Last Updated: November 09, 1999
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Journalism
history
Oral histories from dozens of journalists document
what it was like to cover the state, work in its newspapers and broadcast
its news
If you don’t think things have changed in our nation’s newsrooms, ponder
this quote from a veteran Iowa journalist — “Years ago, sexual harassment
was a favorite intramural sport, all in fun of course, in and out of the
newsroom.”
This eyebrow-raising observation by 96-year-old Carl Gartner is among
many documented by the Iowa Journalists Oral History Project, the brainchild
of University of Iowa journalism professors Stephen G. Bloom and Hanno
Hardt.
Women journalists were especially challenged in the all-male (or nearly
so) newsrooms of the day.
Gartner, author of the sexist quote, spent most of his career with The
Des Moines (Iowa) Register and Tribune, where he retired as editor of its
magazine.
He recalls that in his time few if any women held top jobs: “I heard
one editor, commenting on the ability of a woman who had been promoted
to head the women’s department, say, ‘She runs that department just like
a man.’ I can imagine what reaction such a remark would bring from all
the women’s organizations these days.”
Mary M. Bryson, a longtime reporter at the Register and Tribune recalls
being one of six women in the newsroom — all working for the society department.
“We were treated very respectfully and very kindly,” she says. “In fact,
I think they were very protective of us. But they paid us half as much
as any man in the newsroom.”
The Iowa oral history project is the nation’s first systematic effort
to collect oral histories of rank-and-file journalists in a single state
and rural newspaper editors. Bloom says. Spanning three generations, the
project aims to provide a national model for other areas in recording the
work and working conditions of journalists during the 20th century.
With its 39 dailies and 296 weeklies, Iowa is the perfect place to base
the study, Bloom says.
“This plethora of newspapers makes the state a national laboratory for
studying the unrecognized and unheralded creators of the ‘primary documents’
used by historians and other scholars to unearth a community’s stories,”
he says.
Launched with a $4,000 start-up grant from the Iowa Newspaper Foundation
and an $11,500 grant from Iowa’s state historical society, the project
will collect and maintain the oral histories so they can be researched
by scholars.
Bloom, an ex-newspaper reporter in Dallas and Los Angeles, joined the
Iowa journalism faculty in 1993. Hardt, a 33-year veteran on the faculty,
is known for his research in journalism labor history. Brian Thomas, an
Iowa-based oral historian, is the project’s coordinator.
The professors developed 14 topics for the more than 120 journalists
to discuss. These included job duties, pay, working conditions, ethics,
socializing with other journalists outside of the office, objectivity,
changing technology and its effect on the reporters and editors, and how
journalism itself has changed in their time. A group of journalism students
questioned the participants on videotape.
The interviews reveal the great affection these seasoned journalists
have for their craft.
Al Pinder, 78, editor and publisher of the weekly Herald Register in
Grinnell, Iowa, was trained as an accountant but got into the newspaper
business by marrying the publisher’s daughter. He has never regretted it.
“In the newspaper business, I have had a front row seat,” Pinder said.
“I learned to love the newspaper business, but at the same time, I think
the way of small town life also had an influence on it. As a newspaper
person, if you are into it and do what you should be doing, you suddenly
become a part of everything that goes on in town.”
Like most veteran journalists interviewed, Pinder takes a dim view of
the way some modern-day reporters cover stories. “It becomes a frenzy.
They all go after it. I think it is much more fun to pursue your job and
act towards people as you would want them to act toward you.”
Bryson, asked about the difference in the way news was covered then
and now, she said the main news section “didn’t go in much for scandals.
And, the society section was to make everybody happy. We didn’t seem to
care about the poor people. And, news was not as personalized. Reporters
just told the facts. They didn’t try to get their own opinions into it
as some of these stories do today.”
One rising star in the ’50s and ’60s was thrilled just to get started,
describing getting hired at the Register and Tribune as “incredibly heady.”
James Flansburg, a former ASNE member, landed the job fresh out
of the University of Iowa in 1957 and went on to become the paper’s chief
political reporter, editorial page editor and a columnist before retiring
in 1995.
“Nothing was asked of you except to go out and find the news, write
it and make sense of it,” he says. “They put your name above it and pay
you for it.” He sounds as if he would have done it for free.
During that period at the papers, he says, “If you had a reporter who
knew something about something, to hell with all the niceties. You just
got him or her on that story.”
Not nowadays, says Carolyn Cole Gage, 58, owner, editor and publisher
of the weekly Villisca (Iowa) Review.
“A lot of fun has gone out of newspapering. It’s a hard-scrabble business
now,” she says.
But it’s a business that is tied closely to its community. As an important
person in the community, editors and publishers are often asked to do more
than cover their area.
Edwin J. Sidey, owner and publisher of the Greenfield (Iowa) Free Press
since 1955, says many weekly newspaper editor-publishers can’t help becoming
involved in local government.
“You have got to be there, really, when the news is made and that means
school board meetings, council meetings and county business. ... And you
are always hit on to serve,” said Sidey, who sat on his county’s school
board for more than a dozen years.
Sidey said that his paper still covers stories much the way it did in
the ’60s, except for “the small, personal things, like a birthday party
for a 10-year-old. ... I still think that is the grist of the news and
we ought to be doing a better job of it. People want to know, in Greenfield,
Iowa, why that cluster of cars was out in front of Mrs. Jones’ house last
week.”
Hagen, a longtime AP newsman and editor, is a free-lancer. Contact
him at 319/354-9327 or rmhagen@ aol.com.
