Poll Retraction Wins Salt Lake Tribune a Better Beehive Award

Salt Lake City — Each day this week the Alliance for a Better UTAH will announce a winner of its 2012 Better Beehive Awards. The award recognizes five notable Utahns and groups for their progressive efforts this year.

The third Better Beehive goes to the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial board for its decision to retract a poll that had originally erred in its prediction of the results for the Salt Lake County mayoral race between Ben McAdams and Mark Crockett. The poll also misread the 4th Congressional District race between Jim Matheson and Mia Love.

The Tribune decided to retract its poll results after conflicting poll data by Deseret News pollster Dan Jones and internal polling by the Alliance for a Better UTAH was released. Those polls showed Ben McAdams leading in the county mayoral race. According to the Tribune, their pollster Mason-Dixon had oversampled Republicans in the county, thus producing the wildly divergent results.

“It is never easy to admit that you’ve made an error,” said Better Utah executive director Maryann Martindale after learning the poll had been retracted. “We respect the integrity of the Tribune for wanting to get it right. Journalistic integrity is essential for an active, functioning democracy like the one we enjoy here in Utah.”

Previous Winners
Tuesday’s Better Beehive Award winner was the cities of Harrisville and Springdale for enacting ordinances this year that bar employment and housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Monday’s Better Beehive Award winner was retiring state senator Ross Romero. The Alliance for a Better UTAH recognized Romero for his efforts to secure the release to the public of the legislature’s 2010 redistricting records.

About the Better Beehive Award
The Better Beehive is given to those individuals or organizations that have worked to make Utah a better, more progressive place to live. Winners of the Better Beehive come from all walks of life, from all over the political spectrum and from all over the state. While there will always be more work to be done, these are five individuals or organizations that leave Utah a better place to live and work at the end of 2012 than they found it at the beginning of the year.

“When you’re of a more progressive mindset, it can often be discouraging, but there is a lot of good happening here in Utah,” said Maryann Martindale, executive director of the Alliance for a Better UTAH. “We want everyone to remember that while it’s often easy to point a finger at deficiencies in the system, real progress is achieved by those who stand up for what is right in an effort to make Utah a better place.”

Better UTAH has named the award “the Better Beehive” in recognition of the value of the hard work required to build a more progressive Utah, while simultaneously honoring Utah’s tremendous history.

“We joke that our informal motto is ‘Building a Better Beehive,’” said Josh Kanter, Better UTAH’s founder. “Consistent with our mission, we hope to be a part of making our already great state an even better place to live for all of its citizens.”

Each day this week an additional winner will be announced. More information can be found at https://betterutah.org/better-beehive-awards-2012/
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Alliance for a Better Utah |  801.557.1532   | www.betterutah.org
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The Alliance for a Better UTAH is a year-round, multi-issue education and advocacy organization providing resources, commentary, and action on important public policy matters.

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