My Response to Dawn's Article

First of all, I must say that I am NOT HAPPY about Dawn's article.

When I was first approached by Incubator TV, all of the producers - Kirsten Fenswick (whom I adore), Simon Andrae (whom I am learning to distrust), Hank Stepleton & Charlie (whom I respect) and finally Dawn Porter herself (whom I now distrust) - they told me the same thing.

They wanted to do an "honest" approach to polygamy. They wanted to show polygamy as a valid alternative lifestyle.

I believed them.

Everyone told me not to trust them, but I was convinced that they were telling me the truth.

Dawn's article shows me that this was NOT their aim. She strains in belief that Martha and Temple might actually WANT this situation. She portrays them as mindless Stepford Wives who accept their situation unquestioningly, and then she makes me look like a womanizing asshole.

Well, let me tell you, Dawn, the damage that you have done to the polygamy world. We withdrew from our homes to let you into our world, because so often the world does not try to understand us. We came out of the obscurity, because you promised a fair portrayal. You found two happy wives and still didn't find what you were looking for. So you searched until you found an unhappy wife and were pleased with yourself so that you could invalidate everything we believe in and stand for and so that you can show the world how "unhappy" polygamists are.

NOT fair at all, and just the same shitty tabloid journalism that has been done about our people all along.

I will never trust the media again, thanks to you, Dawn Porter.

Here are some of my observations about the article:

1. The whole scenario where I come home from work, dejected that some prospective wife turned me down - all bullshit. I haven't tried to court ANYONE for at least 3 years. But Dawn Porter just "happened" to be at my home for just such an event? Yeah, right.

2. Her reports of "thousands of members of the Mormon sect" that practice polygamy - did she even do her homework? She probably does not even realize that my family does not belong to any sect, and that we are what is termed "Independent Mormon Fundamentalists."

3. Temple is pissed that she was called a "Martha look-alike". If she really took the time to get to know them, she would have realized that they are totally different people with opposite personalities. As well as physically. Martha is Asian. Temple is German. Martha is tall; Temple is short, etc.

4. Martha and I made the decision TOGETHER to enter the principle before we got married. It wasn't something that I decided by myself. Dawn makes it look like I drug her into this.

5. Dawn thinks that she is the first journalist to interview polygamists? LOL Come on! I am also the first polygamist to live in Arizona.

6. "Instead, I am greeted by a man who is articulate, intelligent and softly spoken. True, physically speaking Moroni - named after a Mormon god - is hardly a catch.

"Overweight, buck-toothed and with a wispy goatee, I can't imagine him inciting passion or jealousy.

"But this construction worker is softly spoken and considerate, and it becomes clear that both wives adore him, as do the ever-present crowd of children. "

Ouch! First of all:

a. Moroni is an angel, not a god.
b. I am not buck-toothed.
c. Is it hard to believe that someone as ugly as me could have two women love me?
d. Dawn is attractive in a normal sort of way, but she is not THAT attractive. How could
someone as plain as her be a TV presenter?

7. I DID say that I would probably cheat if it wasn't a polygamist, not because I am an adulterer, but to make commentary on the nature of men.

8. I never said anything about kissing my wives throughout the day to keep the jealousy at bay. That was a total fabrication.

9. I have never said that my search for other wives was a quest to find "The One". Those are just not words that fit my vocabulary. As Temple pointed out, I do not have "One", I have "Two".

10. We are too Little House on the Prairie?? You are too Benny Hill, Dawn.

11. Dawn never slept on our couch. She slept at the Holiday Inn. The sleeping-on-our-couch schtick was a gimmic for the camera.


Thanks for taking our hospitality and making a mockery of it. Temple told me this morning that she knew you were lying when you told her how much you loved it where we lived and then you went onto your blog and wrote about how miserable you were.