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Criticism of Mormonism/Websites/MormonThink/Media efforts by MormonThink editor David Twede/The "starlight012" affair
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| A FAIR Analysis of: MormonThink A work by author: David Twede
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The "starlight012" affair: David Twede introduces himself to FAIR
The name "David Twede" and his involvement as managing editor of MormonThink was unknown to FAIR until a poster on the "lds.net" message board using the name "starlight012" wrote the following message on August 23, 2012,
Hi, I am new to the forum. I want help. There is a member who is posting anti-mormon information and claiming to be a member in good standing. I know him, his name and want his leaders to encourage him to stop. What do I do? it's an article at that mormon think website.
Shortly thereafter, "starlight012" passed the following messages to a member of FAIR,
Can this man get reported to his bishop?...I know him. That's why I posted the first time a few weeks ago. I know the photo on his profile at the mormonthink site and enough of his history (living in Ann Arbor, etc) that I am sure. His name is David Twede. I don't know what ward he's in, but he mentions Florida. Thanks! off-site
On September 20, 2012, David Twede attempted to post his intent to create a media stir about his pending discipline to a number of online forums. He posted the following on "Postmormon.org" on September 20,
I have simultaneously posted to MormonDiscussions, RfM, StayLDS, Postmormon and LDS.NET forums, for completeness. However, LDSNET took it down immediately.
The reason that lds.net "took it down immediately" is that Twede created a new account under his own name, and the moderators at lds.net discovered that it was the same IP address used by "starlight012." They banned both Twede's new account and his "starlight012" account. A moderator then posted this message on September 24, 2012,
The person who started this IS the person who writes the blog, whose deception here will tell you all you need to know about his sense of ethics. (posted by moderator "Eowyn") off-site
When a poster on the MormonDiscussions forum questioned Twede directly about whether or not he was responsible for "starlight012," Twede responded on October 3,
No, these are silly accusations. But the information there is interesting. Either a family member outed me or they're making excuses.
Twede failed to respond to further inquiries. MormonThink's original managing editor, "LDS TruthSeeker," attempted to explain Twede's failure to respond by stating that he was too busy dealing with media requests,
I won't attempt to speak for David but I will say that he has a life outside of these boards. You have no idea of the number of requests he continues to get bombarded with by those with questions, reporters who want to do follow-up stories, endless emails, etc. You only see one side of the media frenzy. I've seen the hundreds and hundreds of emails this has generated to MT. We literally cannot keep up with it. With work, family etc. taking up most of his time, I doubt he has even looked at this thread since he last responded so you can't blame him or anyone else that has a busy life for not responding to every inquiry on every thread on every board where people ask him questions. (Posted by "LDS TruthSeeker on MormonDiscussions, October 4, 2012)
Indeed, Twede is apparently so busy with "follow-up stories" that he turned down an interview request with the Huffington Post.
Twede, who has acknowledged in articles that he attends church only sparingly, did not respond to a request for an interview Thursday.
We suspect, however, that this is because the story became about him and how he attempted to manipulate the media by claiming that he was being disciplined for his political writings related to Romney, when in fact this was not the case. As McKay Coppins noted in BuzzFeed on September 28,
At the same time, Twede worked to harness the newfound national attention as a vehicle for his Lutheresque agenda of reform. Reached for comment by BuzzFeed, Twede declined to talk about his Romnapostacy — he'd already done enough interviews on that, he said — but went on to pitch a number of other potentially juicy angles, complete with MormonThink links, and sources he said would speak out on the the controversies of Mormonism. off-site