July/August 2008

Going Down?

Let's hope the Pilot's purchaser can keep it flying high towards journalistic excellence.

By Larry Maddry

I don’t know what the situation will be with The Virginian-Pilot when this column is published, but at this time the newspaper is for sale. The decision follows reports of dwindling profit margins for newspapers in general and even rumors that The New York Times might be sold.

And that’s about all we know. It’s enough. No matter who buys the newspaper, there’s little likelihood that the Pilot’s successor will meet the standards set by Col. Samuel L. Slover, Frank Batten Sr. and, in recent years, continued by Frank Batten Jr.

And that’s bad news. We have heard assurances from Pilot representatives that a purchaser will be sought with journalistic values consistent with those of the Battens. But chances are a chain of newspapers will purchase the newspaper if anyone does. And there’s the possibility that a board of directors sitting hundreds of miles away will control a publication that has been vital to this community’s destiny.

With at least a modest bureau of news and business staffers in every community it serves from Norfolk to Virginia’s Eastern Shore and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, The Virginian-Pilot has been the main provider of local news for several generations of readers.

Local television and radio news directors formerly began their day with a pair of scissors, clipping stories for staffers to pursue that began in the Pilot. Now, I assume they use the internet to get Pilot Online.

The Virginian-Pilot has long been a searchlight for truth probing the darkest corners for signs of dishonesty and corruption. Its value to Hampton Roads in particular and the commonwealth cannot be overestimated.

When I worked for the Pilot I would sometimes try to hitch a ride on a bus used by the national press in covering an event in Hampton Roads: a national convention, a presidential appearance, whatever.

As a local columnist, I would stand in the aisles scratching down their comments in a notebook and sometimes interview the big timers individually as they were jostled in their seats by the then smoke-filled bus rolling through Norfolk.

Once I identified myself as a reporter from the Pilot, the out-of-town heavyweights nearly always interrupted my sentence: “good newspaper.” Often it was “very good newspaper.” And now and then “great newspaper.”

Hearing such praise made me very proud for print journalists—of their stripe to rightly be characterized as cynical, a trifle hard-boiled and, trust me, not easily given to compliments.

Frank Batten, Pilot publisher from 1954–1976, defined the duty of a newspaper succinctly and accurately. “Our duty is clear: It is to serve the public with skill and character, and to exercise First Amendment freedoms with vigor and responsibility.”

More than any newspaper in Virginia, the Pilot has adhered to that credo. A good but not infallible gauge of a newspaper’s professionalism is the number and character of Pulitzer Prizes it has collected.

The Virginian-Pilot—to my knowledge—has collected more Pulitzers than any other in the commonwealth. The first was awarded in 1929 to editor Louis Jaffe for his editorial entitled “An Unspeakable Act of Savagery”—part of a series attacking the evils of lynching and urging laws of prevention.

In the 1950s, the Pilot was the lone voice among the state’s newspapers with a predominantly white readership in urging compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling ending school segregation. In 1960, Lenior Chambers was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his editorials opposing massive resistance to the high court’s ruling.

The paper picked up its third Pulitzer in 1985 when reporter Tom Turcol of The Virginian-Pilot and Ledger-Star was awarded the prize for general news reporting—a series dealing with the corruption of a local economic development official.

Although the Pilot has hundreds of notable scoops throughout the years, it will always be remembered for one of the biggest ever.

On Dec. 18, 1903, the Pilot reported the first flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. The story had many errors and the Wrights held a press conference to correct them, but the paper was accurate in the major facts—the Wright aircraft had flown at Kitty Hawk. (A New York newspaper editor reportedly turned down the story of the Wrights achievement, telegraphing the reporter who submitted it to “cut out the wildcat stuff.”)

Like other Pilot readers, I worry about the future of the paper. Let’s assume a purchaser can be found who has good intentions for the paper. Could not that person, or corporation, have a change of heart and decide—months after purchase—to sell to someone else whose interest in profit far exceeds the commitment to public service?

I’m going to try and cut out all the wildcat speculation myself now. All we can do is hope for the best and keep our fingers crossed.