SALT LAKE CITY, USA - The terms Mormon fundamentalist, and Mormon splinter group are regularly, albeit inaccurately, used by some news media outlets to describe individuals or organizations who embrace the practice of polygamy, according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Such use of these terms is misleading, since they imply that the individual or organization described is affiliated in some way with "the Mormons" or "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
The term Mormon is a nickname applied exclusively to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members (see The Associated Press Stylebook). It is not accurately applied to any other person or organization.
Polygamists and polygamist organizations that occasionally make the news are not dissident wings of the Church. They have no affiliation whatsoever with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since those who practice polygamy today are not affiliated with "the Mormon church," and since they are not "Mormons," a more accurate and less misleading description of them in the media would be polygamist, or polygamous sect or polygamous church or polygamous group or polygamous movement, etc.