April 1 is deadline for nominations for Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism

Tom and Pat Gish

Nominations are due April 1 for the Tom and Pat Gish Award, which annually recognizes the courage, integrity and tenacity that is so often necessary to provide good journalism in rural areas. The award, named for the crusading couple who published The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., for more than 50 years, is given by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.

Nominations should measure up, at least in major respects, to records of earlier winners, available at www.RuralJournalism.org. For example, the Gishes withstood advertiser boycotts, business competition, declining population, personal attacks, and even the burning of their office to give their readers the kind of journalism often lacking in rural areas, and were the first winners of the award named for them. The most recent winners, the Cullen family of Iowa's Storm Lake Times, overcame obstacles to persevere in covering and commenting on water-pollution issues in Iowa, often to the dislike of agribusiness interests that are sources of much of the pollution.

Other winners have been the Ezzell family of The Canadian (Tex.) Record, in 2007; James E. Prince III and the late Stanley Dearman, current and former publishers of The Neshoba Democrat of Philadelphia, Miss., in 2008; Samantha Swindler of The Oregonian in 2010 for her work as editor of the Corbin, Ky., Times-Tribune and managing editor of the Jacksonville (Tex.) Daily Progress; in 2011, Stanley Nelson and the Concordia Sentinel of Ferriday, La.; in 2012, Jonathan and Susan Austin of the Yancey County News in Burnsville, N.C.. in 2014, the late Landon Wills of Kentucky's McLean County News; in 2015, the Trapp family of the Rio Grande Sun in Española, N.M.; and in 2016, Ivan Foley of the Platte County Landmark in Missouri.

Nominators should send detailed letters to Institute Director Al Cross, explaining how their nominees show the kind of exemplary courage, tenacity and integrity that the Gishes demonstrated in their rigorous pursuit of rural journalism. Detailed documentation does not have to accompany the nomination, but is helpful in choosing finalists, and additional documentation may be requested or required. Questions may be directed to Cross at 859-257-3744 or al.cross@uky.edu.

Iowa's Cullens receive Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism; nominations for 2018 award sought

Art Cullen, left, and brother John hold award, after receiving it from IRJCI's Al Cross.

The Cullen family of the Storm Lake Times received the 2017 Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism Friday at the Iowa Newspaper Association convention. The award, named for the crusading couple that published The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., for more than 50 years, recognizes the Cullen family's perseverance in covering and commenting on water-pollution issues in Iowa, often to the dislike of agribusiness interests that are sources of much of the pollution. For more on the Cullens, click here.

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which gives the award and publishes The Rural Blog, is seeking nominations for the 2018 Gish Award, with a deadline of April 1. Nominations should measure up, at least in major respects, to the records of previous winners, which are detailed at www.RuralJournalism.org. For example, the Gishes withstood advertiser boycotts, business competition, declining population, personal attacks, and even the burning of their office to give their readers the kind of journalism often lacking in rural areas, and were the first winners of the award named for them.

Other winners have been the Ezzell family of The Canadian (Tex.) Record, in 2007; James E. Prince III and the late Stanley Dearman, current and former publishers of The Neshoba Democrat of Philadelphia, Miss., in 2008; Samantha Swindler of The Oregonian in 2010 for her work as editor of the Corbin, Ky., Times-Tribune and managing editor of the Jacksonville (Tex.) Daily Progress; in 2011, Stanley Nelson and the Concordia Sentinel of Ferriday, La.; in 2012, Jonathan and Susan Austin of the Yancey County News in Burnsville, N.C.. in 2014, the late Landon Wills of Kentucky's McLean County News; in 2015, the Trapp family of the Rio Grande Sun in Española, N.M.; and in 2016, Ivan Foley of the Platte County Landmark in Missouri.

Nominators should send detailed letters to Institute Director Al Cross, explaining how their nominees show the kind of exemplary courage, tenacity and integrity that the Gishes demonstrated in their rigorous pursuit of rural journalism. Detailed documentation does not have to accompany the nomination, but is helpful in choosing finalists, and additional documentation may be requested or required. Questions may be directed to Cross at 859-257-3744 or al.cross@uky.edu.

Time to nominate rural journalists of courage, integrity and tenacity for Gish Award

Nominations for the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism, given by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, must be received by May 10.

Gishes at award announcement, 2004

The award is named for the late Tom and Pat Gish, who published The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., for more than 51 years. They withstood advertiser boycotts, business competition, declining population, personal attacks, and even the burning of their office to give their readers the kind of journalism often lacking in rural areas, and were the first winners of the award named for them.

Other winners have been the Ezzell family of The Canadian (Tex.) Record, in 2007; James E. Prince III and Stanley Dearman, current and former publishers of The Neshoba Democrat of Philadelphia, Miss., in 2008; Samantha Swindler, editor and publisher of the Headlight Herald in Tillamook, Ore., in 2010 for her work as editor of the Corbin, Ky., Times-Tribune and managing editor of the Jacksonville (Tex.) Daily Progress; in 2011, Stanley Nelson and the Concordia Sentinel of Ferriday, La.; in 2012, Jonathan and Susan Austin of the Yancey County News in Burnsville, N.C.. in 2014, the late Landon Wills of Kentucky's McLean County News; and in 2015, the Trapp family of the Rio Grande Sun in Española, N.M.

The Institute seeks nominations that measure up, at least in major respects, to the records of previous winners, which are detailed at www.RuralJournalism.org. Nominators should send detailed letters to Institute Director Al Cross, explaining how their nominees show the kind of exemplary courage, tenacity and integrity that the Gishes demonstrated in their rigorous pursuit of rural journalism. Detailed documentation does not have to accompany the nomination, but is helpful in choosing finalists, and additional documentation may be requested or required. Questions may be directed to Cross at 859-257-3744 or al.cross@uky.edu.

Letters should be postmarked by May 7 and mailed to: Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, 122 Grehan Journalism Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington KY 40506-0042, or emailed to al.cross@uky.edu by May 10.

RIP: John Seigenthaler, who appreciated courageous community journalists

John Seigenthaler

John Seigenthaler, who died today at his home in Nashville, was not a community journalist, at least in the traditional sense. But he was an exemplary and inspiring journalist, and he appreciated the contributions and sacrifices of rural and community journalists to the profession he loved and to the cause of open government, for which he crusaded.

In helping present the Tom and Pat Gish Award to the Ezzell family of The Canadian (Tex.) Record in 2007, Seigenthaler said, "I have never been among friends, among journalists, when I have felt more deeply touched by the emotion of being in the presence of people who have . . . committed their lives to tenacity, courage and integrity," the criteria for the award, given by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

"Weekly journalism is what this country was about at the beginning. Weekly publishers were people of courage, of integrity, and tenacity stood against authority, stood against community evils, against national evils, international problems, took strong positions, and that’s our legacy. That’s MY legacy, and I never worked for a weekly. . . . One place young journalists should be looking for employment, for jobs where there is confidence about a future, is in rural America, where I find less concern about the future than in daily journalism. . . .

 "It’s much easier for me, as a daily editor in a major city. There is much less danger of threat, much more chance that I have lawyers to protect me. There is much less likelihood that somebody will explode a bomb beneath my window of shoot into my plate-glass window or burn down our building, than for those who are in rural communities. And when I say I hope I have shown tenacity and courage and integrity, I can’t think of anything in my career that matches what must be those lonely days and nights when a lawsuit is threatened or danger is threatened, when life is threatened, in a rural community."

Seigenthaler concluded, "I think the tradition, the legacy, is best reflected today in rural journalism." For more of his remarks, click here. For his obituary, tributes and funeral information from The Tennessean, go here.

Rural editor reflects on changes, core values and a reader who came around

Rural editor John Nelson reflected on the changes in journalism and the unchanging mission of community newspapers as he was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame at the University of Kentucky this week.

"A community and its newspaper are each both plagued and blessed by the human condition, by the shortcomings and successes of their members. Only when those are revealed can they be overcome or celebrated. That's part of the newspaper's mission, and that may be the only way today's product resembles the one at which I began in the early '70s," Nelson said.

"For the most part, however, we still use the same words and write about the same topics. There is just more work and fewer people to do it. One day consumers of news will again accept that you get what you pay for, but that will first require those who hire journalists to accept the same thing. Good journalism is costly in a variety of ways. It often will offend friends, alienate acquaintances and anger customers. But when it works, you hope it makes a difference. Sometimes, you get a hint that it has, like I did in a letter I received many years ago after a particularly costly story."

Nelson then read from a letter from a reader who was horrified that his weekly newspaper would print a story with the awful details of the sex-abuse charges against a leading local citizen:

I am going to call them right now and cancel my subscription … tell them off and do everything I can to put them out of business. But, first I read it all. Oh, please Lord, I don't know about this. What do I feel? … Suddenly, it was like a great burden lifted, I was able to really face the truth for the first time. ... Nothing is ever exactly what it seems. Life is not black and white. It has many colors. I already had learned at great cost that having too much faith and trust in someone can be a great mistake… So, with all that said … I knew today would not be a good day at your newspaper … I appreciate your intentions … I feel so much better about myself and I can handle the answers that I must give to my family, my children and grandchildren, friends and political allies … Keep up the good work. You are what newspapers should be about. Facts, with a heart."

Nelson is executive editor of Advocate Communications, which owns dailies in Danville and Winchester and weeklies in Nicholasville and Stanford, and is a subsidiary of Schurz Communications. He was editor and co-owner of a weekly in Somerset after working at a weekly in Irvine, all in Kentucky. His induction citation called him "a leader for openness in government and quality in journalism" and noted his work as a leader of the Kentucky Press Association president on the state's first open-records audit and efforts to open juvenile courts.

Others joining the Hall of Fame were Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter Marla Ridenour, Bill Goodman of Kentucky Educational Television, retired news director Dan Modlin of Western Kentucky University's WKYU-FM, and the late Ralph W. Gabbard of Lexington's WKYT-TV and founder of Hazard's WYMT-TV, which might not be thought of as a community-journalism outlet, but in fact has created a greater sense of regional community among the topgraphically isolated and politically fractious communities of southeastern Kentucky.

Nominations sought for Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues seeks nominations by Sept. 1 for the annual Tom and Pat Gish Award that recognizes courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism. The award is named for the couple, right, who published The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., for almost 52 years. Last year’s winner was Samantha Swindler of the Tillamook Headlight-Herald in Oregon for her investigative reporting at The Times-Tribune in Corbin, Ky., and the Jacksonville Daily Progress in Texas. Earlier winners have been the Gishes; the Ezzell family, publishers of The Canadian Record in texas; and former publisher Stanley Dearman and Publisher Jim Prince of The Neshoba Democrat of Philadelphia, Miss. For more details see http://www.ruraljournalism.org/.

The Institute seeks nominations that measure up, at least in major respects, to the records of previous winners. Nominators should send detailed letters explaining how their nominees show the kind of exemplary courage, tenacity and integrity that the Gishes and other winners demonstrated in their rigorous pursuit of rural journalism. Documentation does not have to accompany the nomination, but will be needed in choosing finalists, and additional documentation may be requested or required. Letters should be postmarked or emailed by Sept. 1 and mailed to: Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, 122 Grehan Journalism Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington KY 40506-0042. For more information, contact Al Cross at 859-257-3744 or Al.Cross@uky.edu.

Community Journalism: Courage and tenacity

American Journalism Review has an extensive piece on how the Times-Tribune in Corbin, Ky., won the Gish award given by Al Cross and the Instituted for Rural Journalism and Community Issues this past Friday:

Samantha Swindler, then the managing editor of the daily Times-Tribune in Corbin, Kentucky, had been spearheading an investigation of the local sheriff when a Kentucky state trooper came to her office and told her, "You really need to be careful." ...

Another day, her reporter on the story, Adam Sulfridge, received phone calls from three different law enforcement officers telling him to leave his house because of a credible death threat.

Both Swindler and Sulfridge bought pistols "because, quite frankly, I thought my reporting might get me killed," Swindler wrote in an article for Nieman Reports. She never had to use hers, but Sulfridge -- who lived and reported in the county seat, Williamsburg, in closer proximity to the sheriff -- had his pistol close at hand when two men drove to his house on a dead-end street. In her article, Swindler describes the driver as a "man we suspected as part of a group of drug dealers associated with the sheriff."

"That was the only time I actually had to pull my gun," Sulfridge recalls. The men drove away, and a week later the driver was arrested on federal drug charges.

But Swindler and Sulfridge didn't back down. They kept asking tough questions, the paper kept running stories, and in November the Whitley County sheriff, Lawrence Hodge, was indicted and arrested on 21 counts of evidence tampering and abuse of public trust.

Case Studies of Courage in Community Journalism: A thoughtful editor inspires

Those who attended the panel discussion, "Case Studies of Courage in Community Journalism," at this month's AEJMC convention were treated to an inspiring commentary from Laurie Ezzell Brown, left, editor of The Canadian Record. After giving her thoughtful and practical tests for the journalism she practices in the Texas Panhandle weekly, she said, "The hardest part of community journalism is also the most rewarding part. We live within what we write about. Either we know what we report, or we are called on the carpet within hours, if not minutes, to account for our mistakes. We look our stories in the face every day. We meet them eye to eye. And if we deny their humanity, if we feel no compassion, then we have failed to grasp the story’s essence, and will fail the story’s telling."

Brown concluded, "At a time when we hunger for authenticity, for words which have meaning in our lives, for stories which are of us, about us — not thrust upon us — community journalists have both the privilege and the responsibility of beginning at the very root of the human experience, and of lifting it up, bringing it to light. Well done — and God knows, I’ve seen it done poorly — this is an honorable profession ... and a necessary one ... and that is what I would tell young students today." To read Brown's full remarks, click here.

Also on the panel were Bernard Stein, until recently the editor and co-publisher of The Riverdale Press in the Bronx, who talked about the editorial that prompted a firebombing of his weekly and his current project at Hunter College-CUNY, a student-produced newspaper for one of New York's poorest neighborhoods; and Homer Marcum, who edited and published The Martin Countian in Inez, Ky. He talked about his experiences in the Appalachian coalfield and two of his neighbors and mentors, Tom and Pat Gish of The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., who were unable to attend the convention but were featured in video about their famed 50-year career. For a detailed report on the panel, click here.

COMJIG to tackle tough issues at AEJMC in August

Thanks to excellent panel ideas from COMJIG members, officers Liz Hansen (vice-chair and programming chair) and I (your fearful chair) were able to cobble together what I think is a pretty exciting and boundary-pushing program for the August AEJMC convention. Once again, I think our group has transformed from "The Little IG That Could" (as founding chair Jock Lauterer once called us) to our new identity as "The Little Group with a Big Footprint" (as immediate past chair Peggy Kuhr described us in August).

At the infamous "chip auction" at AEJMC's winter meeting, held in St. Louis in December, Liz and I frantically negotiated with a variety of other AEJMC groups to lock in the following program for the Aug. 6-9 convention in Chicago. We also managed to make sure all COMJIG sessions are held Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, thus alleviating our members of the pain and loneliness of talking to empty seats during AEJMC's dreaded Saturday afternoon time slots.

That said, here's the lineup for August:

On Wednesday, Aug. 6, we open our program at 10 a.m. with "Anonymity and Identity in the News," a debate about the pros and cons of anonymity in our biz, from the use of anonymous sources to news stories to the beautiful ugliness of anonymous posts to online discussion boards. The panel is co-sponsored with the Media Ethics Division, and this session marks COMJIG's first formal collaboration with the Media Ethics folks.

At 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 6, COMJIG has another first-time partnership, this time with the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Interest Group: "Beyond Geographic Community -- Culturally Defined Community Newspapers in the Chicago Area." The panel will feature representatives of a variety of ethnic, religious, and GLBT media in the Chicago area. (Special props to our PF&R chair Ralph Hanson for throwing this one together at the last minute -- it attracted a lot of potential co-sponsors).

Following that session on Wednesday, COMJIG again participates in a mini-plenary session (our third year in a row for the high-profile sessions!). Titled "The Transformation of Print Journalism," this panel addresses AEJMC's challenge to divisions and interest groups to offer at least one program that focuses on the future of the industry, and will feature a mix of professionals and scholars who will discuss how a variety of print media are adapting and thriving in the digital/online age. This session is co-sponsored by our friends in the Civic & Citizen Journalism Interest Group, Media Management & Economics Division, and the Newspaper Division.

Thursday's programming starts at 1:30 p.m. with COMJIG's scholar-to-scholar research session. COMJIG chair Bill Reader and a team of anonymous judges will choose the best-designed poster and present the winner with a very special prize (don't worry -- it'll be the kind of prize somebody will actually be happy to receive).

Then at 5 p.m., we team up with Civic/Citizen again for a session titled "What the F***?!! Dealing with offensive postings on news Web sites," which should prove to be a lively, R-rated (for language) discussion of the place of profanity in audience-feedback forums. (As a side note, we had a lot of fun during the planning sessions referring to this as the "F*** Panel" -- it was just like being back in the newsroom).

COMJIG and Civic/Citizen will follow up last year's joint members' meeting with another one, tentatively scheduled for 6:45-9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7. We will be working with Civic/Citizen to come up with a special topic for the joint members' meeting, and are hoping to sneak some Chicago deep-dish past the hotel-catering cops so we can meet and eat. Thanks to our former research chair Jack Rosenberry (now Civic/Citizen chair) and Civic/Citizen vice-chair Mary Beth Callie for agreeing to turn our members' meetings into a bonus round-table discussion.

On Friday, we'll start the day with our sole-sponsored research-paper session at 8:15 a.m. Research chair Andris Straumanis will honcho that shindig, at which we also will be presenting the top student paper with our first-ever prize of $100 (so be sure to encourage your community-minded graduate students to submit their papers to COMJIG!).

Then after lunch, we'll team up with the Newspaper Division for an amazing panel titled "Case Studies of Courage in Community Journalism," which will feature a panel of small-town newspaper editors who battled problems in their communities at great personal risk. Thanks to COMJIG stalwart and former PF&R chair Al Cross of the Institute for Rural Journalism & Community Issues for not only pitching this excellent panel idea, but for offering some IRJCI funds to help cover the travel expenses of our brave panelists.

Then at 3:30 p.m. Friday, we'll close out COMJIG's programming with the teaching panel, "Whose Learning Curve Is It? Strategies for Incorporating Digital Media Into Civic-Oriented Students Media and Courses," a teaching panel that will give all of us ideas for learning how those of us trained in "legacy media" can get up to speed -- and STAY up to speed -- on the whiz-bang techno-mojo needed in today's poly-media environment. This is another good partnership with Civic/Citizen.

Again, many thanks to all of the COMJIG members who submitted panel ideas. We can never find co-sponsors for all of them, but it's nice to have so many members who give us great ideas for programming.