, and we hope you enjoy it. Support the Show.

This week we speak with Sheree Josephson, former chair of the Department of Communication at Weber State University who has taught journalism and other communication classes at WSU for more than 28 years. She was recently honored with the Clifford P. Cheney Service to Journalism award by the Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Mark and I used to work with Dr. Josephson at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden. She’s also worked at Logan’s Herald-Journal and the Colorado Springs Sun in Colorado Springs, Colo. So, sit back and listen to this former reporter, editor and current influencer of journalistic minds, Dr. Sheree Josephson. Support the Show.

This week we turn the clock back to December 2020 and our guest Lisa Roskelley. Lisa’s post-college years, as you’ll hear, included a sales job in California before starting as a reporter at the Standard-Examiner and then transitioning into a position as spokeswoman for Gov. Jon Huntsman, consulting, a run for the Utah Legislature and, most recently, managing Huntsman’s 2020 gubernatorial campaign. It was fun to catch up with our old friend and colleague. Support the Show.

This week we're repeating our September 2020 conversation with KUTV reporter Morgan Saxton, who near the start of her career worked with Mark at the Standard-Examiner. In retrospect, it’s been quite a year for Morgan, who not long after this interview revealed she was expecting her first child and has since given birth to her beautiful daughter, Charlotte. Support the Show.

This week we thought it would be fun to repeat an episode from December 2020 with Calvin Grondahl, without a doubt the king of Utah editorial cartoonists. Cal began his career at BYU, was hired by the Deseret News and later fled to the Standard-Examiner in the quest for some freedom to draw what he wanted. Mark and I worked with Cal for many, many fun and eventful years at the Standard-Examiner, and remember those decades fondly. Cal’s now retired, and has been for a number of years, but he shares lots of stories about what it was like to be the cartoonist who broke ground for all those who followed. Support the Show.

This week we’re repeating a fun and interesting conversation from February that we had with Stacey and Greg Kratz – who’ve had decades-long careers in Utah journalism, most significantly at the Standard-Examiner and Deseret News, but lots of other outlets, too, and you’ll hear about those during our conversation. Mark and I got to know the Kratzes way back in the Land Before Time, and we’ve always had enormous respect for their talents and their personalities. So, we think you’ll get a kick out of this one – we sure did. Support the Show.

This week we speak with Allison Barlow Hess, a BYU grad who reported at KSL for a dozen years, then spent another decade teaching budding journalists at Weber State University and, finally, since 2010 has been the school’s director of public relations. Along the way, Allison spent two years as Utah Chapter board chair of the Society of Professional Journalists and was a longtime op-ed columnist for the Standard-Examiner. Support the Show.