By DANA EHLSCHIDENews Bureau Director

When the first bombs weredropped on Iraq on March 19, therewas little doubt what daily newspa-pers across the state, the country andthe world would budget for theirfront page the following day andweeks to come. Although communityweekly newspapers rarely reportnational news, many Kentucky news-papers have begun searching for localangles to this history-making eventtaking place half a world away.

Focusing stories on local individu-als called to duty or those with lovedones in the Gulf region seems to bethe most popular story angle forweeklies across the Commonwealth.

The Sentinel-Echo in London hasfocused their front-page stories onlocal individuals, some of whom areprominent citizens, who have beencalled to active duty.

“We have also localized HomelandSecurity preparations, as well as uti-lized shared news pictures and storiessupplied by our parent company,CNHI,” said Dale Morton of theSentinel-Echo.

After the start of the conflict, theSpencer Magnet found a differentangle on which to report – the parentsof soldiers. A story in the first editionafter the start of the war was abouttwo families who have sons in Iraqand Kuwait.

“The story focused on how the par-ents are coping with the extensivecoverage now that the conflict hasstarted,” said John Shindlebower ofthe Spencer Magnet.

Jessica Bratcher, managing editorat the McLean County News, report-

ed that they began collecting localcomments from around the countysoon after the war started for theirnext edition.

“We plan to pull together family

Volume 74, Number 4 - April 2003 - Published by Kentucky Press Association/Kentucky Press Service

AprilNews & Notes

The Sentinel-News in Shelbyville used this photo supplied by Shelby Countian Capt.Gary D. Harrison to help localize actions in the Middle East in their newspaper. Thephoto is of a Marine helicopter, a CH-46E Sea Knight, taking off from a USS Boxeramphibious ship located off the coast of Kuwait. This ship was part of a seven shiparmada that sailed from San Diego in January.

Bringing the war home for readers

Kentucky native released from captivityA week after witnesses reported

seeing Louisville native MollyBingham, a 34-year-old photographer,escorted from her hotel by Iraqiauthorities, she and three other jour-nalists were released from captivity.

Bingham, a former official photog-rapher for Vice-President Al Gore,arrived in Baghdad on March 17. Eightdays later, Iraqi authorities searchedher room at the Palestine Hotel,bagged up her belongings and escorted

her from the hotel, according to aNewsday reporter.

Earlier, the Bingham familyreceived conflicting reports of herwhereabouts. One report from the U.S.State Department had her crossing intoJordan and another from a peace groupsaid she had arrived in Syria. Binghamand the other journalists have nowbeen released into Jordan.

Newsday reporter MatthewPhotographer Molly Bingham wasreleased by Iraqis after a week in captivi-ty. (AP photo)See RELEASED on Page 5

Last Call for Lang’sFairy Tale Project

Because of the success ofKPA’s “Luke in a Really BigPickle” and “Noodles Makes aBoo Boo” projects, we’re makingavailable 12 Andrew Lang’s FairyTales, adapted by Mike Petersonwith H.J. Ford’s original 19thCentury illustrations.

The project includes a total of21 chapters. Some of the fairytales are one chapter, others areup to five. This gives you 21weeks of stories to publish thatwill be a hit with your readers,especially younger readers.

The series also includes anexcellent teaching guide, by LisaM. Sax, that can be shared withschools in your marketing area.The teaching guide is formattedso you can include the stories youplan to use in whatever order youplan to publish them.

The series will be made avail-able to you on a CD with the textfor all 12 stories (21 chapters), theillustrations and the study guidefor teachers in pdf format.

If your newspaper is interestedin a project that will get youngerreaders involved in reading thenewspaper, KPA will make theAndrew Lang Fairy Tales avail-able to you at the following costs:

Weekly Newspapers (thosepublished up to 3 times per week)- $75

Daily Newspapers, Under25,000 Circulation - $100

Daily Newspapers, 25,001 to50,000 - $150

Daily Newspapers, over 50,000Circulation- $200

These rates are up to 60 per-cent off the rate you would payindividually for the rights to pub-

See NEWS on Page 7

See WAR on Page 10

Haynes joins GraysonCounty News-Gazette

Gloria Haynes joined the staff of theGrayson County News-Gazette as edi-tor in February.

Haynes had previously worked as areporter at The Meade CountyMessenger and The BreckinridgeCounty Herald-News. Her freelancework has appeared in numerous publi-

cations, including Arts AcrossKentucky, Angels on Earth andGuideposts.

Haynes graduated fromBreckinridge County High School in1979 and earned an A.A. atElizabethtown Community College.She later completed a B.A. in journal-ism at St. Mary of the Woods Women’sCollege near Terre Haute, Ind.

Advocate-Messenger tosponsor ‘Rally on theSquare 2003’

The Advocate-Messenger,Danville’s local newspaper, will spon-sor “Rally on the Square 2003” onApril 26 at Constitution State HistoricSite.

The political candidates will debateand answer questions “old style” froma hay wagon.

Democratic and Republican candi-dates for secretary of state, treasurer,auditor, commissioner of agricultureattorney general, lieutenant governorand governor are expected to givebrief speeches.

Meade County MessengerNIE program profiled

The Newspaper in Education pro-gram at the Meade County Messengerwas profiled in both the December2002 NIE Information Service publica-tion and Spring 2003 Publisher’sCirculation Reference.

The program began at theMessenger in 2000/2001 school year.Sandra Stone, Newspaper in Educationcoordinator for the Meade CountyMessenger, has obtained sponsors forthe now 655 newspapers each week,offering two levels of sponsorshipdepending on the size of the class-room. The subscriptions are continuedthrough the summer by the teacherselecting students to receive the mail-delivered paper at home.

The Meade County Messenger has acirculation of 6,000. Laura Dutschke,sales, keeps the program in mindwhen she is visiting customers, andStone credits her with the past year’sgrowth. The paper devotes a full pageeach week to student writings, careercorner feature, Barbara’s blue pen cor-ner, and a search and find feature.

Stone regularly features classroomteachers using the newspaper in theiractivities to “spread the word” of whata useful tool a newspaper is in theclassroom.

Kinkade hired as bookkeeper for Carrollton operation

Lorrie Kinkade recently joined TheNews-Democrat in Carrollton as book-keeper.

A native of Henry County, andgraduate of Henry County HighSchool, Kinkade has a background inadministrative management and

human services. She moved toCarrollton two years ago.

Previously, she was a bookkeeperfor Christian Church Homes ofKentucky Social Insurance.

Taylor named advertisingmanager of KentuckyStandard

Candy Taylor has been namedadvertising manager of the KentuckyStandard in Bardstown. She began hernew duties at the tri-weekly newspa-per on March 17.

She was most recently an advertis-ing representative for LandmarkMilitary Newspapers of NorthCarolina in Jacksonville since July2002. Prior to that, she was a recruit-ment specialist for ManagementRecruiters in Emerald Isle from April1999 until September 2000. Her news-paper background includes sales direc-tor for Freedom Communications, aweekly newspaper and weekly mili-tary publication in Havelock, N.C. forfive years. She was also an advertisingdirector of two dailies and a weeklymilitary publication for FreedomNewspapers of New Mexico for fouryears and a real estate specialist for thePost Tribune in Gary, Ind. for twoyears.

Newspaper publishernamed chamber of commerce president

Patti M. Clark, publisher of TheNews-Herald in Owenton hasassumed the presidency of the OwenCounty Chamber of Commerce.

Clark served as vice president fortwo years of the newly reorganizedgroup and stepped into the president’srole in December. She will hold theoffice for two years.

Campbell to handle adsales in Trimble andMadison areas

Sharon Campbell recently joinedthe staff of The News-Democrat andThe Trimble Banner as an advertisingsales consultant.

A native of Trimble County whoresides in Milton, she will be coveringthe Trimble County market as well asthe area surrounding Madison, Ind.,just across the Ohio River.

Sharon graduated from Trimble

Page 2 - The Kentucky Press,April 2003

The Kentucky PressThe Kentucky Press (ISSN-0023-0324) ispublished monthly by the Kentucky PressAssociation/Kentucky Press Service, Inc.Periodicals Class postage is paid atFrankfort, KY. 40601. Subscription price is$8 per year. Postmaster: Send change ofaddress to The Kentucky Press, 101Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY. 40601, (502)223-8821.

OfficersKentucky Press Association

President - Sharon Tuminski, Winchester Sun

President-Elect - John Nelson, Danville Advocate Messenger

Vice President – David Thornberry,Somerset Commonwealth Journal

Treasurer - Charlie Portmann, Franklin Favorite

Past President - Dave Eldridge, Jessamine Journal

Board of DirectorsDistrict 1 - Alice Rouse, Murray Ledger andTimes

District 2 - Jed Dillingham, Dawson SpringsProgress

District 3 - Donn Wimmer, HancockClarion

District 4 - Charlie Portmann, FranklinFavorite

District 5 - Ron Filkins, Kentucky Standard

District 6 - Arthur B. Post, LouisvilleCourier-Journal

District 7 - Kelley Warnick, Gallatin CountyNews

District 8 - Ken Metz, Bath County NewsOutlook

District 9 - Mark Maynard, Ashland DailyIndependent.

District 10 - Edmund Shelby, BeattyvilleEnterprise

District 11 - Glenn Gray, ManchesterEnterprise

District 12 - David Thornberry, SomersetCommonwealth Journal

District 13 - Tom Caudill, LexingtonHerald-Leader

District 14 - Teresa Scenters, Berea Citizen

State At-LargeChris Poore, Kentucky KernelTony Maddox, Madisonville MessengerPatti Clark, Owenton News HeraldTaylor Hayes, Kentucky New Era

Division ChairmanNews Editorial Division - Jeff Moreland,Richmond Register

Advertising Division - Cheryl Magers,Central Kentucky News Journal

Circulation Division - Kriss Johnson,Lexington Herald-Leader

Associates Division - Cliff Feltham,Kentucky Utilities

General Counsels - Jon Fleischaker, KimGreene, Dinsmore & Shohl, Louisville

Kentucky Press Association StaffDavid T. Thompson, Executive DirectorBonnie Howard, ControllerTeresa Revlett, Director of SalesDavid Greer, Member Services DirectorDana Ehlschide, News Bureau DirectorDavid Spencer, New Media DirectorBuffy Sams, Bookkeeping AssistantReba Lewis, Research/MarketingCoordinatorSue Cammack, Administrative AssistantRachel McCarty, Advertising AssistantHolly Willard, INAN Business ClerkTami Hensley, Tearsheet Clerk

Staff members, Officers and Directors maybe reached by e-mail using the individual'sfirst initial, full last name@kypress.com.There is no space or punctuation in the e-mail address.

Kentucky people, papers in the news

See PEOPLE on Page 11

The Kentucky Press, April 2003 - Page 3

The next reform should be legislative reformWe’ve had education reform and

health insurance reform. Malpracticeinsurance reform was tried this sessionand others call for tax reform. But thenext reform should be one to changethe process. Legislative reform.

While I’d like to go as far as sug-gesting Kentucky voters reconsider theidea of annual sessions (it should havenever happened) and return to theevery other year structure, there isroom for improvement in the presentset up.

Bills have been introduced to returnus to those 60 days every two yearsidea (would Kentucky voters considertwo days every 60 years as the jokegoes?) but you never see them movingthrough the process.

I’m not a legislative expert by anymeans. But I see one thing that wouldimprove the process and who knows,maybe even shorten the regular ses-sions as at present.

For those not familiar with the leg-islative process, the end of the 2003session doesn’t mean the legislature isgone for the rest of the year. They willbe meeting through the rest of year,though primarily as interim commit-tees. These committees include mem-bers of the House and Senate sitting onthe same committee in the respectivechambers.

The committees meet monthlythrough the interim and hear testimo-ny about proposed bills as well as tes-timony on ideas for bills or legislativeaction. While the background might beof benefit, overall the effort is notworth the time. They take no finalaction and any bill they consider has to

be re-filed in January when the sessionbegins.

And that leads to the same processover again — committee meetings, tes-timony, discussions on the bill and avote to send it to their chamber forconsideration, or deciding then andthere to kill the bill.

But is the interim session really pro-ductive? In some respects, it might beif a committee is assigned a specifictask for the interim. But in most ways,it’s not. They know that whatever billsthey hear about in the interim, willonly come back in an official form afterJanuary.

So why not move to Congress’way? As a lobbyist, I envy what Iknow about the Congress process. Billsare scheduled for hearings and for“mark ups.” Time is taken by the com-mittee to hear as much testimony aspossible, to get ideas for ways toimprove bills, and especially to givemembers time to read the legislation.

Read the legislation? What a greatidea! Too many times, legislators voteto pass a bill without having anyknowledge of what the bill does. Thestate’s budget bill in the 2003 session isa prime example. I’m still trying tofind the first House member whoknew language about school financial

statements was tucked away on page245 of a 283-page document. Someeven questioned my integrity when Itold them what was in the bill.

It’s my understanding thatCongress doesn’t have a committeemeeting for two hours, with 15 or 20bills to consider. In our presentKentucky structure, committee meet-ings are like an assembly line.

Don’t get me wrong, Congressionalmembers will still try to find a billmoving through the process and tackon some amendment that hasn’t haddiscussion.

You can see the belt-line in actionmost every day during our legislativesession. The chairman calls a bill to beheard and before the sponsor can sit atthe table, a motion has been made, sec-onded and a vote taken. If you’relucky, you might get one real gooddiscussion on a bill during any two-hour committee meeting. But typically,there’s little or no discussion, no exam-ining. That’s the assembly line the pre-sent legislative structure has.

And as the end of the session nears,the line is put a full throttle. (Want tocompare it to something: Just think ofthe I Love Lucy episode where she’semployed by a candy-making compa-ny. Within minutes, she’s stuffingcandy everywhere she can.)

The committees, after all, have toget some bills before the full chamberand very few bills get the hearing theydeserve before the committee.

And even when there might be dis-cussion, the present structure leads tochairmen giving both sides limitedtimes to discuss a bill. “We have other

bills today so let’s make it quick,” is astandard explanation.

As this past session wound down,bills were called without any discus-sion as the chairmen sought to getmore bills out and before the chamber.You could compare it to makingsausage. No one knows what’s inthere, no one needs to know, so livewith it anyway.

Reform the process somehow. Make the interim committees more

responsive. Give them authority totake action on bills. Give them time toconsider fully what the legislationmeans and does. If it means a compli-cated bill gets two full hours of hear-ing so be it. But we’re talking lawshere, laws that affect our lives, ourbusinesses, and as they all want to say— the future of all Kentuckians.

If interim committees can’t wieldpower, then change the sessionprocess. Call the General Assemblyinto session, take a two-week hiatusand let committees meet, then recallthe General Assembly to act only onthose bills which have survived theprocess. Take another two week hiatusand have more bills processed throughthe system.

Maybe we should try the Tennesseelegislature approach. All bills have tobe filed by the first day of the session.Period. And on Tuesday of one week,committees post all bills that will beheard the following week. That givesall sides a chance to get ready andnothing, well very seldom, getspushed through at the last minute.

As it is at present, it does not work.Not even smoothly.

On SecondThought

By David T.ThompsonKPA Executive Director

If the ad staff did not receive a newrate and data sheet from your newspa-per at the end of 2002 then recently youshould have received another form toupdate and mail back to us. This is theofficial form that we use to make surethat ad rates and circulation informa-tion are correct in our computer.

Thank you so much to the newspa-pers that responded so promptly to mymailed request. It was amazing thatsome of you got back to me within aweek. That is so helpful with our plan-ning. For the rest of you who have notresponded, we are waiting patiently!We’ll resort to calling you shortly.

When a client requests informationit is our policy to turn that informationaround and quote the request within24 hours. Quotes can be turned aroundin a matter of minutes if all of ourinformation is current in the computer.If you are not sure that we have current

information on file for your newspa-per, the best way to find out is to goahead and drop us a new rate card inthe mail. We can compare that to therates on file and schedule ads properly.

Also if you are planning a secondquarter rate increase now is the time tolet us know. Otherwise we may findout that a rate is wrong after an ad hasbeen scheduled.

For those of you who are switchingto the 50-inch web, be sure and drop usa note about that fact too. We alwayshave available two different size adsfor the ones that we schedule but it isimperative that our information

remains current so that we know whois SAU and who is WEB.

Another thank you to newspapersthat continue to refer clients to us. Thebest compliment that I can receive iswhen one of our members tells a clientthat we can help them with a statewidequote. That’s why we are here and asalways we should be considered anextension of our newspapers’ salesstaff.

Have a profitable spring.Remember, call (502-227-7992) or emailme at trevlett@kypress.com with rate,circulation and size changes. Or justcall me - I’d love to hear from you.

AdvertisingPlus

By Teresa RevlettKPS Director of Sales

Ad department needs your rate and data sheets

As usual, I wasin a hurry. As Iapproached thecash register atthe corner conve-nience store, itappeared I wouldbe stuck in lineawhile. In frontof me was abearded senior in a worn baseball cap– buying one of every scratch-off gamethe Kentucky Lottery has to offer.From his clothing, one might surmisethe man – who resembled an olderversion of Fidel Castro – should havekept his money instead of handing itto the state lottery.

I doubt if there was anythingunique about that scene – it’s probablyrepeated many times a day at mostevery lottery outlet in the state. Forme, it’s not a moral issue. If peoplewant to play the lottery, have at it –but I hate standing in lines.

As I shifted from one foot to theother and back again, my thoughtswandered back to the days more than15 years ago when I managed a weeklyin southwest Indiana. Readers wouldline up in the office on Wednesdayafternoons to buy papers the momentthey came from the printing plant.Many were subscribers and would getanother copy in the mail the next daybut still they couldn’t wait to hand ustheir 50 cents several hours early justto catch up on the local news.

What if newspapers were in asmuch demand as lottery tickets? Wow,

we’d have some-thing, wouldn’twe? But why can’twe motivate ourreaders to stand inlong lines waitingto buy our prod-ucts? Well, some ofus do but sadly thatis the exception

rather than the rule.I won’t bore you with a long list of

reasons why papers don’t sell like lot-tery tickets. That would be – as theking of clichés says – preaching to thechoir. But let me plead my case for acouple of editorial content enhance-ments that would help us all sell morenewspapers.

Writing and grammar.That’s it. Writing and grammar.

Nothing too difficult or fancy. Justwriting stories so readers can under-stand them. That means having thecourage to tell our sources, “I don’tunderstand what you are telling me.Please explain it again in plain lan-guage so my readers will understand.”

Too often, that doesn’t happen andstories get into our papers that makeabout as much sense as MandarinChinese makes to most of us whodon’t speak it.

Let me give you an example. I am ashortwave radio hobbyist. As a mem-ber of the Public Relations Committeefor the ARRL, the national organiza-tion for ham radio operators, I regular-ly see newspaper clippings fromaround the nation with stories written

about ham radio operators. Recently,ham operators provided two-wayradio communications for space shut-tle-debris search teams in Texas. As aresult, a number of hard news and fea-ture stories were written about theham operators, what they do and howthey do it.

In several stories, the radio hobby-ists interviewed talked in technicallingo and jargon that was indecipher-able to most laymen. That shouldn’thappen. Reporters and editors oughtto say, “Wait a minute. If I don’tunderstand this, how will my readersunderstand?”

“Back up and explain this again inplain language.”

Some of the stories that run in largemetro papers did a fairly good job inavoiding the techno-lingo disease.Same for some of the stories thatappeared on national web sites. But Isaw several stories in smaller papers inwhich readers must have been won-dering to themselves, “What does thatmean? I don’t understand this.” Youknow what often happens if we’rereading something we don’t under-stand? We stop.

In coaching other ham operatorsaround the country in how to dealwith journalists when interviewedabout our radio activities, I alwaysstress that they should speak in plainlanguage and leave the lingo and jar-gon for radio conversations with otherham operators in Australia or someexotic island in the Indian Ocean.

Grammar is the other area where

we are hurting ourselves. Readers donotice our mistakes – particularlymany of our most devoted readers.Grammar was really emphasizedwhen they were in school and theyknow it well. Readers notice when weget its and it’s mixed up in the paper.Readers notice when we incorrectlymake a word plural by adding ‘s whenonly “s” is needed. Readers noticewhen we mix up there, their andthey’re. They notice when we confusepatience for patients. Or when wedon’t know the different between yourand you’re. Such mistakes erode ourcredibility. I’ve seen readership sur-veys in which readers say that if wemake simple grammar errors in thepaper, then how can we be trusted toget other things in the paper – likefacts – correct?

That’s a tough one to answer. All this was emphasized to me

recently when I met a man who liveselsewhere in Kentucky. We beganmaking small talk. He didn’t knowwhat I did for living or my back-ground as a journalist, but he told meabout how he and his wife retired acouple years ago and moved toKentucky. They love it here, he said.Somehow the subject of newspaperscame up. Again, I didn’t tell him Iworked in the field but he told me howhis wife loves to read newspapers butwas quite disappointed in the localpaper because she found 11 grammati-cal errors on the front page one day.

Ouch. That hurts. Readers donotice.

Oh, By TheWay

By David GreerKPA Member Services

Director

Page 4 - The Kentucky Press,April 2003

If only newspapers sold like lottery tickets

By KIM GREENEKPA General CounselDinsmore & Shohl

David Thompsonand David Greer havestarted breathing nor-mally again. So haveAshley Pack, KenyonMeyer and I. This wasthe KPA’s “team” dur-ing the 2003 legislative session. We’reall glad it’s over. And we’re especiallyglad that the press and the public gotthrough this session with minimaldamage to First Amendment andaccess rights.

It took a lot of hard work and a lotof good luck to get to this point. Thelegislators never cease to amaze withthe ways they can conjure up to limitaccess to court records or agencyrecords or otherwise imposed burdens

on the press’ and the public’s right toknow. Thanks to all KPA membernewspapers who helped out with callsand letters to your legislators and edi-torials. We are clearly most effectivewhen your legislators hear from you!

This year brought a whiff of freshair to the process. There were actuallytwo bills that affirmatively recognizedthe role of the news media. House Bill513, sponsored by Rep. DerrickGraham of Frankfort, would haverequired local elected officials to par-ticipate in training sessions about theirobligations under the Open Recordsand Open Meetings Laws. What agreat idea! Unfortunately, the bill didnot move at all. We should all encour-age Rep. Graham to introduce it againnext year.

House Concurrent Resolution 56would have established a task force to

study methods for enhancing the safe-ty of records related to homeland secu-rity. The sponsors of HCR 56 recog-nized the importance of the press’ rolein an endeavor like this and wrote theKentucky Press Association in as amember of the task force. The billmade it through the House and almostthrough the Senate, but was assignedback to committee at the last minute.

The remainder of the 18 bills wewere actively following were not asfriendly. Fortunately, most of themalso got waylaid in the system, at leastfor this session. Only four that con-cerned us have been passed into law.And two of those were neutralized bylanguage changes before they werepassed.

Bills that PassedHouse Bill 36: This bill creates an

“Amber alert” system. It requires the

Kentucky State Police to establish asystem of alerting the public to childabductions in the hope of a swiftrecovery of the child. This is anadmirable bill. When it was first pro-posed, however, it contained languagethat suggested that members of thenews media were mandated to operatethe system in conjunction with theState Police. That raises some legalissues and, I’m sure, some practicalissues. Happily, we were able to con-vince the bill’s sponsors to modify thelanguage. Now, it is the KentuckyPress Association and the KentuckyBroadcasters Association which will“cooperate” with the State Police’sefforts to issue the alerts. There’s nomandatory language about individualnewspapers.

First Amendment suffers little damage during session

See AMENDMENT on Page 8

The Kentucky Press, April 2003 - Page 5

Senate Resolution honorsHall of Fame inductee

Senate Resolution No. 142Sponsored by Sen. DanielMongiardo, Walter Blevins Jr. andJohnny Ray Turner

A RESOLUTION adjourning theSenate in honor of Louise Hatmakerupon being inducted into theKentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

WHEREAS, it seems appropriatefor this honorable body to recognizespecial Kentuckians who haveenriched the lives of so many people;and

WHEREAS, Louise Hatmaker is anative of Perry County, Kentucky; sheis a pioneer female journalist inAppalachia, and she began her careeras a reporter for the Hazard Times,and she is the former editor, publisherand owner of the two oldest newspa-pers in the Kentucky River Valley, TheJackson Times and The BeattyvilleEnterprise; and

WHEREAS, Louise Hatmaker is awoman who is proud of her Kentuckymountain heritage, and she traces herlineage through her mother, ZadaBaker Combs Bolton, to anEnglishman by the name of JohnCombs who crossed the Atlantic onthe Magnolia and landed atJamestown in 1619; since 1735, six gen-erations of Combses have claimedEastern Kentucky as home, and pro-duced such notables as the late Gov.Bert T. Combs and the immortal EarleCombs, who played the outfield forthe New York Yankees with a 12 yearbatting average of .325; and

WHEREAS, Louise Hatmakerserved on the board of directors of theKentucky Press Association for 25years, and she is the recipient of theRussell Metz Most Valuable MemberAward for 1997, presented by theKentucky Press Association for herlongtime support of and involvement

in the newspaper industry inKentucky; in 1987, she was awardedthe Edwards M. Templin Award forOutstanding Community Service, anaward presented annually to a news-paper person exhibiting outstandingcommunity service to the communityhe or she serves and by whose news-paper is involved in efforts to makethat community a better place inwhich to live and work; and she also isthe recipient of the Eugene H. CombsHumanitarian Award which was pre-sented by the Combs FamilyAssociation; and

WHEREAS, through the years,Louise Hatmaker has been committedto truth in journalism, and her news-papers obtained a reputation for pub-lishing authentic news; and through-out her career as a journalist, sheshared her knowledge with the publicand gained their respect in return; and

WHEREAS, Louise Hatmaker willbe inducted into the prestigiousKentucky Journalism Hall of Fame onTuesday, April 8, 2003;

NOW, THEREFORE,Be it resolved by the Senate of the

General Assembly of TheCommonwealth of Kentucky:

Section 1. The Senate does herebycommend and applaud LouiseHatmaker for her many years of ser-vice to the citizens of this greatCommonwealth. Her genius, spiritand determination have been an inspi-ration to many women, and her won-derful sense of humor reflects the joyof a life well-deserving. This Senatewishes her success in all futureendeavors.

Section 2. When the Senateadjourns this day, it does so in honorof Louise Hatmaker upon the occasionof her induction into the KentuckyJournalism Hall of Fame on April 8,2003.

McAllester, Newsday photographerMoises Saman and photographer JahanSpanner were also released. They weretaken prison the same day as Bingham.

Bingham’s father, former Courier-Journal publisher Barry Bingham Jr.,told the newspaper he last heard fromhis daughter in a brief e-mail March 22.

McAllester and Saman were last incontact with their editors on Mondayafternoon, March 24, which wasMonday night in Iraq. They sent an e-

mail indicating they would be filingmaterial later. According to NewsdayEditor Tony Marro, the staffers hadbeen in regular contact with the news-paper, getting in touch at least twice aday.

The four were held prisoner inside aprison in Iraqi. They were denied theirrequest to have the Red Cross visitthem, a violation of the GenevaConvention. McAllester and Samansaid they were not harmed and saidthey could feel the bombs going off inthe city around them. They often heardscreams from other prisoners.

Bingham did not have an Iraqi visa

and planned to enter the country byobtaining a Visa in Iran that would per-mit her to cross the rival nations’shared northeastern border. McAllesterand Saman were reported to only havetourists’ visas.

Other journalists still missing as ofpress time are British TV cameramanFred Nerac and translator HusseinOthaman, and three journalists fromAl-Arabiya, an Arabic-language televi-sion station in Dubai. Seven Italianjournalists who had been reportedmissing for several days surfaced inBaghdad on Saturday, March 29. Theyreported they were detained and ques-

tioned by Iraqi security officials inBasra.

Terry Lloyd, of ITN, Paul Moran, afreelance Australian cameraman andtelevision reporter Gaby Rado havedied in Iraq since the start of the war.

Bingham served over two years asGore’s documentary photographer forthe U.S. National Archives. She alsohas spent years recording the plight ofbeleaguered people in places inAfghanistan, the Gaza Strip, Burundi,Sudan and Iran.

***Information for this story wastaken from Associated Press reports.

RELEASEDContinued from page 1

DeathsJournalism Hall ofFame member dies

Martha Purdon Comer, a mem-ber of the Kentucky Journalism Hallof Fame and a Maysville newspapereditor for more than 40 years, diedat a nursing and rehabilitation cen-ter in Maysville. She was 96.

Comer was inducted into the hallof fame in 1995. She had worked atthe Daily Independent since gradu-ating from Maysville High School in1924.

Her father, James Purdon, found-ed the paper in 1906, the year shewas born in Maysville. She becameeditor in 1935 and remained until1968, when the paper was sold andmerged with its competition, ThePublic Ledger. She then became edi-tor of the merged Ledger-Independent, overseeing both themorning and afternoon editions.

She retired as editor in 1977 andran unsuccessfully for the legisla-ture. That year she also resumed hercollege education at MaysvilleCommunity College. She remainedan editorial consultant for theLedger-Independent and wrote adaily column and editorials until1990, when she cut back to writingcommentaries two or three times aweek. She served on KPA’sFreedom of Information committeebeginning in 1952.

Former KentuckyNew Era editor dies

Robert “Bob” Howe McGaugheyII, a native of Christian County, diedMarch 22, 2003.

McGaughey is survived by hisson Dr. Robert H. McGaughey of

Murray.He was a graduate of

Hopkinsville High School in 1929and later earned is bachelor’s degreein journalism in 1933 from theUniversity of Kentucky, where healso did post-graduate work in bothlaw and agriculture. After gradua-tion he became advertising managerfor B.F. Avery & Sons in Louisville.He then served as field representa-tive for the A.S.C. and WestKentucky Production CreditAssociation for two years beforebeing called to active duty in 1941.McGaughey received his commis-sion as lieutenant through theUniversity of Kentucky’s ROTC pro-gram. He served in the UnitedStates Army during World War II asa training officer at Fort McClellanuntil his discharge as captain in1943.

McGaughey returned toChristian County where he becamethe news editor for the KentuckyNew Era. He also served as the firstfarm and news director for WHOPradio in Hopkinsville. His othermedia experience includes being amanager and editor of The ToddCounty Standard in Elkton, newsand farm director for WKOA, farmeditor for the Kentucky New Eraand as the Farm Bureau newslettereditor. He also worked for 16 yearswith First City Bank in Hopkinsvilleas vice president in charge of thefarm department.

He also had four of his bookspublished: “Life With Grandfather,”“This is Your Weather,” “Molly ofthe Shakers” and “The Way I HeardIt.”

He also wrote several unpub-lished works, including “WhereDestiny Leads Me,” “Four WentFishing,” “The Women in 313,” “TheInitiation” and “Sermons fromStones.”

Page 6 - The Kentucky Press, April 2003

Western’s SPJ honors high school journalistsWestern Kentucky University’s

chapter of the Society of ProfessionalJournalists honored high school stu-dents in the 2003 Mark of ExcellenceNewspaper and Broadcasting Contestand Awards Showcase of Excellence.

Those winning in the newspaperdivisions were on March 7 were:

Best Newspaper (AAA): BowlingGreen, Purple Gem, adviser DenitaHines, co-editors Ben Murphy andCindy Casana, first; PaducahTilghman, The Bell, adviser JohannaRhodes, co-editors Tara Hale andKatie Green, second; Lone Oak, TheOak K, adviser Kay Campbell, editorSeth Bowen, third; LexingtonCatholic, Knight News, adviserCamellia Rizk, co-editors RyanneFrohoff, Krista Sagan and RachelSondag, third.

Best Newspaper (AAAA): Trinity,Echo, adviser Tony Lococo, co-editorsZak Owens and Alex Germano, first;Daviess County, The Big RedMachine, adviser Gail Kirkland, co-editors Holly Sears and Kim Morris,second; South Oldham, The Dragon’sTale, adviser Cindi Reedy, editorMegan Boehnke, third; CentralHardin, Central Times, adviser SusanSherrard, editor Kelly Richardson,honorable mention; Barren County,Trojan Tribune, adviser MelindaCampbell, co-editors Chad Murphyand Ladonna Lawrence, honorablemention; duPont Manual, TheCrimson Record, adviser BethStottman, co-editors MeganRichardson and Shel Abramson, hon-orable mention.

Best Advertising (class A/AA):Becca Jones and Casey Kute, Mercy

Academy, first; Jenni Dickens,Cumberland County, CumberlandCurrents, second; Aaron Dodd, LyonCounty, third.

Best Advertising (class AAA):Jenna Brown, Bowling Green, first;Bethany Clark and Ashley Hulsman,Grayson County, honorable mention;staff, Lone Oak, honorable mention.

Best Advertising (class AAAA):Aimee Hawks and Tara Granke,Barren County, first; Josh Arnold,Daviess County, second; BrittanyHerndon, Pleasure Ridge Park, ThePaw Print, third; staff, South Oldham,honorable mention.

Best News Writer (A/AA): ChrisAnderson, Cumberland County, first;Elise Aldridge, Lyon County, second;Casey Kute, Mercy Academy, third.

Best News Writer (AAA): JustinSchilke, Bowling Green; MarieRedman, Owensboro, The Scoop, sec-ond; Brittany Fellows, Lone Oak,third.

Best News Writer (AAAA): ZakOwens, Trinity, first; Megan Boehnke,South Oldham, second; Holly Sears,Daviess County, third; Paige Priddy,Central Hardin, honorable mention.

Best Feature Writer (A/AA):Abbey Vierling, Mercy Academy,first; Craig Smith, CumberlandCounty, second; Jessi Coffey, LyonCounty, third.

Best Feature Writer (AAA):Heather Cowherd, Bowling Green,first; Lauren Wolf, Lone Oak, second;Marie Redman, Owensboro, third.

Best Feature Writer (AAAA):Meghan Cain, Daviess County, first;Rebekah Crace,Barren County, second; Elizabeth

Riveire, duPont Manual, third;Lindsay Losik, South Oldham, honor-able mention; Rebecca Gibson,Pleasure Ridge Park, honorable men-tion.

Best Editorial Writer (A-AAA):Will Pasley, Bowling Green, first;LaurenWolf, Lone Oak, second; SumerTaylor, Lyon County, honorable men-tion; Liz Alpiger, Mercy Academy,honorable mention; Sarah Martin,Grayson County, honorable mention.

Best Editorial Writer (AAAA):Kelly Richardson, Central Hardin,first; Kelsey Fort, Daviess County,second; Shel Abramson, duPontManual, third; Adam Glover, BarrenCounty, honorable mention.

Best Editorial Cartoonist (A/AA):Myranda Aldridge, Lyon County,first; Erin Bruenderman, MercyAcademy, second.

Best Editorial Cartoonist (AAA):Daniel Fitzpatrick, Bowling Green,first.

Best Editorial Cartoonist (AAAA):Tony Aros, Central Hardin, first;Melanie Banzer, duPont Manual, sec-ond; Andy McCormick, SouthOldham, third; PhilDoshon, Trinity, honorable mention;Jon Pernisek, Daviess County, honor-able mention.

Best Photographer (AAA): ChrisTurner, Bowling Green, first.

Best Photographer (AAAA): TravisVincent, Trinity, first; Chad Murphy,Barren County, second; Kasey Hills,Barren County, third.

Best Front Page (A/AA): JessicaRobertson, Lyon County, first; TeenaWalter, Moore Traditional, second;

Liz Alpiger, Mercy Academy, third.Best Front Page (AAA): Ryanne

Frohoff and McKay Moore, LexingtonCatholic, first; Ben Hays, BowlingGreen, second; staff, PaducahTilghman, third; Faith Majors,Grayson County, honorable mention;Seth Bowen, Lone Oak, honorablemention.

Best Front Page (AAAA): Trinity,first; Chad Murphy, Barren County,second; Kim Morris and Holly Sears,Daviess County, second; MeganBoehnke, South Oldham, third;Megan Richardson, duPont Manual,third; Brad Buckingham, PleasureRidge Park, third; Tiffany Carlson,Central Hardin, honorable mention;Michael Noltemeyer, Eastern, TheEastern Eagle, honorable mention.

Best Sports Writer (AAA): BradHogue, Bowling Green, first; ToddPhillips, Owensboro, second;Marshall Toy, Lone Oak, honorablemention.

Best Sports Writer (AAAA):Catherine Laroche, Central Hardin,first; Kenny Morrison, Barren County,second; Sonya Cecil, Daviess County,third; David Garvin, Pleasure RidgePark, honorable mention; ChandlerJenkins, Eastern, honorable mention.

Most Valuable Staffers (A-AAA):Ben Murphy, Bowling Green, (adviserDenita Hines) first; Chelsea Henson,Cumberland County, (adviser JasonDodson) second; Todd Lee Phillips,Owensboro, (adviser Chad Lewis)third.

Most Valuable Staffers (AAAA):Meghan Boehnke and BethanyKlausing, South Oldham, (adviserCindi Reedy) first.

General Assignments ReporterThe Kentucky Standard in Bardstown is interview-ing for general assignments reporter. Experiencerequired (college or professional.)

Requisite skills: news and feature writing, photogra-phy, Photoshop, Quark. General news and some spotsports. Some evening, weekend work required.

Send resume and clips to: Ron Filkins

110 W. Stephen Foster Avenue,Bardstown, KY 40004.

EDITORThe editor’s post at The Kentucky Standard (tri-weekly, 9,650circulation) in Bardstown is now open. Good pay, good compa-ny. Stellar writing (hard news, opinion, features), editing, nosefor news, photography, Photoshop, page design/pagination(Quark) are all musts.

The successful candidate will be well organized; knows andmanages production flows well; coaches staff; loves communityjournalism and is committed to quality. This is arguably the bestcommunity news job in Kentucky. Three to five years in newssupervision preferred.

Call Ron Filkins at 502-348-9003 (ext.119) or send resumes torfilkins@bardstowncable.net.

The Standard is an LCNI property.

The Kentucky Press, April 2003 - Page 7

lish these stories.The deadline to sign-up is May 2.

The register contact David T.Thompson at (800) 264-5721 ordthompson@kypress.com

If you have any questions callKriss Johnson, KPA CirculationDivision chair, at (859) 231-3353.

Journalism Hall of Fameluncheon

Six journalists with Kentucky ties

will be inducted into the KentuckyJournalism Hall of Fame and hon-ored at a luncheon April 8 at theUniversity of Kentucky.

The ceremony will be held atUK’s Hilary J. Boone Faculty Center.

The inductees are Bob Edwards,Louise Hatmaker, the late Robert G.McGruder, the late Ed Ryan, EdStaats and Carl West.

Later the same day, UK will alsohost the 26th annual Joe CreasonLecture in Memorial Hall. Edwardswill be this year’s Creason lecturer.He is the host of National PublicRadio’s “Morning Edition.”

NEWSContinued from page 1

WKPA discusses media’s pressing issues

Top: Kenyon Meyer, ofDinsmore and Shohl, toldthose attending the WestKentucky Press Associationconference in MurrayMarch 28 about some of therecent cases the firm hashandled involving themedia. Left: Donna Rains,the public information coor-dinator for the PaducahPublic Schools, spoke dur-ing the WKPA about hownewspapers can cover pub-lic education and work withthe schools’ public relationsdepartments.

By DANA EHLSCHIDENews Bureau Director

Members of the West KentuckyPress Association met at Murray StateUniversity on March 28 for theirspring convention.

Chip Hutcheson, publisher of theTimes Leader in Princeton, gave thegroup an update about some informa-tion he learned at the NationalNewspaper Association’sGovernment Affairs Conference heldin Washington D.C. the previousweek.

Hutcheson said it is a “frighteningtime” for the newspaper business cit-ing the implementation of the HealthInformation Portability andAccountability Act and the postalpension reform, both of which couldhave a major impact on the media.

HIPAA is set to go into affect April14, 2003, and will restrict what healthand medical professionals may dis-close about a patient to the press.Media relations officers, nurses, doc-tors, ambulance crews, EMTs, socialworkers and insurance companieswill no longer be able to release infor-mation about patients.

Hutcheson said that reporterswould no longer be able to call a hos-pital and ask the name of a personbrought in after an accident. If thereporter knows the name of the indi-vidual, the hospital personnel will beallowed to release a one-word condi-tion, he said.

The hospital will no longer be ableto release a list of births from the hos-pital.

All HIPAA regulated entities willface criminal and civil penalties ifthey violate the Privacy Rule. Theymust refuse to respond to requestsfrom unauthorized sources for anydetailed medical information.

It will take an act of Congress toroll this legislation back, but as ofnow no legislation is pending,Hutcheson reported.

The Postal Pension Reform couldcause regular first class rates as wellas periodical rates to increase,Hutcheson reported.

“This will have a major impactfinancially on all of us,” he said.

When the Postal Service wasformed in 1970, its employees werecovered by the federal government’sCivil Service Retirement System,which required anemployee/employer match in addi-tion to a government appropriation to

cover the full cost of pension benefits.In the 1980s, the Postal Service shiftedto a new system like a 401(k) planrequiring no supplemental appropria-tion, but employees covered by CSRSremained in the old system. Annually,USPS has had to make annual pay-ments to the Office of PersonnelManagement to cover the gap betweenthe employee/employer contributionand the full pension benefit in CSRS.Those payments were expected to con-tinue through the lives of the CSRSretirees. In November 2002, an audit ofCSRS demonstrated that better-than-expected returns on the invested assetshad produced a schedule for full fund-ing of the benefits without the $2.9million annual payments. The auditfound that if the USPS continued tocontribute the annual payment, thefund would be overpaid by $71 billion.The law however, requires the pay-ments to continue. Paying this annualpayment could cause postal increasesnext year.

A change in the law is required toprevent the overpayment, Hutchesonsaid. If payment does not have to bemade, there will be no postal increaseuntil 2006.

Hutcheson urged WKPA membersto contact their congressmen and sen-ators. Companion bills S. 380 and HR735 have been filed in both Houses ofCongress to stop the overpayments.Both bills must be heard by theBudget Committees before a floorvote.

The group also discussed the mea-sure in the Kentucky budget, whichwill allow school district’s to advertisetheir yearly legal advertisements onthe Internet instead of in their localnewspapers. The group voiced theirconcern about not only the lost infunds to the industry but the hardshipit puts on the public to have easyaccess to the advertisements.

Cheryl Lawson, director of publicrelations for the McCracken CountyPublic Schools, and Donna Rains,public information coordinator for thePaducah Public Schools, each spokeabout how they can work with news-papers to better cover public educa-tion.

Kenyon Meyer, of law firmDinsmore & Shohl, spoke to the groupabout recent cases his firm has han-dled involving the media. He gaveexamples of things that newspapersshould look for when running stories,advertisements, editorials and politicalcartoons.

Page 8 - The Kentucky Press, April 2003

House Bill 109: This bill relates topolice merit boards in consolidatedlocal governments. That means, ofcourse, it affects only Lexington andLouisville. This bill states, amongother things, that an individual policeofficer’s promotion test results and rat-ings are not available to the public.This was a change in the language ofthe current statute, although the repre-sentative of the FOP (which was push-ing for this bill) argued that the newlanguage reflects how promotion testresults and ratings have been handledin the past. In any event, this billmoved through both chambers andwas signed by the Governor withlightning speed (unusual in this ses-sion).

House Bill 269: Tucked deep insidethe budget bill (page 254, lines 12-21)was language which would move pub-lication of public school financial state-ments from newspapers to the inter-net. Despite objections that internetaccessibility is not universal through-out the state, both houses passed thebudget with this language intact. And,despite efforts to convince theGovernor to exercise his authority toline-item-veto this language, hedeclined to do so.

Senate Bill 213: This bill somehowmanaged to slide in under the radarscreen. It had passed the Senate andwas being sent to the House floorwhen we learned of it. The bill grantsimmunity to legislators and LegislativeResearch Commission staff from hav-ing to testify about the intent of anybill or the process of moving it throughthe legislature. More troubling to uswas the second half of the bill, whichremoved the General Assembly andthe LRC from the Open Records Act.This would have given the LRC com-plete discretion over public access topublic records in the possession of theLRC or the General Assembly. Noneof the provisions of the Open RecordsLaw (the presumption that records are

public, the limited exceptions, appealto the Attorney General, etc.) wouldhave applied.

We were able to propose somealternative language and convince theLRC to agree to it. Now SB 213 pro-vides that certain enumerated recordsin the possession of the GeneralAssembly and the LRC are automati-cally available to public inspection. Asto any other records someone mightrequest, the Open Records Act’s pre-sumption of openness and exceptionsapply to an LRC determination ofwhether to release them.

The bill still removes the AttorneyGeneral’s review process from theserequests. It is replaced with directappeal to the court of a denial by theLRC.

We do not agree with the premiseof this bill. Since the Open RecordsAct was enacted in 1976 by the GeneralAssembly, the General Assembly andLRC have been subject to its provi-sions. We are not aware of any prob-lem with this in all that time.However, since the bill passed andwas signed by the Governor, we arepleased that the modifications wenegotiated maintain most of the frame-work or the Open Records Act forrequests for records of the GeneralAssembly and LRC.

Bills that Almost PassedSome of the most troubling bills

came very close to being passed, butdidn’t quite make it for one reason oranother. They warrant some discus-sion here, though, since we will likelysee many of them in future legislativesessions.

House Bill 263: This bill proposedan amendment to Kentucky’s rapeshield law, a rule of evidence intendedto protect alleged victims of sexualmisconduct, including rape, againsttestimony about their intimate rela-tionships. The bill would havechanged the procedure an alleged per-petrator’s lawyer would go through tooffer evidence of the alleged victim’sprior sexual behavior which thedefense attorney believed to be perti-nent. In the process, this bill would

have sealed certain court recordswhich are not required to be sealed bythe current Kentucky rule.

This bill appeared to be on a fasttrack through the legislature. It wassponsored by the chair of the HouseJudiciary Committee (the committeewhich initially approved the bill) andSupreme Court Justice Cooper testifiedin committee that, because of theprocess required to amend a rule ofevidence, the legislature could onlyvote the bill up or down, it could notmodify the bill. Our research con-firmed this was so. Nevertheless,although the bill passed the House itdid not come to vote in the Senate.

House Bill 288: This bill wouldhave created identification cards forcertified volunteer firefighters.Although the bill specified that thiswas a non-driver’s identification card,it tied access to the cards and the infor-mation on them to the federal DriverPrivacy Protection Act. That meantthat the news media and members ofthe public would not have access. Thesponsor of the bill, Robert Damron,would not budge on this point. (Youmay remember that he sponsored theconcealed carry law and fought suc-cessfully for a provision that madeconcealed carry permits confidential.)

In the end, the bill did not pass. Itgot through the House and through itssecond reading in the Senate when itwas diverted to the Rules Committee.

House Bill 426: Among otherthings intended to deal with electionfraud, this bill would have exemptedabsentee ballot requests and applica-tions from disclosure under the OpenRecords Act until after all voted ballotswere returned to the county clerk orelection day. It passed the House butnever reached the Senate floor.

House Bill 466: This bill was one oftwo repeaters from the 2002 session. Itwould have allowed a court toexpunge an emergency protectiveorder (EPO) upon a finding thatdomestic violence has not occurredand will not occur. As a general mat-ter, the KPA opposes expungement ofcourt records because it is tantamount

to saying something which did happendidn’t. Fortunately, this bill did notmake it through the House.

House Bill 485: This was anotherbill KPA had fought successfully in2002. It would have required automat-ic expungement of criminal records ifthe person were found not guilty or ifthe charges were dismissed. This billeven took that matter out of thejudge’s discretion. Like HB 466, thisbill made it through the HouseJudiciary Committee but was neverbrought to a vote on the House floor.

Senate Bill 187: This bill wouldhave allowed county clerks to charge50¢ per page for photocopies ofrecords in his or her control. KPAopposed this bill but modifications incommittee and on the Senate floormade it a little less troublesome. Amandatory 50¢ per page charge waschanged to a permissive 50¢ per pagecharge. And the requesting individualwas permitted to use a digital cameraor other imaging device of his or herown to copy the requested documentsat no charge unless the individual usedthe county clerk’s electricity.

After the Senate passed this bill, theHouse passed an amended version ofit. It was returned to the Senate forconcurrence but lapsed there.

This column started with a sigh ofrelief that the 2003 session was over. Ihate to do it, but I’m going to end thecolumn by saying it’s not too early forus to turn our attention to the 2004 ses-sion. Many of these bills that almostmade it through will likely return. Weneed to put our heads together now toformulate our strategy for nextJanuary.

If you have any questions about anyof these bills or other matters coveredby the Hotline, don’t hesitate to callyour Hotline attorneys.

Jon L. Fleischaker: 502/540-2319Kimberly K. Greene: 502/540-2350R. Kenyon Meyer: 502/540-2325Ashley C. Pack: 502/540-2385

DINSMORE & SHOHL, LLPSwitchboard: (502) 540-2300Facsimile: (502) 585-2207

AMENDMENTContinued from page 4

Publishers, editors think readers support war in IraqMost Americans in communities

represented by community newspa-pers do nothing or little to take newprecautions when the nation’s threatlevel increases, according to a thumb-nail glimpse of opinion among pub-lishers in the community press.

Perhaps that is because mostbelieve homeland security perfor-mance has improved since 9/11 orperhaps because most are in areas far

away from Washington DC or otherperceived likely targets. A third, how-ever, believe homeland security is nosafer than before 9/11.

The opinions were offered bymembers of the National NewspaperAssociation, a 118-year old organiza-tion representing about 3,200 weeklyand small daily newspapers acrossthe country. The NNA polled itsmembers during its 42nd Annual

Government Affairs Conference inWashington, D.C. March 19-22.

The publishers and editorsexpressed strong support for the warwith Iraq and 57 percent believedtheir readers tend to support the war,but have questions about it. The waris justified in readers’ minds, theysaid, because 83 percent believe thatIraq possesses nuclear, chemical andbiological weapons. However, about

50 percent of publishers and editorsbelieve their local communities willnot be much affected by the war.

However, the increased securitythreats and the war support did notsoften the publishers’ and editors’concerns about restrictions in accessto government information, use ofsurveillance of telecommunications

See SUPPORT on Page 9

The Kentucky Press,April 2003 - Page 9

Mississippi PressAssociation

Editorial Contest Judging at KPA

Left top: Tricia Bray and Jeff Neal from the Commonwealth Journal in Somersetlook over an entry in the Mississippi Press Association contest KPA membershelped judge on March 27. Bottom left: Carolyn Wilson, executive director of theMississippi Press Association, brought the contest entries to Frankfort for the judg-ing. Below: Randy Patrick of the Jessamine Journal and Lisa Rowell of the PulaskiNews-Journal discussed the entries they read during the all day judging.

and the handling of detainees. Only 4percent of the group agreed withoutreservation that the restrictions areacceptable.

The poll was conducted byDecisionQuest, Inc., a national strate-gic communication firm that special-izes in electronically surveying audi-ences during presentations and pre-senting instant analysis of audiencefeedback. The opinion measures weretaken during presentations by Sen.Pat Roberts, R-KS, chairman of the

Senate Select Committee onIntelligence, and Chuck Hagel, R-NE,chairman of the Senate Subcommitteeon International Economic Policy,Export and Trade Promotion. TwoDemocratic candidates for the 2004Presidential race, Rep. DennisKucinich, D-OH, and former VermontGov. Howard Dean.

The audience consisted of about150 newspaper professionals fromvarious sizes of communities, primar-ily rural and small town weekly anddaily newspapers. Most publisherscharacterized their editorial policy asmiddle of the road, with conserva-tives claiming 27 percent of editorial

pages and 22 percent for liberals.Other findings:Going into the day’s presentations,

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts wasthe favored Democratic candidate ofthe publishers. After the presentationsHoward Dean, former governor ofVermont, was picked to win theDemocratic nomination for president.

Gov. Dean’s opinion ratings rose 38points after he spoke to the group.Dean was ranked most likely to beendorsed by the newspapers fromamong the field of nine announcedcandidates.

Sixty two percent of responders

have more negative views of France asa result of the United Nations’ resolu-tions.

Most (73 percent) say their readersare either very anxious or somewhatanxious about the war on terrorism.

When community newspaperswrite about Washington news, theymostly write about federal agencyannouncements, grants or regulations(27 percent), national politics affectingtheir hometowns (20 percent) or feder-al legislation affecting the hometowns(15 percent). The papers reported littlecoverage of international or foreignpolicy.

SUPPORTContinued from page 8

Page 10 - The Kentucky Press, April 2003

Quarles willaddress API reaction and features from those we

know about,” Bratcher said. “We’realso looking at a feature on local kidscreating care packages, and a featureon a bulletin board at the middleschool with pictures and letters fromservicemen with local ties.”

The Sentinel-News in Shelbyville isnot only doing stories on local reac-tion, they have been running photosand comments coming directly from alocal soldier via e-mail from an aircraftcarrier.

“I’m not sure how long that will beallowed since it all has to be clearedfirst, but I’m hoping he’ll keep themcoming,” said James Mulcahy Sentinel-News editor.

The Jessamine Journal has beenrunning at least one local-angle storyevery week for the past several weeks,even before the official start of the war,said Editor Randy Patrick. Its firststory was an interview with a youngwoman from Ashbury College, whosehusband, also an Asbury student and aMarine reservist, was called to activeduty on their wedding day. Hereceived the news from his sergeant,who was part of his wedding party afew hours earlier. That was their leadstory that week.

During the week following the warPatrick also planned to interview min-isters about their views on the war forthe religion page.

“Our local Episcopal church is hav-ing a 24-hour prayer-fast for peace,and a nondenominational churchacross the street from us has stirred upa controversy by placing a sign outfront say ‘Pray for Saddam Hussein,’and quoting scripture about one’s ene-mies,” Patrick said. “With the semi-nary and the Christian college here,this is a very religious community, andreligious news is a much bigger part ofour coverage than it is at mostpapers.”

The McCreary County Voice decid-ed that the news of the war andPresident George W. Bush’s remarkswere important enough to hold itsfront page March 19 until after Bush’sspeech.

Those comments along with cover-age of the deployment of McCrearyCounty’s local reserve companydeploying out of Monticello the nightbefore and photos and comments fromlocal soldiers who are most likelyheading overseas comprised 75 per-cent of the front and inside front.

As newspapers did during the firstGulf War, many again are using space

inside the paper to list the names ofservicemen and women with local con-nections.

“We’ve been publishing a runninglist of active duty military personnelfrom Spencer County,” saidShindlebower. “We usually run thatlist accompanied by a picture of a bluestar service banner with informationon how families can obtain such a ban-ner from the local VFW.”

After the start of the war theSpencer County newspaper also pub-lished, with the help of a local sponsor,a full-color back page sporting a largeAmerican flag with the words “WeSupport Our Troops” along with thelist of names.

The McLean County News has alsobeen publishing a “Loved Ones in theMilitary” page.

The Crittenden Press has taken it astep further by listing the local soldierson its website with links so that peoplecan send them e-mail.

Kentucky’s dailies have also beenlooking at a way to localize stories andoffer additional coverage about anissue that hits close to home for manysubscribers.

On March 20 the Ashland DailyIndependent’s first edition followingthe start of military action featured afour-page wrap of Section A with full-color wire photos on each page andwire stories. Its normal Page One wasactually Page 3 of the section withinterviews and photos of local resi-dents’ reaction to what began the nightbefore and precautions being taken byarea law enforcement and emergencymanagement agencies as a response toincreased threat of terrorism posed by

war with Iraq.“Developments as they unfold will

dictate the amount of space allocateddaily to war coverage from this pointon,” said Stan Champer, news produc-tion editor.

Journalists from the LexingtonHerald-Leader and the Kentucky NewEra in Hopkinsville are among theapproximately 500 covering the warfirsthand.

The Lexington Herald-Leader hastwo staffers “embedded” with militaryunits in the war zone.

Tom Lasseter is with the 101stAirborne Division’s 502nd Infantry,Second Battalion, Delta Company. Hearrived in Kuwait on March 10. At lastreport, he was at Camp New York onthe Kuwait-Iraq border.

“This unit is the equivalent to theWWII ‘rat patrol’ that you mayremember from the movies,” said TomCaudill of the Herald-Leader. “It is aHumvee unit designed to go in as soonas the initial bombing is over and huntdown Iraquis. We expect it will be oneof the first units into Baghdad.”

Herald-Leader photographer PabloAlcala arrived in Kuwait on March 1and has been assigned to an infantryunit of the First Marine Division, FirstBattalion of the Fourth Marines, afront-line combat unit.

Kentucky New Era ManagingEditor Rob Dollar departed March 3with elements of Fort Campbell’s 101stAirborne Division’s 159th AviationBrigade.

The Kentucky New Era was fea-tured on MSNBC April 1 for its storyabout the 101st Airborne Division,based at Fort Campbell, losing one ofitssoldiers in the war.

Reston, VA – Orage Quarles III,president and publisher of theNews Observer PublishingCompany and former NewspaperAssociation of America chair, willappear at the Senior Executives’Retreat: Reflective Leadership forComplex Times, a seminar to takeplace June 8 to June 10 at theAmerican Press Institute.

The Retreat is an intensive,three-day, interactive roundtabledesigned exclusively for communi-ty newspaper publishers and seniorgroup executives. Quarles willreport on his experiences as anNAA representative travelingaround the country meeting medialeaders from small to medium tolarge operations, and lead a discus-sion on the challenges of medialeadership today.

Other discussion leaders, distin-guished professionals from bothinside and outside media, will leadexaminations of such topics asvision and execution, talent man-agement and retention, the businessimpact of workforce diversity andpersonal development for peak per-formance.

In a small-group peer setting, ledby an expert facilitator, participantswill look at the most relevant mediaissues of the day, including: thevalue of multi-media operations,reconciling profitability with jour-nalism excellence, the role of a freepress in a free society and strategicapproaches to operational issues.

For more information, contactMary Lynn Billitteri, API associatedirector, at (703) 620-3611 or mary-lynn@americanpressinstitute.org

The American Press Institute isan independent, not-for-profit501c(3) educational center withheadquarters in Reston, Virginia.

These programs have beenattended by more than 35,000women and men from newspapers,broadcast and new-media opera-tions, magazines and from schoolsof journalism. The Institute alsooffers training online and developsintensive on-site learning programsfor individual media companies.API’s Media Center is a worldwideleader in helping the news industrydevise strategies and tactics forimproving online content and rev-enues.

WARContinued from page 1

CIRCULATION DIRECTORLocated along the Ohio river in Southern Indiana, directly across from

Louisville, Kentucky, The Evening News, a Monday through Saturday daily,and The Tribune, a Sunday through Friday daily, are seeking applications forthe position of Circulation Director. The ideal individual would be joiningCNHI, a dynamic company, with a reputation for its focus on communitynewspapers.

Qualified applicants should have strong sales, strategic planning, leadershipskills, and budgeting experience. The Circulation Director is responsible for rev-enue goals, expense management, preparation of the circulation budgets, aswell as the ability to lead and manage all facets of circulation growth in bothsingle copy and home delivery sales, customer service, telemarketing and dis-tribution management. This individual should also have the vision to focus out-side of the traditional methods of circulation management, and be successful ina highly competitive marketplace. This position reports directly to the GeneralManager, and previous newspaper circulation experience is a must. This keymanagement position offers a competitive compensation and benefits package,which includes, medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, paid vacation, holi-day, and sick time, along with a bonus plan, and 401(k) program.

Qualified applicants should send a cover letter, and resume, with salaryrequirements to:

Jean Gibson, General ManagerPO Box 867

Jeffersonville, IN 47131-0867Fax: (812) 283-1150 E-mail: jsgibson@cnhi.co

The Kentucky Press, April 2003 - Page 11

County High School and attendedEastern Kentucky University.

She brings more than eight years oflocal advertising experience to thetable. With the management and pro-duction of The Trimble Banner movingto the Carrollton office, her abilitiesand contributions in local and comboadvertising sales will help make thetransition smoother.

Hamilton named chambervice-president

Chris Hamilton, editor/generalmanager of The Lebanon Enterprise,was recently elected to serve as the2003 Vice-President of the Lebanon-Marion County Chamber ofCommerce.

Elected to the board for a three-yearterm in 2002, Hamilton is also present-ly serving as chairman of the cham-ber’s tourism committee. His volunteerwork doesn’t stop with the chamber.He serves as the Rotary Club treasurerand is on the board of directors forCentre Square, the area’s new commu-nity center.

News-Herald receivesaward for Relay for Life coverage

The News-Herald in Owenton washonored recently by The AmericanCancer Society with two awards forcoverage of the annual Relay for Life.

The News-Herald received firstplace for its public service campaign inRegion 1 of the Mid-South Division aswell as third place in the region for thespecial section it produced after the2002 Relay.

Additionally, the Owen Countyevent, which was chaired by News-Herald Publisher Patti M. Clark, washonored as being one of the top 25events in the Mid-South Region forfundraising efforts.

The 2002 event, the fifth for OwenCounty, raised more than $60,000 andhas raised nearly $250,000 for theAmerican Cancer Society since it start-ed locally in 1998.

LaRue County HeraldNews presents $1,000 tosurvey winner

A Hodgenville woman was thegrand prize winner in the HeraldNews’ recent online survey.

Judy Deckard won $1,000 in a ran-dom draw by visiting the PulseResearch Website and answering a few

questions about her reading and buy-ing habits. She was selected out of theapproximately 2,500 entries in the con-test.

Other winners in the contest were:Kevin McClaskey of Turners Stationwho won $100; Michelle Farfaglia ofLake Panasoffkee, Fla. who won $50;and Dennis Mefford of Worthville whowon $50.

Petery joins Carrollton’seditorial staff

Amy Petery recently joined the edi-torial staff of The News-Democrat inCarrollton.

Petery, originally from Richmond,Ind., was hired as editorial assistant.She is now living in Madison, Ind.

Petery graduated from the journal-ism program at Asbury College inWilmore in May 2002. She worked forThe Collegian, the student newspaperat Asbury, for three years, starting as astaff writer her sophomore year andworking her way up to the position ofeditor-in-chief her senior year.

Also during her senior year, shecompleted an internship serving asassistant chairman for public relationsfor the Ichthus Central Committee.Ichthus is a Christian music festivalheld annually in Wilmore.

WKU faculty, graduateshonored

Jeanie Adams-Smith, an assistantprofessor of photojournalism atWestern Kentucky University, hasbeen honored in the 60th annualPictures of the Year InternationalCompetition.

Adams-Smith received third placein the feature picture story category.The subject of “Best Friends” was thefriendship of a boy and a Vietnam vet-eran who are neighbors inHopkinsville.

Three Western graduates and a for-mer faculty member also were hon-ored in the competition, sponsored bythe Missouri School of Journalism.

Tamara Voninski, a 1993 WKUgraduate who works for a publicationsand photo agency in Australia,received two awards. “Drought”placed third in the science and naturalhistory picture story category while“Street Performers” received an awardof excellence in the feature picture cat-egory.

Amber Tanille Laforet, a 2002 grad-uate, placed second in best use ofmulti-media/interactive publication.

Mark Osler, a 1993 graduate, sharedin four awards of excellence with otherstaff members of the Rocky Mountain

News. The Denver paper receivedphoto-editing awards for “Season toShare,” “Killer in the Herds,”“Colorado Amish” and “The HaymanWar.”

David M. LaBelle, a former photo-journalism faculty member, shared anaward of excellence with staff mem-bers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for“A Day to Remember.”

More than 23,000 entries were sub-mitted with 250 awards presented in44 categories.

WKU student newspaperwins Gold Crown

The College Heights Herald,Western Kentucky University’s stu-dent newspaper, has again swept thetwo major national awards for collegenewspapers.

The Herald was one of six GoldCrown winners announced by theColumbia Scholastic Press Associationin New York City.

Other winners were from Ball StateUniversity, Northwestern University,School of Art Institute of Chicago,Indiana University and Kansas StateUniversity.

Last fall, the Herald received itsninth national Pacemaker Award fromAssociated Collegiate Press. Theawards are considered the PulitzerPrizes for college newspapers. TheHerald also won a Gold Crown awardin 1999 and two in 2000.

Of the 1,749 CSPA members eligi-ble, 1,550 magazines, newspapers andyearbooks entered the competition.

The papers were judged on writ-ing/editing, design, content, concept,photography, art and graphics.

The editors for the period judgedwere Ryan Clark and Brian Moore,both of Louisville. Clark is finishing asports writing internship at TheOrlando Sentinel and will be headingto The Washington Post for a summerinternship. Moore will graduate inMay and has accepted a reportingposition at The Courier-Journal.

Several Herald staff members orgraduates also were recognized asGold Circle winners. The Gold Circlenewspaper competition encompasses30 individual categories.

Taylor Loyal, education reporter atthe Daily News, placed second in gen-eral features and received a certificateof merit in news features.

Brandy Warren, a Louisville senior,placed second in in-depth news/fea-ture story.

Crestwood senior StephanieGladney and Robyn Larsen, a gradu-

ate serving in the Peace Corps, placedthird in sports page design.

Receiving certificates of merit wereMoore and Louisville senior JosephLord, news writing; Kyle Tucker, asenior from Clarksville, Tenn., sportsnews; and Caroline Lynch, a Decembergraduate from Louisville, opinionpage design. The contest attractedmore than 3,700 entries.

Alabama company’s dealincludes six Kentuckynewspapers

The Brown Publishing Companyhas purchased 23 newspapers inKentucky and five other states.

The two Kentucky dailies are theHarlan Daily Enterprise and theMiddlesboro Daily News. TheKentucky weeklies are the RussellvilleNews-Democrat and Leader, theHazard Herald, the PrestonsburgFloyd County Times and theLeitchfield Grayson County News-Gazette.

Creech named Tri-CityNews staff reporter

Veronica Creech was added to theTri-City News staff in late February.

Creech is a resident of Benham andis a graduate of Cumberland HighSchool and Lincoln MemorialUniversity. Her duties at the Tri-CityNews will cover all aspects of newswriting as well as feature writing andphotography.

Two C-J reporters winPolk Award

Two Courier-Journal reporters whoexposed a backlog of criminal cases inthe Bullitt County courts are amongthe winners announced in lateFebruary of the George Polk Award.

The “Justice Delayed, JusticeDenied” series last year by reportersJason Riley and R.G. Dunlop was oneof the 14 Polk winners announced byLong Island University, which hasadministered the awards since 1949.Dunlop and Riley’s Polk Award is inthe category of local reporting.

The three-part series, investigatedover six months and published inNovember, found that at least 200 peo-ple charged with felonies, includingrape and murder, escaped prosecutionbecause cases were misplaced, mis-managed or delayed during the past20 years. The honor is the newspaper’sfourth Polk Award and the second forDunlop who received it in 1998.

PEOPLEContinued from page 2

Page 12 - The Kentucky Press, April 2003

Need to ask a question of yourcolleagues around the state and don'thave time to call them?

Make sure you're signed up for KPA'sPublisher, Editor or Ad ManagerListServ, and you'll be connected toyour counterparts throughout theCommonwealth!

Find out what they're thinking, whatthey'd do in certain situations, or whatissues they're facing.

Get connected by e-mailing DavidSpencer, KPA New Media Director,dspencer@kypress.com

Left: Max Heath, left, Landmark Community Newspapers, Inc., VP Circulation/Postal and 1988 KPA President, talks with U.S. Rep. Ernie Fletcher of Kentuckyabout co-sponsoring a bill to correct Postal Service pension overpayments to helpdelay a postage rate increase by two years to 2006. The discussion came during aCongressional lunch reception at the Library of Congress during the NationalNewspaper Association's Government Affairs Conference March 20 inWashington, D.C. Above: Max Heath, left, outlines a request forpostal legislation to Mason Wiggins, legislative assistant to Sen. MitchMcConnell of Kentucky, during a visit on Capitol Hill March 20. Behind Heath isSharon Tuminski, financial manager of The Winchester Sun and KPA president.On the right are David T. Thompson, executive director of KPA, and Jeff Carson,NNA legislative staffer. Chip Hutcheson, Princeton publisher and NNA StateChair, took the photo. The meeting was part of the NNA Government AffairsConference in Washington. NNA seeks a change in postal pension funding thatwould correct overpayments and add two years to current rate stability.

National Newspaper Association Government Affairs Conference