Mean and Ornery Journalists in Eastern Kentucky
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--History History 2017 A STUBBORN COURAGE: MEAN AND ORNERY JOURNALISTS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY William Farley University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3188-6508 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.352 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Farley, William, "A STUBBORN COURAGE: MEAN AND ORNERY JOURNALISTS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY" (2017). Theses and Dissertations--History. 50. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/50 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the History at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--History by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. 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I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. William Farley, Student Dr. Tracy Campbell, Major Professor Dr. Scott K. Taylor, Director of Graduate Studies A STUBBORN COURAGE: MEAN AND ORNERY JOURNALISTS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY ________________________ DISSERTATION ________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By William Farley Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Tracy Campbell Professor of History Lexington, Kentucky 2017 Copyright © William Farley 2017 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION A STUBBORN COURAGE: MEAN AND ORNERY JOURNALISTS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY In most ways, The Mountain Eagle is an ordinary community oriented weekly newspaper, and indeed, a close examination of the paper will reveal that it focuses mostly on community news in Letcher County Kentucky, a small county in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. It carries holiday recipes, neighborhood news, and coverage of local government, school boards and sporting events. But a closer examination of the paper and its history reveals a different kind of community weekly. The Mountain Eagle is one of the most recognized, commented upon, and decorated community newspapers in the United States. Since Tom and Pat Gish took the paper over in 1957, the Gishes and their newspaper have been shunned by their neighbors, boycotted, and the paper’s offices were fire-bombed in 1974. And yet, the paper survived and continues to report the news, honesty and without bias. Although Tom Gish was born and raised in the coal fields of Letcher County both Gishes were “city journalists” when they came to Whitesburg. Pat worked for The Lexington Leader and Tom managed the United Press Desk in the state capital of Frankfort. They met while studying Journalism at the University of Kentucky, and pursued careers in the field. Their desire to run a small-town newspaper brought them to Whitesburg, Tom’s hometown. Their insistence on doing their jobs the way they had been trained soon put them at odds with the Fiscal Court, the School Board, the coal operators, and the elites who ran Letcher County. Coal mining drove the economy, and the county operated on a near feudal basis, with people owing fealty to elected officials and coal companies, and none of the controlling interests liked the idea of seeing their activities on the front page. This dissertation is a chronological examination of The Mountain Eagle and its publishers during period between 1957, when the Gishes took over the newspaper, to 1977, when the Federal Surface Mining Reclamation and Control Act was signed into law. During that period, Letcher County and the United States experienced the assassination of a president, the War on Poverty, the Vietnam War, and the widespread use of strip mining to gouge rich veins of coal out of the Appalachian Coalfields. Strip mining soon became the most common method of extracting coal in the country, and its effects on the steep hillsides of eastern Kentucky became the focus of much of The Eagle’s news and editorial activity. Both Gishes said many times that it had never been their intention to become crusaders or to take on any particular group. But as they began to undertake what they saw as their primary job, that of reporting on the news of the county, they began to experience obstacles in reporting on civic activities, which by Kentucky law were supposed to be open to the public. In an introductory speech delivered to the Rotary Club in the county seat of Whitesburg, Tom Gish pointed out that while there were a lot of things about the newspaper that he liked and intended to keep, there were other areas where he thought the paper could be improved. One of those areas was in the coverage of civic events, primarily the meetings of the fiscal court, the various city councils, and the board of education, the first of the controlling bodies to come into conflict with the newspaper. Pat Gish did most of the reporting, and when she started attending school board meetings, she learned that while she might be tolerated, she would certainly not be welcomed. The board initially told the paper that their meetings were closed, only one person at a time was allowed into the board chamber, and they were there to discuss their business with the board and then leave. Tom Gish informed them that the Kentucky Open Meetings Law gave the press access to public meetings and grudgingly, the board allowed Pat to attend. But they refused to provide her with a chair, so she had to stand during meetings that often lasted for several hours, even while she was pregnant with her second child. Tom Gish also began to attend meetings to provide a basis for the editorials he wrote asking for improvements in county-wide education. This came during a period when Kentucky Schools were under investigation by the state legislature and Whitesburg Attorney Harry Caudill, who represented the county in the General Assembly, chaired a committee that delivered a scathing report on Kentucky schools, and called particular attention to education in eastern Kentucky. Caudill’s guest editorials and Letters to the Editor began to appear in The Mountain Eagle during this period and marked the first phase of a long collaboration between Caudill and Gish that addressed a broad range of issues that affected the region. Not long afterward, one of the board members, the physician who had delivered Tom Gish and owned several businesses in the county, announced that he would withdraw his advertising from the paper and the “word went out” that teachers had been forbidden to purchase the paper. Tom Gish later said that newsstand sales had skyrocketed during this and subsequent boycotts. Tom Gish joined his wife in covering the Letcher County Fiscal Court and they soon angered the judge and magistrates by reporting that magistrates had voted themselves a substantial pay raise. Although the court had initially welcomed the newspaper at meetings, they soon passed an ordinance to make at least part of their meetings closed. This was another violation of the Open Meetings Act and the Attorney General weighed in on the newspaper’s behalf. A long-running feud developed between The Eagle and the court that included several efforts to de-certify the paper as the newspaper with the largest circulation. This meant that all legal documents, including ordinances and other court actions had to be published in The Eagle before they became law. These publications, along with bond advertisements from coal companies and other legally required publications were a significant source of the newspaper’s income. The feud with the court finally came to a head in 1974 when the County Judge Executive and Sheriff ignored threats to blow the newspaper’s offices up just weeks before the paper was fire-bombed by a former Whitesburg City Police officer, who had resigned after being named in several articles concerning police brutality. The Mountain Eagle’s involvement with the War on Poverty and its advocacy for strip mine regulation brought the paper into the national spotlight. Many of the national reporters who published articles on Appalachian poverty that captured the nation’s imagination and sympathy came directly through the offices of The Mountain Eagle, and the Gishes often served as their guides to eastern Kentucky.