The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research has announced it is launching the Mormon Defense League to help journalists "get it right," said Scott Gordon, FAIR's president, who will direct the new project.

If the MDL notices a misstatement or mischaracterization, the group will first contact the journalist, Gordon said. But if a pattern of misrepresentation emerges, the defense league will "go after the writer" by posting the piece or pieces on its website (mdl.org) and pointing out the errors.

In this effort, the MDL will mirror the work of the church's own Public Affairs Department. In recent weeks, for example, department head Michael Otterson, a regular contributor to the Washington Post, decried journalists' use of the word "cult" to describe Mormonism. During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the church posted articles it viewed as inaccurate, spelling out the mistakes.

On Thursday, the LDS Church welcomed any "sincere efforts to correct misconceptions and inaccuracies about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," spokesman Scott Trotter said, but emphasized that "FAIR is neither sponsored nor endorsed by the (LDS) Church."

Joanna Brooks, a Mormon writer who teaches English and comparative literature at San Diego State University, says it will be good for the LDS Church "not to be the one to respond every time a crackpot takes a shot at the church," and she applauds the move for "an independent voice to respond to crude anti-Mormonism" in any media report.

But Brooks worries about what kinds of news pieces the MDL will critique.

More for you Lifestyle Mormon group to urge journalists to 'get it right'

"We misdirect our energy when we respond defensively to legitimate questions and criticisms of controversial church positions," she said. "We can't be part of civil society unless we respond candidly. The price of admission is forthrightness."