Last Updated: January 26, 2000
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A note from the president
This is a difficult column to write. We journalists like to be able
to say here’s what happened, with all the right details.
Problem is, we don’t know what happened to Ted Natt, our ASNE colleague
and friend to many of us. That lack of closure is devastating to his wife,
Diane, and their children. It is at least disturbing to all of us who knew
him.
We know a few of the details, of course. He flew his new helicopter
on the first Saturday night of August from his home in Longview, Wash.,
over to the Long Beach Peninsula for a memorial service and a charity dinner.
He left Oysterville and flew to Astoria. That was the last time he was
seen alive. A few weeks later, Natt was found in the wreckage of his helicopter
by hunters not far from the Columbia River near Knappa, Ore.
But the most crucial detail isn’t available: What happened that night?
So now we can balance the pain of not knowing what took place, and the
pain of knowing that Ted isn’t with us, with good thoughts of our memories
of Ted.
As you know, Ted was chairing the ASNE Nominations Committee this year.
We planned to meet in January in Palm Springs, where he and his wife Diane
liked to spend some time escaping the rain of Northwest winters. We hadn’t
actually set a date, but would have done so by now.
The ASNE Nominations Committee is a small group. Most of you don’t seem
to have a lot of interest in the process. In fact, to be downright candid,
some of you probably think it is some done deal by the officers of ASNE.
Ted felt that way. A couple of years ago he protested at the nominating
committee meeting in Phoenix. He thought the officers should not attend,
because he was certain that the officers had conferred and had a slate
of candidates ready to be rubber-stamped by the committee.
Actually, I don’t even remember which officers were at the meeting.
But I do know that I hadn’t had any conversations with other officers about
potential nominees. I told Ted that — and reminded him that participation
on ASNE committees is voluntary. He probably didn’t buy it, being the somewhat
cynical journalist that he was.
Still, I hoped to keep him involved in the process. So I asked him to
chair the Nominations Committee this year. He was pretty pleased with that,
and he didn’t even disinvite me to the meeting. I know he would have done
a fine job in leading the committee’s crafting of an excellent slate for
all of us to vote on next April.
It would be trivial to cite that committee as the significant aspect
of Ted’s contributions to our Society and the industry as a whole. He was
one of the pioneers of New Directions for News, continuing to work on its
initiatives to the day he disappeared. He was very involved in APME. He
was one of the most adamant advocates of free speech and access to how
government transacts the people’s business.
Because of my upbringing and journalistic beginnings in the Pacific
Northwest, I came to know Ted as the kind of editor I admired. He was committed
to his community. All the while knowing its limitations, he pushed The
Daily News to be its best. He was part of the cadre of family owners of
newspapers in Oregon and Washington who feel so strongly about their leadership
roles in their communities.
And, again as many of you know, he expressed his editorial views strongly
and daily.
My company, Freedom Communications, was among those who looked at The
Daily News when Ted so reluctantly put it up for sale. Three of us visited
Longview to meet with Ted. He wasn’t so sure about our editorial philosophy,
but he was very certain in his opposition when we told him that if we bought
the newspaper, his column wouldn’t run on the front page every day.
He assured me that he would take less money from a buyer who would allow
him to keep writing the column.
That kind of resolve was so characteristic of Ted.
It showed itself in the Northwest in his leadership roles with his newspaper
colleagues. Our mutual friend Tom Koenninger, editor of The Columbian just
down the road in Vancouver, Washington, wrote about that in a column about
Ted:
“No one supported the First Amendment right of free speech more passionately
than Ted. No one fought any harder for access to information than Ted.
That information could be the expense report of a public official or the
report of a neighborhood crime. He was the instant enemy of those who withheld
information he thought the public should have.”
Tom saw Ted up close in bench-bar-press issues. “He was never shy, nor
reluctant, to voice his opinion on issues,” Tom wrote. “When a Superior
Court judge (in Washington) tried to turn voluntary guidelines for court
coverage in mandatory rules, Natt and other news people balked. Natt played
a significant role in revising the guidelines so they would not be used
against journalists.”
He cared, too, about young journalists and their career paths. In fact,
he wanted to influence how they came into the profession. He got other
editors and publishers in the Northwest to devise their own rating system
for journalism schools, and then put their money where their mouths were
by giving grants to the journalism programs that rated the highest.
But above all, Ted’s most diligent work was for the people of Longview,
Kelso and the smaller communities that make up the circulation area of
The Daily News.
He is a wonderful example of how editors need to connect with the people
they serve. Now, as his family and Longview colleagues struggle with his
loss, they are hearing from readers who want them to know how much Ted
meant to them and to the community.
For me, and I hope for you as a journalist, those are among the fondest
memories we want to have of Ted Natt.
Anderson, ASNE president, is publisher and CEO of The Orange County
Register, Santa Ana, Calif.
