Ruddy Responds: Salt Lake Olympic Committee Still Excluding Boy Scouts

Within hours NewsMax received a letter from Caroline Shaw, chief communications officer for the committee, requesting "the courtesy of a correction to remedy errors made in the story."

Additionally, the local newspaper, the Salt Lake City Tribune, reported that NewsMax.com’s story is categorically false and that there are no plans to exclude the Boy Scouts.

Let me say from the outset that if I believed we had stated something false, misleading or inaccurate, I would immediately retract the story and make any corrections.

But in investigating this matter I have become even more concerned about what the SLOC is up to – and, by association, the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Before starting with Ms. Shaw’s letter to me, I wish to clarify that telephone calls to her from David Bresnahan over a period of a month went unreturned.

Still more troubling is that she made several out-and-out false accusations against Bresnahan.

She claims that several parties quoted by Bresnahan "were not, in fact, even contacted by Mr. Bresnahan."

Now that raised my eyebrow, because if it’s true, Mr. Bresnahan is, well, fired.

Shaw cites Kay Godfrey and Martin Latimer as having been quoted in the NewsMax.com article "yet not interviewed by Mr. Bresnahan."

Additionally, she cites Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and says "he never spoke directly with Mr. Bresnahan though he was quoted in the story as if he had."

Last night I called Martin W. Latimer, the chief Boy Scout executive for the Salt Lake area.

He admitted to me that he had indeed spoken with Bresnahan. He acknowledged that Bresnahan had attended a Boy Scout meeting in November at which both the Olympics and the gay issue were discussed. He told me he still has Bresnahan’s card.

Bresnahan agrees that meeting took place in November. He also says he had another lengthy conversation with Latimer, just two weeks ago, in which Latimer said he remembered meeting him in November, talked about a video he had completed, and discussed the Boy Scout/gay/Olympic issue again. Hmmmm. The truth is becoming curiouser and curiouser.

As for Kay Godfrey, director of development for the Salt Lake Boy Scouts, Bresnahan spoke with him twice by telephone Nov. 13 and Nov. 14. Godfrey spoke to Bresnahan at Latimer’s suggestion.

As for having never spoken directly to Rep. Cannon, Bresnahan interviewed the congressman for a recent radio program he hosted. The quote from the article is taken from that interview, of which Bresnahan has a recording.

Apparently the SLOC is so upset with David Bresnahan and NewsMax.com it has had to resort to some very low tactics. Don’t like the message? Destroy the messenger.

The focus on Bresnahan is simply a way to deflect from the fact the committee is, indeed, excluding the Boy Scouts from the Olympics.

Consider this very manipulative line from Shaw’s letter: "The Boy Scouts of America are NOT being singled out for exclusion from the 2002 Winter Games."

Shaw, the SLOC, and its head, Mitt Romney, are playing a cute game.

As Shaw explains, they are being excluded, they are just not being singled out. "Singled out" is the operative phrase.

Here’s how the committee is working its legerdemain.

First it has a policy that no volunteers can be under 18. That means most Scouts can’t volunteer, since most are under 18.

As for Scouts over 18, they can volunteer as long as they don’t wear the Scout uniform. God forbid they wear their Scout uniforms at the Olympics.

Boy Scouts won’t be participating in the Olympic ceremonies, as Boy Scouts have done in every other Olympic Games sponsored on American soil – because, as Shaw notes, they can’t wear their Boy Scout uniforms and would have to "wear whatever costumes are appropriate for the production."

No, the SLOC is not excluding the Boy Scouts, it just created policies that are.

How clever.

And these policies have nothing to do with the gay controversy, the SLOC assures us with all the credibility it deserves.

Bresnahan, who is well-connected with the Scouts and has been working on this story for over a month, says the matter of their exclusion because of the gay issue has been a hot topic among the Scouts and their leadership in Salt Lake.

It’s also true that now that we have raised the issue, the Boy Scout leadership is afraid of creating waves and is trying to duck the issue.

But here’s the bottom line:

To end this controversy, all the SLOC needs to do is issue a brief statement that says "The Boy Scouts of America, wearing their uniforms as Boy Scouts, will play a role in the Salt Lake Olympic events."

Latimer told me point-black last night, "There are no plans to include the Boy Scouts in any Olympic event."

OK, so for the cause of honesty, why doesn’t the SLOC admit it has no plans to include the Boy Scouts, as Scouts, in its event?

And why didn’t the Salt Lake Tribune, in an article that went on for hundreds of words in today’s paper, put in a simple line that says the Olympic Organizing Committee has no plans to include the Boy Scouts, in their uniforms, in any Olympic events?

They didn’t because it’s the truth.

And how sad it is in America that truth is becoming a rare commodity in an age when our leaders tell us that the meaning of "is" is open to interpretation.

I encourage our readers to e-mail, mail and fax the the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee to issue a statement that they will be including the Boy Scouts, in their uniforms, in the U.S. Olympics.

When they do that, NewsMax.com will be happy to report it in banner headlines. Until then, we will just report the truth.

Call the Salt Lake Olympic Committee at 1-801-212-2002. Their fax number is 801-364-7644.