Idaho Newspaper Publisher to Examine the Press, Warts and All

The Department of Journalism and Communication at Utah State University will host Idaho newspaper publisher Roger Plothow for a Media & Society Lecture in February on the First Amendment and role of newspapers in community life.

 

Plothow, 46, editor and publisher of the Post Register in Idaho Falls, will offer his perspectives in a public lecture titled, “I’m with you on the free press. It’s the newspapers I can’t stand!” which is a line borrowed from a Tom Stoppard play.

 

Plothow’s speech is Wednesday, Feb. 23, from 2:30-4 p.m. in 102 Biology-Natural Resources building on the Utah State campus. The event is free and the public in invited to attend.

 

“My focus is on the tension between the theoretical support that most Americans have for the First Amendment and opposition to its practical implementation from both the left and the right,” Plothow said. “Everyone likes the idea of personal liberty until they disagree with how others practice it.”

 

Plothow has been an executive at the Post Register since 1998, first as vice president and general manager, and has been its editor/publisher since 2002. He is a veteran Utah journalist, having previously served as publisher and CEO of The Spectrum in St. George and in various capacities at the Salt Lake Tribune, the Deseret News, Ogden’s Standard Examiner and the Provo Daily Herald over a 29-year newspaper career.