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Connecting
June 28, 2024
Click here for sound of the Teletype
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Colleagues,
Good Friday morning on this June 28, 2024,
In today’s Connecting, several of your colleagues offer their opinions about the big news this week that the AP will create a $100 million sister organization to support state and local journalism.
We also bring you more of your stories of your experiences in your first AP bureau.
Have a great weekend – be safe, stay healthy, live each day to your fullest.
Paul
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Your thoughts on AP plan to support state and local journalism
Doug Pizac - It has just been announced that AP is creating a $100 million sister organization to support state and local journalism. That sounds fantastic considering what has been happening to our beloved industry.
HOWEVER, I have some concerns and fears about the feasibility of accomplishing such a noble cause considering what has been happening to our beloved industry. I certainly hope there will be some strong guidelines and safeguards where the efforts being made are not going to be taken advantage of by profit-oriented entities.
One week ago, we got the sad news that the Daily Herald in Everett, WA, was cutting its newsroom by nearly 50%, including two of its three photographers, after being purchased by a Mississippi chain. We’ve also had numerous stories of papers being stripped down to bare bones by Gannett, McClatchy and other chains. And let’s not forget about the hedge fund companies like Alden Global Capital that have bought papers, hollowed them out, shutting some down, and then selling the property which in some cases is worth more than the paper.
We now have a plethora of news deserts across the nation where papers who once had full staffs have been cut down to one person or none at all; basically a ghost office.
My fear -- based on past observations -- is what is going to prevent the proposed $100 million from being wrongly used to increase profits by corporations to benefit their owners and shareholders instead of keeping staffs alive and growing the coverage? The scenario I can foresee happening (and hope it doesn’t) is a stable staff of say 20 people is cut to 10 and then grants are awarded to hire people for those lost jobs; the staff level stays the same, but half the salaries are now saved by the owner which increases its profit because the third party sister is now footing half the staffing bill.
You don’t think that could happen? Just look back at all the schemes and frauds that occurred when basically free money was awarded during the Covid pandemic via PPP loans, grants, etc. What is to keep those media entities who strip papers bare for their own profit margins from finding a way to play the system seeking sister monies?
If it hasn’t been thought of already, I certainly hope there is going to be plenty of strings attached -- make that strong ropes -- where any monies that are portioned out for the good of communities and our profession are tightly monitored for the purpose they are attended.
The best solution I see is to be completely transparent on which papers get X amount of money for which purpose(s). And then let us AP retirees keep watch on what happens at the local level. You won’t find better watchdogs than seasoned veterans who have skin in the game and highly tuned investigative skills.
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Jim Carrier - AP is one of a couple of dozen news sites in my Firefox browser that I scan regularly. The majority are free.
I subscribe/donate to six @ $10-13/month: NYTimes, WX Post, WSJ, Guardian, Boston Globe, and two Vermont operations.
Now comes AP with a donate button. I’m at my budget limit. Frankly, AP’s site is not a go-to site for me. So I’m wondering…
Do members of your flock of AP veterans donate regularly, why/why not?
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Marc Humbert - Is it just possible that The AP Fund for Journalism is a back door way for the AP to provide money for local news outlets to then be able to buy the AP service? Good? Bad? Smart business? Just asking.
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Max Thomson - After digging the horse up to beat him once again.
If the AP wants to help save local news, it could develop a micro-payment system to sell individual news stories to readers seamlessly across participating websites. Newspaper websites, in particular, have to free themselves from the ancient calendar subscription model and the woeful online advertising model.
Sellout Crowd item
Robert Kimball - I read with interest The Frontier story on Sellout Crowd that Connecting picked up. Great stuff.
I connected because of my experience at Enterprise Radio in 1981 during which our satellite all-sports network went bye-bye in under 10 months. We endured lots of promises and empty paychecks - as did Sellout Crowd staffers.
Enterprise had some top talent including Canadian hockey and baseball announcer Don Chevrier and future New York Yankees voice John Sterling.
But unfortunately we were sunk by Bill Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN. It will be interesting how the national media handles his obituary - he still owes dozens of people thousands of dollars.
Stories of your first AP bureau
Peter M. Gehrig - What does a barely 20-year-old do after a four year stint in the (German) navy? He goes to the labor office in Frankfurt, Germany. And they had something on the books: Nightshift as a teletype operator with the German branch of the Associated Press.
My Navy career had sent me to assignments at the Military Committee of NATO in Washington D.C. and Brussels. I was practically a native English speaker. The man behind the counter shrugged when he asked about my qualifications and I answered: "I am very good at planning thermo-nuclear wars in Central Europe," replying: "There is not much demand for that in Frankfurt, right now, I am afraid." He gave me the AP address in the infamous Frankfurt Bahnhof quarters and I joined the team that very day. It was there I got my first exposure with AP's international staff not only in Frankfurt but, among others, chatting with the late Marcus Eliason in the Tel Aviv bureau over RTT to pass the boring night hours.
After I obtained a summa cum state exam as a Simultaneous Interpreter the AP offered me a job as a journalist on the foreign news desk of the German AP in Frankfurt which turned English copy into German news material. I did desk work and rose through the ranks under COBs like Dick O'Malley, Tom Fenton, Larry Heinzerling, Steve Miller and news editors like Frank Crepeau and Otto Doelling to name just a few. Besides turning out German copy I also helped on the International side when need arose, reporting for the World Service from Olympic Games, FIFA Soccer World Cups, international news events like the OPEC highjacking in Vienna in 1975.
In 1990 I was promoted to Chief Editor of the German language service, the position I held until the AP GmbH was sold to a group of investors in 2010.
In my 42+ years with the AP I met a legion of International staffers, to some I am still connected via FB today. Dave Minthorn, Larry Gerber, Steve Graham, Terence Petty, Bob Reid, Dan Perry, John Daniszewski, Kathy Gannon, Larry Thorson, Dave Lubeski, Karen Sloan .... again to name just a very few.
On the side: My favorite waiter is named Lou Boccardi. We were at a Vienna conference together once. On our way out at the Vienna airport lounge the then AP President and CEO got up and asked matter-of factly: Can I get anyone anything? I answered: Yes, a piece of Sacher cake and a coffee, no milk or sugar, please, meaning it more as a joke. Sure as hell, a few minutes later Lou came back, served the cake and coffee with a perfect bow asking: Will that be all? I was so surprised that I forgot to drop a gracious tip. We still joked about it years later.
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Larry Hamlin - My AP career started April 27, 1964 in Oklahoma City… I was 18, working part time for a roofing company, and not thinking too far down the road where I was headed career-wise. My dad had a friend whose father-in-law, Automatic Operator and former Traffic Bureau Chief Ray Wright, worked for the AP. Ray got word to my dad that AP was looking for a Copy Boy and thought I might be interested. Not knowing who or what the AP was, I called Traffic Bureau Chief Bob Fiveash and scheduled an interview. My interview was on Friday, April 24, 1964. I walked in the AP office on the 4th floor of the ‘old’ Daily Oklahoman building and was more than amazed at all the Teletype machines and the NOISE! My ‘interview’ lasted all of 15 minutes. The first question asked was, “Can you start Monday?" I answered yes and Bob wrote down my name, address, and SSN. He introduced me to the rest of the staff and, just like that, my 50-year AP career was off and running…or, as it were, traveling.
Fiveash approached me after about a year and asked what my plans were. He said they didn’t want Copy Boys dying on the job so I should probably think about a career move if I wanted to stay with the company. My only options were Automatic Operator and Maintenance Man (later changed to Technician). Since I didn’t know how to type at that time, I said I guess I need to learn how to be a Maintenance Man. After a few months under the expert tutelage of Fiveash and Maintenance Man Gene Harris, I was sent to NYC for further training in the 10th Avenue shop. I was only in NYC a few weeks when I got a most unpleasant greeting from Uncle Sam. After a brief, three-year stint in the Army, I reported back to AP Oklahoma City in December 1968 where I was allowed to continue my training.
My first Technician assignment, after WirePhoto training in the St. Louis Tech Center, was Alexandria, Louisiana. I was in Alexandria for about three months when A position opened in Oklahoma City and, as successful bidder, I was back home again. About a year later AP eliminated Automatic Operator positions in almost all bureaus and because of contract language, all union jobs in all positions were up for bid. I was bumped out of my job and didn’t have a clue what I was going to do next. I was offered an ACOC job in Dallas and without hesitation, or conferring with my wife, I accepted it. Imagine my wife’s surprise when I got home and told her we were moving to Dallas! After about three years in Dallas, my position was eliminated but I was given the ‘opportunity’ to be a Technical Service Manager in the East Brunswick, NJ, Tech Center (read the above sentence about my wife’s surprise and substitute Dallas with New Jersey). After about 11 years in New Jersey my wife and I were ready for a change. I took a leave of absence, we sold our house and moved back to Oklahoma City (but not necessarily in that order). About 9 months into my leave, I took a Technician job in Springdale, Arkansas. Three months later, in January 1987, a position opened in Oklahoma City and I’m back home… again! Interestingly, when I started with AP, Dan Perkes was the COB. When I was retired 50 years later, his son-in-law, Technology Manager Ron Bellafato, was my boss…
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Marc Wilson - Paul lists my first AP bureau and year as 1984 and Little Rock. But in my mind I started in Denver in 1973.
Denver COB Dorman Cordell hired me straight out of the University of Colorado J-School. But when I showed up in the Denver bureau in early June Dorman had bad news for me. The AP had just imposed a hiring freeze, but I could be employed for 16 weeks as a vacation reliever with a promise of the next full-time opening.
Weeks passed. I got nervous. A friend got me an interview with the Rocky Mountain News that led to a job offer. I also met my future wife at the Rocky. She was a copy editor.
Dorman kept in contact, and late in 1983 he called and said he had a permanent opening and would I please come back to the AP. I agreed, but after I turned in my notice Dorman informed me of another AP hiring freeze. I was hired on as vacation relief.
A full-time opening came in Little Rock in early 1984, and I accepted and moved to Arkansas.
Little Rock was vastly different than Denver AP. DX was a hub with all the duties of taking care of multiple states. LR was a statehouse bureau with just one state to worry about (and with a correspondingly smaller staff).
I’d join the Guild when I was in Denver because virtually the entire staff were members.
But when I got to Little Rock I was the only one of six staffers in the Guild. (News Editor Harry King, Lindel Hutson, Broadcast Editor Robert Lee Zimmer, Bill Simmons and M.J. Pearl were the others.)
COB John Robert Starr LOVED the Guild. He’d been the Guild chairman when he’d been on the staff. He said he was the first COB to have worked in only one bureau. And he claimed to hold the dual roles of COB and Guild Chairman for a couple of years before New York said he had to pick one or the other.
“You’re now the Guild chairman!” Starr informed me happily. “It’s a good thing – we need one to deal with the crazy management here.”
Starr did have a crazy streak to him. He refused to visit the Arkansas Gazette – then the state’s largest newspaper – because they had defeated his effort to bring the Guild to the Gazette when he was the local Guild Chairman. He claimed he got away with ignoring the AP’s most important Arkansas member because he was personal friends with AP GM Keith Fuller. He typically boycotted the AP state meetings. He detested broadcast members but fought to keep the dual title of COB and Regional Membership Executive.
One day he hollered for me to come into his office. “Wilson, get in here!”
“Yes, John Robert, what do you want?” I asked.
“This place is a pig-sty, isn’t it?” he asked, referring to a bureau that was mostly an enclosed alley.
“It’s OK by me,” I answered.
“Goddam Wilson, you’re the Guild chairman. I wrote New York for money to repaint the bureau but they turned me down. I need you as the Guild chairman to DEMAND that we fix us this place!”
“Whatever you want, John Robert.”
“I want you to demand better working conditions!”
“Whatever you say. You’re the boss.”
“No – you’re the Guild Chairman! You need to raise Hell with me!”
“OK, John Robert. Whatever you say."
“I’m going to tell New York that you demanded better working conditions.”
“Sure thing, John Robert.”
“I’ll tell I fought you hard but you were insistent.. Kind of an asshole.”
So he wrote New York and passed along my “demand”, and got approval and a budget to paint the bureau.
“You’re the best Guild chairman we’ve had since I left the job,” he told me.
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Evans Witt - I joined the AP in San Francisco on August 3, 1973, I believe. After receiving 31 quick rejections to my job applications after college, on one single day, I received an offer to do the night shift in Birmingham (lots of sports) and the night shift in San Francisco (lots of sports and thousands of miles from my hometown of Chattanooga). Being young, I agonized over the choice, until my old boss at the Chattanooga Times, Johnny Popham, told me, "Son, you’d be a damn fool not to go to San Francisco."
So off I went, driving my car packed with stuff across the country. I arrived in San Francisco and checked in with Jim Lagier, the bureau chief, and Marty Thompson, the news editor. My first shift was a Monday morning, starting at 8 a.m. So, of course, I showed up at 7:45 a.m. Jack Schreibman, the day supervisor, looked up as I walked through the door and then looked at the clock. "Get out of here! Your shift doesn't start until 8!" he said.
Despite that start, it was a marvelous time and staff in FX. MIke SIlverman as night editor, I think. Vicky Graham, Linda Kramer (Jennings) and Tim Reiterman were great reporters, writers and people. Sal Vader was one of the outstanding photographers. Later, I think Nancy Day and Mary McKinnon Ganz joined the crew. I am sure I have misspelled names and left out other great folks.
Bob Pendergast obituary
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 |  | Lyle Price - I noted Connecting's Tuesday obit and read it a day late re the death of Bob Pendergast and I wanted to put in a good word especially since there may few still around who served with him on the night shift in the LA AP bureau after I transferred there in April 1966 from San Francisco. Bob was an excellent newsman and a stand-up human being. The most entertaining moment that I recollect was when he a couple of others including myself took a good hour's lunch break to go to a bar near the LA Times where AP had its night bureau before moving all shifts into the same building across the street from the Herald-Examiner. None of us turned out to have a dime--or at least claimed that to be the case--and the bartender (whom can you imagine we'd somehow come to know!) was serving us a drink each in exchange for payment with knives, pens and whatever -- the occasion being that the barkeep was about to take another job at a bar a bit more distant and wanted to encourage us to go there at some future time. I think Bob may have done the talking in the payment deal. I didn't, at any rate. Yes, I know that story sounds like a tall tale, but believe me being able to talk a bartender into virtually free drinks isn't a gift that I could even pretend to have.
Bob was the younger brother of the late Tom Pendergast and the former had left AP either before I was sent to Sacramento to help cover the state Legislature's annual session which lasted from January 1967 until into September during the first year of Ronald Reagan's reign as governor. Bob either had quit AP by then or shortly after I returned to LA. I remember bidding him farewell, so I was one of the two time periods. FYI, Bob was the Guild unit chairman in LA and pretty active at it. When his brother became COB in LA sometime after the strike in January 1969, I used to wonder what it might have been like if Tom Pendergast had been in charge of the bureau when his brother was in charge of the Guild unit as I became following the chairman after him in 1967, I guess it was.
LA friends
|  | Retired AP/LA staffers Rachel Ambrose and Jeff Wilson got together for lunch Wednesday. Friend Susan Helm posed them in front of the Hollywood cameraman sculpture across the street from Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. | Connecting wishes Happy Birthday | |
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Stories of interest
How did CNN’s moderators do in the Biden-Trump debate? It almost didn’t matter that they were there (AP)
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) — To a large extent, it almost didn’t matter that Dana Bash and Jake Tapper were on stage.
The two CNN journalists prepared meticulously to moderate Thursday’s presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the first ever between a sitting president and his predecessor, and asked several sharp questions.
Not only were many of them ignored, but the impression that some Americans were left with about President Biden’s fitness for the job essentially had nothing to do with Bash and Tapper or their involvement in the program.
“There’s no question this was not what the Biden campaign wanted or needed,” said ABC’s Mary Bruce. After the debate, CNN’s John King pointed to his cell phone, saying he hadn’t seen anything like the concern expressed to him in text messages as the debate went on.
“There’s a full-on panic about this performance,” said NBC’s Chuck Todd.
Read more here.
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News nonprofit sues ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft for ‘exploitative’ copyright infringement (AP)
BY SARAH PARVINI AND MATT O’BRIEN
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Center for Investigative Reporting said Thursday it has sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its closest business partner, Microsoft, marking a new front in the news industry’s fight against unauthorized use of its content on artificial intelligence platforms.
The nonprofit, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal, said that OpenAI used its content without permission and without offering compensation, violating copyrights on the organization’s journalism. The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court, describes OpenAI’s business as “built on the exploitation of copyrighted works” and focuses on how AI-generated summaries of articles threaten publishers.
“It’s immensely dangerous,” Monika Bauerlein, the nonprofit’s CEO, told The Associated Press. “Our existence relies on users finding our work valuable and deciding to support it.”
Bauerlein said that “when people can no longer develop that relationship with our work, when they no longer encounter Mother Jones or Reveal, then their relationship is with the AI tool.”
That, she said, could “cut the entire foundation of our existence as an independent newsroom out from under us” while also threatening the future of other news organizations.
Read more here.
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AI In Newsrooms: New Survey Shows Audiences Are Warming Up To AI News Content, But Remain Skeptical (TVVewsCheck)
By Jon Accarrino
SmithGeiger’s Q2 2024 survey results reveal that audiences are still skeptical, but gradually warming up to AI-generated news content. Here’s a closer look at the new research findings and strategic insights for TV stations aiming to leverage AI while navigating the delicate balance of audience expectations and trust. (Jon Accarrino / MidJourney)
From SEO research to generating social media content, artificial intelligence has already become a valuable tool in many newsrooms. But how do audiences feel about AI being used by journalists? New research from SmithGeiger‘s Q2 2024 survey reveals both growing audience acceptance to AI being used to generate news content as well as lingering concerns around job displacement and how AI is used.
SmithGeiger Q2 2024 Survey: Audiences Cautiously Embrace AI In Newsrooms
The SmithGeiger study, which initially sampled 2,036 adults aged 18-64 representing the general population in the United States, provides valuable insights for TV station group owners, business leaders in tech and media, and news organizations developing AI integration strategies. The study first assessed AI awareness among all participants, then proceeded to ask more detailed questions about AI to the subset of respondents who demonstrated at least some awareness of the technology.
Read more here.
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Sewell Chan Named Editor of Columbia Journalism Review (New York Times)
By Katie Robertson
Sewell Chan, the editor in chief of The Texas Tribune, will become the next executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review.
Mr. Chan, 46, has helmed The Tribune, a pioneering nonprofit newsroom, since October 2021. He will join CJR on Sept. 16, the publication announced on Thursday.
CJR, which covers the media industry, has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. It now prints two magazines a year and runs a digital operation.
“It’s always been an intellectual leader in our field, especially on news ethics and decision-making,” Mr. Chan told The New York Times. “I want CJR to be a voice for working journalists who face existential challenges — from hedge fund owners to authoritarian leaders to online harassment — and to explain to the public why fact-based news is more important than ever.”
Read more here.
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Matthew Watkins named Texas Tribune’s next editor-in-chief, succeeding Sewell Chan (Texas Tribune)
BY SONAL SHAH
I’ve got big news to share: Matthew Watkins, a longtime staffer and veteran of Texas journalism, will take the reins as The Texas Tribune’s next editor in chief on Sept. 9. He will succeed Sewell Chan, who is returning to his hometown of New York City to serve as the executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review.
Matthew, currently our managing editor of news and politics, is the perfect leader for the Tribune’s next chapter. He has earned the trust of our journalists, as well as his colleagues across the organization, and understands the stories that matter most to Texans.
Matthew is a Texas native, born in Houston and raised in Austin. He attended public schools and graduated from Texas A&M University. He’s worked in Texas journalism his entire career, first at The Eagle in Bryan-College Station and then at The Dallas Morning News.
Read more here.
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AP classes, by the year...
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a listing of Connecting colleagues who have shared the year and the bureau where they started with the AP. If you would like to share your own information, I will include it in later postings. Current AP staffers are also welcome to share their information.)
1951 - Norm Abelson (Boston)
1953 – Charles Monzella (Huntington, WVa)
1955 – Henry Bradsher (Atlanta), Paul Harrington (Boston), Joe McGowan (Cheyenne)
1957 - Louis Uchitelle (Philadelphia)
1958 – Roy Bolch (Kansas City)
1959 – Charlie Bruce (Montgomery)
1960 – Claude Erbsen (New York), Carl Leubsdorf (New Orleans)
1961 – Peter Arnett (Jakarta, Indonesia), Strat Douthat (Charleston), Warren Lerude (San Diego), Ed Staats (Austin)
1962 – Paul Albright (Cheyenne), Malcolm Barr Sr. (Honolulu), Myron Belkind (New York), Kelly Smith Tunney (Miami)
1963 – Hal Bock (New York)
1964 – Rachel Ambrose (Indianapolis), Larry Hamlin (Oklahoma City), Ron Mulnix (Denver), Lyle Price (San Francisco), Arlene Sposato (New York), Hilmi Toros (New York)
1965 – Bob Dobkin (Pittsburgh), Harry Dunphy (Denver), John Gibbons (New York), Jim Luther (Nashville), Larry Margasak (Harrisburg)
1966 – Mike Doan (Portland, OR), Edie Lederer (New York), Nancy Shipley (Nashville), Mike Short (Los Angeles), Marty Thompson (Seattle), Nick Ut (Saigon), Kent Zimmerman (Chicago)
1967 – Dan Berger (Los Angeles), Adolphe Bernotas (Concord), Lou Boccardi (New York), Linda Deutsch (Los Angeles), Don Harrison (Los Angeles), Doug Kienitz (Cheyenne), David Liu (New York), Bruce Lowitt (Los Angeles), Chuck McFadden (Los Angeles), Martha Malan (Minneapolis), Bill Morrissey (Buffalo), Larry Paladino (Detroit), Michael Putzel (Raleigh), Bruce Richardson (Chicago), Richard Shafer (Baltimore), Victor Simpson (Newark), Michael Sniffen (Newark)
1968 – Lee Balgemann (Chicago), John Eagan (San Francisco), Joe Galu (Albany/Troy), Peter Gehrig (Frankfurt), Charles Hanley (Albany), Jerry Harkavy (Portland, Maine), Herb Hemming (New York), Brian King (Albany), Samuel Koo (New York), Karren Mills (Minneapolis), Michael Rubin (Los Angeles), Rick Spratling (Salt Lake City), Barry Sweet (Seattle)
1969 - Ann Blackman (New York), Ford Burkhart (Philadelphia), Dick Carelli (Charleston, WVa), Dennis Coston (Richmond), Mary V. Gordon (Newark), Daniel Q. Haney (Portland, Maine), Mike Harris (Chicago), Brad Martin (Kansas City), David Minthorn (Frankfurt), Cynthia Rawitch (Los Angeles), Bob Reid (Charlotte), Mike Reilly (New York), Doug Tucker (Tulsa), Bill Winter (Helena)
1970 – Richard Boudreaux (New York), Richard Drew (San Francisco), Bob Egelko (Los Angeles), Steve (Indy) Herman (Indianapolis), Tim Litsch (New York), Lee Margulies (Los Angeles), Chris Pederson (Salt Lake City), Brendan Riley (San Francisco), Larry Thorson (Philadelphia)
1971 – Harry Atkins (Detroit), Jim Bagby (Kansas City), Larry Blasko (Chicago), Jim Carlson (Milwaukee), Jim Carrier (New Haven), Chris Connell (Newark), Bill Gillen (New York), Bill Hendrick (Birmingham), John Lumpkin (Dallas), Kendal Weaver (Montgomery)
1972 – Hank Ackerman (New York), Bob Fick (St. Louis), Joe Frazier (Portland, Ore.), Terry Ganey (St. Louis), Mike Graczyk (Detroit), Denis Gray (Albany), Lindel Hutson (Little Rock), Brent Kallestad (Sioux Falls), Tom Kent (Hartford), Nolan Kienitz (Dallas), Andy Lippman (Phoenix), Ellen Miller (Helena), Mike Millican (Hartford), Lew Wheaton (Richmond)
1973 - Jerry Cipriano (New York), Susan Clark (New York), Norm Clarke (Cincinnati), Joe Galianese (East Brunswick), Merrill Hartson (Richmond), Mike Hendricks (Albany), Tom Journey (Tucson), Steve Loeper (Los Angeles), Tom Slaughter (Sioux Falls), Jim Spehar (Denver), Paul Stevens (Albany), Jeffrey Ulbrich (Cheyenne), Owen Ullmann (Detroit), John Willis (Omaha), Evans Witt (San Francisco)
1974 – Norman Black (Baltimore), David Espo (Cheyenne), Dan George (Topeka), Robert Glass (Philadelphia), Steve Graham (Helena), Elaine Hooker (Hartford), Sue Price Johnson (Charlotte), Dave Lubeski (Washington), Janet McConnaughey (Washington), Lee Mitgang (New York), Marc Wilson (Little Rock)
1975 – Peter Eisner (Columbus), David Powell (New York), Eileen Alt Powell (Milwaukee)
1976 – Brad Cain (Chicago), Judith Capar (Philadelphia), Dick Chady (Albany), Steve Crowley (Washington), David Egner (Oklahoma City), Marc Humbert (Albany), Richard Lowe (Nashville), Charlotte Porter (Minneapolis), Chuck Wolfe (Charlotte)
1977 – Bryan Brumley (Washington), Robert Burns (Jefferson City), Charles Campbell (Nashville), Dave Carpenter (Philadelphia), Ken Herman (Dallas), Mike Holmes (Des Moines), Brad Kalbfeld (New York), Scott Kraft (Jefferson City), John Kreiser (New York), Peter Leabo (Dallas), Kevin LeBoeuf (Los Angeles), Ellen Nimmons (Minneapolis), Dan Sewell (Buffalo), Estes Thompson (Richmond), David Tirrell-Wysocki (Concord)
1978 – Tom Eblen (Louisville), Ruth Gersh (Richmond), Doug Pizac (Los Angeles), Charles Richards (Dallas), Reed Saxon (Los Angeles), Steve Wilson (Boston)
1979 – Scotty Comegys (Chicago), Frances D’Emilio (San Francisco), Brian Friedman (Des Moines), Sally Hale (Dallas), Jill Lawrence (Harrisburg), Barry Massey (Kansas City), Phillip Rawls (Nashville), John Rice (Carson City), Linda Sargent (Little Rock), Robert Wielaard (Brussels)
1980 – Jeff Barnard (Providence), Mark Duncan (Cleveland), Bill Kaczor (Tallahassee), Mitchell Landsberg (Reno), Kevin Noblet (New Orleans), David Speer (Jackson), Hal Spencer (Providence), Carol J. Williams (Seattle)
1981 – Paul Davenport (Phoenix), Dan Day (Milwaukee), John Flesher (Raleigh), Len Iwanski (Bismarck), Ed McCullough (Albany), Kim Mills (New York), Mark Mittelstadt (Des Moines), Roland Rochet (New York), Lee Siegel (Seattle), Marty Steinberg (Baltimore), Bill Vogrin (Kansas City)
1982 – Dorothy Abernathy (Little Rock), Al Behrman (Cincinnati), Tom Cohen (Jefferson City), John Epperson (Chicago), Ric Feld (Atlanta), Nick Geranios (Helena), Hpward Gros (New Orleans), Robert Kimball (New York), Rob Kozloff (Detroit), Bill Menezes (Kansas City), David Ochs (New York)
1983 – Scott Charton (Little Rock), Sue Cross (Columbus), Mark Elias (Chicago), Diana Heidgerd (Miami), Sheila Norman-Culp (New York), Carol Esler Ochs (New York), Amy Sancetta (Philadelphia), Rande Simpson (New York), Dave Skidmore (Milwaukee)
1984 – Owen Canfield (Oklahoma City), Wayne Chin (Washington), Jack Elliott (Oklahoma City), Kelly P. Kissel (New Orleans), Joe Macenka (Richmond), Eva Parziale (San Francisco), Keith Robinson (Columbus), Cliff Schiappa (Kansas City), David Sedeño (Dallas), Andrew Selsky (Cheyenne), Patty Woodrow (Washington)
1985 - Betty Kumpf Pizac (Los Angeles)
1986 – Joni Baluh Beall (Richmond), David Beard (Jackson), Tom Coyne (Columbia, SC), Dave DeGrace (Milwaukee), Alan Flippen (Louisville), Jim Gerberich (San Francisco), Howard Goldberg (New York), Mark Hamrick (Dallas), Sandy Kozel (Washington), Robert Meyers (London)
1987 – Donna Abu-Nasr (Beirut), Dave Bauder (Albany), Chuck Burton (Charlotte), Beth Harris (Indianapolis), Lynne Harris (New York), Steven L. Herman (Charleston, WVa), Rosemarie Mileto (New York), John Rogers (Los Angeles)
1988 – Chris Carola (Albany), Peg Coughlin (Pierre), Kathy Gannon (Islamabad), Steve Hart (Washington), Melissa Jordan (Sioux Falls), Bill Pilc (New York), Kelley Shannon (Dallas)
1989 – Ted Bridis (Oklahoma City), Charlie Arbogast (Trenton), Ron Fournier (Little Rock)
1990 – Frank Fisher (Jackson), Dan Perry (Bucharest), Steve Sakson (Baltimore), Sean Thompson (New York)
1991 – Amanda Kell (Richmond), Santiago Lyon (Cairo), Lisa Pane (Hartford), Ricardo Reif (Caracas), Bill Sikes (Buffalo)
1992 – Kerry Huggard (New York)
1993 – Jim Salter (St. Louis)
1996 – Patricia N. Casillo (New York)
1997 - Pamela Collins (Dallas), Madhu Krishnappa Maron (New York), Jim Suhr (Detroit), Jennifer Yates (Baltimore)
2000 – Gary Gentile (Los Angeles)
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Today in History – June 28, 2024 |  | |
Today is Friday, June 28, the 180th day of 2024. There are 186 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History: On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death in Sarajevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, an act that sparked World War I.
Also on this date:
In 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Maj. Gen. George G. Meade the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, following the resignation of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.
In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles (vehr-SY’) was signed in France, ending the First World War.
In 1939, Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles, France.
In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Alien Registration Act, also known as the Smith Act, which required adult foreigners residing in the U.S. to be registered and fingerprinted.
In 1950, North Korean forces captured Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton became the first chief executive in U.S. history to set up a personal legal defense fund and ask Americans to contribute to it.
In 2000, seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba.
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that Americans had the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they lived.
In 2012, the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation, narrowly survived, 5-4, an election-year battle at the U.S. Supreme Court with the improbable help of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.
In 2017, a man armed with a shotgun attacked a newspaper in Annapolis, Md., killing four journalists and a staffer before police stormed the building and arrested him; authorities said Jarrod Ramos had a long-running grudge against the newspaper for its reporting of a harassment case against him. (Ramos was convicted and was given more than five life terms without the possibility of parole.)
In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields, who deliberately drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a young woman and injuring dozens, apologized to his victims before being sentenced to life in prison on federal hate crime charges.
In 2022, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
Today’s Birthdays: Comedian-movie director Mel Brooks is 98. Diplomat and politician Hans Blix is 96. Comedian-impressionist John Byner is 86. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is 86. Actor Bruce Davison is 78. Actor Kathy Bates is 76. Actor Alice Krige is 70. Football Hall of Famer John Elway is 64. Jazz singer Tierney Sutton is 61. Actor Jessica Hecht is 59. Rock musician Saul Davies (James) is 59. Actor Mary Stuart Masterson is 58. Actor John Cusack is 58. Actor Gil Bellows is 57. Actor Tichina Arnold is 55. Entrepreneur Elon Musk is 53. Actor Alessandro Nivola (nih-VOH’-luh) is 52. Rock musician Mark Stoermer (The Killers) is 47. Writer-director Florian Zeller is 45. Country singer Kellie Pickler is 38. Olympic track star Elaine Thompson-Herah is 32.
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Connecting is a daily newsletter published Monday through Friday that reaches more than 1,800 retired and former Associated Press employees, present-day employees, and news industry and journalism school colleagues. It began in 2013. Past issues can be found by clicking Connecting Archive in the masthead. Its author, Paul Stevens, retired from the AP in 2009 after a 36-year career as a newsman in Albany and St. Louis, correspondent in Wichita, chief of bureau in Albuquerque, Indianapolis and Kansas City, and Central Region vice president based in Kansas City.
Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!
Here are some suggestions:
- Connecting "selfies" - a word and photo self-profile of you and your career, and what you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.
- Second chapters - You finished a great career. Now tell us about your second (and third and fourth?) chapters of life.
- Spousal support - How your spouse helped in supporting your work during your AP career.
- My most unusual story - tell us about an unusual, off the wall story that you covered.
- "A silly mistake that you make"- a chance to 'fess up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.
- Multigenerational AP families - profiles of families whose service spanned two or more generations.
- Volunteering - benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories - with ideas on such work they can do themselves.
- First job - How did you get your first job in journalism?
- Most unusual place a story assignment took you.
Paul Stevens
Editor, Connecting newsletter
paulstevens46@gmail.com
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