Claiming they don’t have an axe to grind, the film’s producers show quite the opposite. Medved explains:

These explorations reach no definitive conclusions on Brigham Young’s complicity in the massacre, but the movie leaves no doubt at all — using fierce quotations by Young, but using those words wildly out of context. The film, for instance, downplays events preceding the Mountain Meadows rampage, including brutal persecution of Mormon settlements in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, that led to the trek to Utah. Just before the incident the film portrays, the federal government sent troops West with orders to remove Brigham Young as governor of the territory, and the movie never acknowledges Young’s ultimate agreement to step down peacefully, avoiding the feared bloodbath between U.S. soldiers and Mormon militia.

To try to claim contemporary relevance for September Dawn, its director, Christopher Cain, and its veteran star, Jon Voight, both tell interviewers that the project recounts a pertinent story of “religious fanaticism” — emphasizing the eerie coincidence of the massacre’s date (Sept. 11) and showing martyred “prophet” Joseph Smith (portrayed as an arrogant, preening dandy shortly before his death at age 39 at the hands of a lynch mob), declaring himself a “New Mohammet” and threatening holy war against his enemies.

The film’s deliberately drawn analogy between Mountain Meadows and 9/11 raises the most puzzling question about this peculiar project: Why frame an indictment of violent religiosity by focusing on long-ago Mormon leaders rather than contemporary Muslims who perpetrate unspeakable brutalities every day?

The author of the article then goes on to opine as to why the film’s producers chose to highlight a portion of history from Mormon culture instead of another religion or segment of society:

In part, preference for Mormons over Muslims as targets of cinematic scorn stems from reasonable concerns for personal safety. Islamic communities have proved more than a mite touchy over media depictions of their faith: Consider the deadly worldwide riots over a dozen Danish cartoons, or the taking of more than 100 American hostages and bans in Muslim countries inspired by the respectful 1977 film Mohammad, Messenger of God (directed by a Syrian and financed in part by the Libyan government).

Mormons won’t respond with any comparable rage, no matter how badly September Dawn tarnishes the memory of their faith’s founders. In fact, the LDS Church has adopted an official policy of “no comment” regarding the film, and there have been no examples of young Mormons strapping dynamite to their bodies and blowing themselves up to protest perceived insults to their religion.
…
The measured response to public smears of Mormonism in effect rebuts the September Dawn suggestion that the church represents a relevant example of violent religious fanaticism. Despite the turbulence of their founding generation, Mormons have been conspicuously peaceful, patriotic, hard-working and neighborly for at least the past 117 years (since the church repudiated and banned polygamy).

Medved is to be applauded for his logic-based, prejudice-free article in portraying how biased and deceitful Hollywood can be. After all, their pursuit of the almighty dollar often leads them to inflate controversy, embellish history, choose one side of an argument, and lay it down as historical fact. The author’s conclusion is worthy of note:

This sort of prejudice seems not only unjust but also downright un-American — violating the cherished pluralistic traditions by which we judge religious communities not based on theological quirks or long-ago disputes, but on the decency of their present adherents. By that standard, the Mormons’ restrained response to even the most mean-spirited challenges to their beliefs says more about the present nature of their faith than anything in September Dawn.

Those wishing to do so may contact USA Today or Michael Medved directly.

Over the last year, I have found some very interesting things. As you can imagine, there have been plenty of articles on polygamy and in those articles there’s been plenty of intermingling of the LDS Church and various polygamist sects, which causes confusion. One headline read: “Mormon Leader Arrested on Child Sex Charges” and “Mormon Prophet Told Followers He’d Never be Caught”. The articles were obviously about Warren Jeffs, the non-Mormon leader of a polygamist sect.

I recently came across an article from an east coast paper that declared that Mormons “worship Joseph Smith over Jesus Christ”. My emails to the editor, writer of the story and publisher demanding a correction were never answered.

I don’t think that most members of the LDS Church have a clue about what the media outside of Utah is saying about the LDS Church. Unless you were really looking for these articles (like I do) you’d probably never know they exist. I would have to say that about 25% of the stories I come across referencing something related to the church are negative. I would also say that at least 5% of what I read is blatantly anti-Mormon. The rest is positive or neutral.

So I’ve partnered with Richard Miller and Connor Boyack of the More Good Foundation to bring you this blog – LDSNewsWatch.com. We hope to accomplish the following with LDSNewsWatch:

- Bring you interesting news articles about the LDS Church from around the world.

- Bring false and incorrect articles about the LDS Church to your attention.

- Compel you to act by getting you to write the editors and writers at publications that misrepresent or spread blatant lies about the LDS Church.

Please support LDSNewsWatch and the More Good Foundation by blogging about this new blog and adding it to your blog roll where appropriate.