Weatherman's politics cloud his role on TV

While the rest of the country was focusing on dimpled chads and butterfly ballots in Florida, Thom Spencer was content as the weatherman for a couple of television stations in Eastern Washington.

Until last weekend, when his boss saw him on a competing newscast, dressed in a jacket with his station logo on the breast pocket, giving a God-and-country speech at a Republican rally.

Spencer, who has been at sister stations KAPP in Yakima and KVEW in the Tri-Cities for the past 17 years, was off the air for two days earlier this week. Friends say he was suspended. The stations' general manager says he had time off.

The incident has angered Spencer's supporters, who say he spoke out because his Mormon faith requires it and the Constitution provides for it. But it has raised a larger question, too: whether a TV weatherman is a journalist, expected to keep his religion and his politics to himself in the name of objectivity.

Spencer said he wasn't free to talk about the brouhaha around his impromptu appearance last Saturday at the rally for people upset over the battling court decisions and drawn-out presidential ballot-counting in Florida.

His supporters have posted on the Web a copy of his emotional speech, in which he urges listeners to "witness the spark of American Revolution born again" and berates fellow journalists as "self-righteous liberals who sneer at our love for our country and her Constitution and her God."

"It was the most patriotic speech I've ever listened to," said Eric Vimont, who helped plan the rally. "I thought he came to cover the rally. But he took a stand, like the stand the founding fathers took when they said, `I'll sign on the dotted line.' When he meets his maker, he'll be able to say `I did what I thought was right.' "

"I don't disagree that he has a right as an individual," said Darrell Blue, general manager of both TV stations, "but one of the things you learn when you become a reporter is that you should report the news, not make the news. It destroys some of our objectivity when we become part of the story."

In the 17 years Spencer has been at the stations, he has been a news director and anchor. He has also mentored younger reporters, Blue said, occasionally writing tips for the staff "on what makes a good journalist."

Spencer has told supporters he broke with tradition that a journalist should remain objective and spoke out at the rally because of a prophecy by Joseph Smith, who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints more than 150 years ago.

Smith predicted that the time would come "when the Constitution and government would hang by a brittle thread and be ready to fall into other hands, but this people, the latter-day saints, will step forth and save it."

Brian Nelson, a lay leader in Spencer's congregation, said "We encourage people to support the Constitution and be active in civic affairs, but we don't give specifics. We believe the founding fathers were inspired by God."

Spencer's supporters say it's about time a conservative reporter spoke out--even if his news beat is weather, not politics.

"Even a reporter can't take the humanity out of themselves," said Brenda High of Pasco, who said she could be identified as "a right-wing religious fanatic" and a "newsaholic."

"I think they all should start out every newscast saying, `OK, here's my bias. Now you know. Now I'm going to report the news the way I see it.' That would make it fair."