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
- Vegas, Poinsettia bowls or bust 2:01 a.m.
- Wildcats face tough defense 1:59 a.m.
- Aggies look to Idaho for an example 1:58 a.m.
- Aggies host Southern Utah 1:53 a.m.
- Cougars turn back Wildcats' 1:44 a.m.
- Cougar women lose at home 1:41 a.m.
- Sloan's two point guard lineup 1:39 a.m.
- BYU football: 5 keys to victory 1:36 a.m.
- RSL's Movsisyan departs 1:36 a.m.
- Glover gives Utes last-second upset 1:27 a.m.
- BYU would like friendlier rivalry
264 - Protests against Phoenix LDS temple
211 - Thunder rolls by Jazz
136 - Letters: Rushing to judge Palin
133 - Boys basketball rankings
128 - Editorial: Poor welcome for Palin
112 - Man trapped in Nutty Putty cave dies
109 - Letters: Trump card for believers
93 - Rivalry Week is highly profane
84 - Utah, BYU are top choices for bowls
75
I wanted to tell them not to go. I dropped subtle hints. "My money is on...
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"You are the very epitome of self-indulgence liberal crassness. You care...
I thought it was a great parade. Isn't it the only one in Salt Lake County?...
is struggling in some aspects of his game. We saw what he did last year early...
Having explored caves as a youth and spent 31 yrs working occasionally...
How do the Utes continue to do this? They are bad enough to lose to lousy...
A little help here. Harmon says Utah should be on a 3-0 win streak. I assume...
disgruntled parents need to stay off the blogs...
Honk if you intercepted Max Hall.
however it pertinent to look at their schedule and then look at ours. Because...
and there are no ute fans, only bandwagon fans, nice try though



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