Reminders of Knight-Ridder at its best

Before Knight-Ridder fades into journalism history, a crowd of journalists in Wichita, Kan., heard reminders this past weekend of the stellar journalism for which that newspaper chain once was known.

Recently Knight-Ridder became a symbol of our industry's inability to satisfy Wall Street's ever-growing demands for ever-growing profits. But for many years this company was a symbol of journalism at its finest.

The Wichita Eagle, a Knight-Ridder newspaper that distinguished itself in the past year with its coverage of the BTK killer, hosted a National Writers' Workshop over the weekend. Organizer Kevin McGrath called on some of Knight-Ridder's finest for a couple days of inspiration and instruction.

One of the great things about National Writers' Workshops is also one of the frustrating things: For breakouts, you always have to choose among intriguing sessions led by distinguished writers and editors. I missed workshops led by some outstanding Knight-Ridder writers: Tommy Tomlinson of the Charlotte Observer and Roy Wenzl and L. Kelly of the Eagle.

Leonard Pitts, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at the Miami Herald, once Knight-Ridder's flagship, started by stirring us with a call for the media to be more bold in exercising and protecting constitutional rights. He noted that both political parties in 2004 tolerated police setting up fenced-in "free speech zones" for protesters far removed from their convention centers.

"I always thought this country was a free-speech zone," said Pitts, showing the craft with words that has made him one of our country's best columnists. Americans have become so frightened, he said, that people in power use "scare words" like pornography and terrorism to make us plead for safety: "Take my rights, please, Mr. Government Man."

After 9/11, he said, the news media shared that fear. "I don't think it's too much to ask that the titans of American journalism show at least as much courage at the Dixie Chicks." As he spoke, I recalled that it was Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau that asked the tough questions and wrote the tough stories as the titans of American journalism echoed administration "intelligence" about weapons of mass destruction.

"It's our job description to find the truth and tell it," Pitts said. A writer asked him about the controversy over singing the national anthem in Spanish. He reminded them of the final line of the song's English lyrics - "the land of the free and the home of the brave." If we want to remain free, he said, we need to be brave.

Sunday morning's keynote session featured inspiration from another Knight-Ridder giant, Stan Tiner, editor of the Sun Herald, whose coverage of Hurricane Katrina's devastation along Mississippi's Gulf Coast won a Pulitzer just a couple weeks ago.

The Sun Herald had the courage to abandon journalism conventions and run a dozen or more front-page editorials, the first under the banner headline: "HELP US NOW."

"Aren't we human beings before we are journalists?" Tiner asked. For too long, he said, journalists have maintained detachment from our communities that turned us into a "them" in whom readers feel little stake and little connection. "We were no longer 'them.' We were seen as good neighbors."

In writing as neighbors, the Sun Herald "got out of that journalistic voice," he said. "I think we learned to talk to readers in a regular voice about things that were important to them."

Tiner praised his Knight-Ridder colleagues, who arrived as the cavalry, bringing supplies and journalistic reinforcement.

One of those colleagues was Mizell Stewart III, former editor of the Tallahassee Democrat, yet another speaker at the Wichita workshops. Stewart lost his job in Tallahassee last year in the newspaper swap with Gannett that started a tumultuous period for Knight-Ridder journalists.

He was awaiting a new assignment from Knight-Ridder when Katrina hit, so he joined the relief troops dispatched to help Tiner and the Sun Herald staff. His next job was managing editor of the Akron Beacon-Journal. When word came of the sale of Knight-Ridder to McClatchy, the Beacon-Journal was one of the 12 "orphans" McClatchy planned to sell.

The uncertainty continued in Akron last week after McClatchy announced the first sale of four orphan papers to MediaNews. Personal sorrow - the death of his mother - compounded Stewart's upheaval. The title of Stewart's workshop in Wichita reflected his life of late: "Keeping the faith: How to focus on the craft when the ground is shifting."

Stewart continued the weekend's inspiration from Knight-Ridder journalists. He encouraged journalists to "pay yourself first, not only saving money to protect against professional uncertainty but also investing in their own careers. "What have you done for yourself? Have you put away money to go to graduate school? Have you put away money to go to Poynter or API?"

He advised journalists to "Call an end to the pity party." He recalled the scene where Kevin Bacon responds to paddling from Niedermeier in "Animal House" by shouting, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" Journalists too often reflect similar "learned helplessness," Stewart said.

Instead he called for "learned optimism," exhorting the journalists to "recommit yourself to pursuing stories that make a difference."