From Deseret News archives:
Newsroom will miss its 'Chief'
And while you had to suspend belief a time or two during the movie Clark and Lois having a kid out of wedlock?, a man in a cape leaping tall buildings in a single bound? there was nothing hard to believe about the white-haired grizzled newspaper editor who was tough but fair, demanding, unflinching and wore a shirt and tie like it was part of his skin.
They cast the newspaper editor right, all right.
He looked and talked just like John Hughes.
John Hughes was the primary reason I got back into newspapering. I had been "retired" for four years, working as a freelance writer in California, when he called in 1998 and brought up the idea of writing a city column.
I was sure I was finished with the newspaper phase of my life after my sportswriting phase. I'd been to 15 Super Bowls. I'd gotten used to life without deadlines.
Mr. Hughes inspired me to join him.
(In full disclosure, the offer of a steady salary also helped. I was pretty sure MasterCard wasn't going to keep paying me forever.)
So we've been twins, sort of, Mr. Hughes and me, for the past nine years, providing you don't look at our resumes.
There is that little detail of his winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1965 when he was working for the Christian Science Monitor, and his later term as editor and publisher of the Monitor, and the syndicated column he's written since 1985, and the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, and the Overseas Press Club award, and his term as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and ....
Although to my knowledge, he never covered a Super Bowl.
Maybe the coolest part of the story at least to us idealistic, objective newspaper types is the fact that he became the first non-LDS editor of a newspaper owned by the LDS Church.
And in the process delivered what turned out to be a decadelong lesson in objectivity.
In editorials and opinion pieces, he allowed the owner's voice to be heard, as it should be, and he judiciously oversaw the daily selection of stories that would appeal to a majority LDS readership.
Comments
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- No prison for couple in scheme 6:21 p.m.
- Sources say Halladay to Phillies 5:55 p.m.
- House gives Real honor 5:53 p.m.
- Church museum has Latin exhibits 5:52 p.m.
- Streetcars could pump life into city 5:51 p.m.
- Sources: Josh Powell hires attorney 5:35 p.m.
- Wet spot found in Powell's home
- Sources: Josh Powell hires attorney
- Y. opponent nearly smelled roses
- D-Will treats military families to party
- MWC looks better in basketball
- Maynor amazed by L.A. fans
- Pace happy not to be noticed
- High school football: All-region teams
- Jazz Extra: Starting 5
- BYU singers compete in 'Sing Off'
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178 - Nude bathers cited for lewdness
152 - Gay-friendly curriculum phased out
142 - LDS to emphasize helping needy
125 - Jazz fall apart late at L.A.
110 - Unga might enter NFL draft
106 - BYU to wear royal blue uniforms
101 - Disappearance called 'suspicious'
96 - TV mom gives birth to 19th child
95 - Choir, guests unwrap musical magic
84
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