Archives West Finding Aid

The Lynn Packer papers includes research and news reports for KSL reporting, including Paul Dunn, Deedee Corradini, The 2002 Salt Lake Olympic scandal, Judge Ritter, and Mark Hofmann. Professional and personal correspondence regarding reporting, KSL, BYU, and German mission materials are also included. Packer was raised in Utah, served on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany, and studied broadcast journalism at Utah State University graduating in 1968. He subsequently worked for KSL television and was drafted into the United States Army. Packer first worked as a German translator and was later assigned to Vietnam as a broadcast journalist for the Army. In that capacity, he prepared television programs. The Army controlled the information and would not allow him to broadcast negative information. Packer thought that the Vietnam War was a big mistake and that it was not justified. Lynn Packer is an award-winning investigative reporter, television news consultant and law consultant. He graduated from Utah State University with a broadcast journalism degree. He was a radio disk jockey for KBUH in Brigham City and KVNU in Logan while attending college. Packer served in the United States Army between 1968 and 1970. In Vietnam he was a television news anchor and producer for the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN), Quang Tri detachment. He was awarded the Bronze Star. For 15 years Packer reported for KSL Television News in Salt Lake City where he covered city-county and state government, and did investigative reporting for the documentary unit. Among the major stories he covered were the Challenger space shuttle disaster, the Mark Hofmann bombing murders, the trial of serial killer Ted Bundy, and the Judge Willis Ritter corruption scandal. His teaching career spanned ten years as an adjunct journalism instructor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and the University of Dortmund in Germany. After teaching in Dortmund Packer consulted for various German television stations including WDR in Cologne and Düsseldorf; SAT.1 in Hamburg, Mainz and Berlin; 1A in Berlin (see photo), N24 in Berlin and DSF in Munich. He wrote a textbook for German television news reporters: Schreiben, Drehen, und Schneiden. As a legal consultant Packer designed and patented a method for the video recording of paperless legal depositions. He produced PowerPoint opening and closing statements for several high-profile Utah cases. His published legal articles include “PowerPoint During Murder Case Leads to Acquittal,” Law Office Computing, (February/March 2006), pp. 16-17; “To Impress a Jury think Like a Television News Anchor,” Law Technology News (September 2001), page 33; “The Case Against Courtroom E-Lecterns; Laptops v. Doc Cams,” Technolawyer.com, (March 2004); “Visuelle Rechstkommunikation,” jurawelt.de, (February 2003); “The Curse of Courtroom 21,” Technolawyer.com (August, 2005) and “Paperless Depositions—Time to Pull the Plug on Paper and Steno,” Technolawyer.com (March, 2006). Packer won first place investigative reporting awards from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Utah Chapter, in 1984, 1995, 1996, and 2001. He freelanced dozens of articles among them: The Goldcor fraud story, Mormon fraud history, Bonneville Pacific fraud, Paul Dunn/AFCO fraud story, and the Utah 2002 Olympic Bribery scandal.