Have we been too hard on Mike Winder?

Perhaps we have been too hard on Mayor Winder:

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Yes, the Salt Lake County Mayor race is a tough race, but it’s not impossible. In fact, but for a scandal, the Mayor’s office would probably still be Republican (instead of just held by a DINO). But wait…isn’t that the point?

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Yes, Mike has made a mistake, but let’s put it in context. It’s Mike Winder we’re talking about. This isn’t a fly by night politician with nothing under his belt but hot air, self promotion, and a few message bills. Yes, Mike is an excellent promoter, but he’s usually got substance to back it up. He works hard, he shows up, and, ironically, he’s now proven that he’ll put himself on the line A) for his constituency, and B) when he makes a mistake.

Don’t see it? First, he sees a problem–his city, West Valley City, has a public relations problem in that 56% of all stories about it focus on crime–and he sets about working on it. After trying to persuade the traditional media to report a more balanced picture of West Valley, he offers to even write the stories for the papers. They can fact check, review them, edit them, whatever they want. Just put out more stories about West Valley City that are balanced about what’s really going on.

Of course, the good people over at Deseret News recognize the problem with a public official writing news in their paper: it’s just not objective, and traditional media is supposed to be nothing if not objective.

Stymied, Mayor Winder decides to do it anyway. He writes the stories. They are factual. They are accurate. They are true.

But they don’t carry his name in the byline… never mind that no one knows that but Mayor Winder.

Suddenly, the Deseret News is glad to print the stories. They haven’t got enough reporters, anyway, and they’re hungry for content. The editors fact check, and everything looks right, so it goes into print. West Valley City wins, the Deseret News wins, and…maybe Mayor Winder wins, too. His job–West Valley City–is getting the publicity it deserves.

But this isn’t just a pen name–it was a deception by a public official.

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Which brings me to B: Mayor Winder came clean on his own. He wasn’t revealed by a whistle blower, editor, or watch dog. Somewhere along the way he realized that not only was he deceiving the public, but it was also against the policies of the Deseret News to use pen names. Suddenly, this didn’t look quite as much like Alexander Hamilton posing (but deceiving no one) as Publius. Instead, it was a hoax, a deception, a fraud, well-meaning though it was.

And he came clean.

Motive? I don’t see one. “Fessin’ up” certainly didn’t shine a friendly light on him, and I’m sure he has made more calls to apologize  than he has received calls thanking him for his clever promotion of West Valley City. In fact, by coming clean, he may have jeopardized his opportunity to serve as Mayor of Salt Lake County.

Yes, transparency and honesty are virtues that should be paramount in the persons we elect. However, I don’t think it’s appropriate–yet–to say that Mike Winder is an inherently dishonest or fraudulent person, a person unworthy of our trust.

Again: not yet, at least. Let’s chalk this one up to an over eager desire to do his job and a bout of poor judgment. We don’t want to lose the good qualities that Mike Winder embodies because of one decision, one that was–to be sure–wrong, but in the scheme of things, may be forgivable.

Related articles

• Utah Mayor Admits to Posing as Reporter to Write Upbeat News Stories (foxnews.com)
• Mayor Mike Winder: Poor Judgment or Fraudulent Behavior? (publiusonline.com)
• Utah Mayor Mike Winder and the Dangers of ‘Citizen Journalism’ (usnews.com)
• West Valley mayor used fake name to write news stories ()
• Mayor apologizes to CA man over photo misuse ()