Journalism and the Palmetto State of play

Union County, South Carolina was barely on the map in 1993. There was no easy way to get there by interstate highway. It wasn’t even the place drivers ended up by accident. It was one of those places that traverlers only went on purpose. By October 1994, nearly everyone in America had heard of the rural county in the middle of nowhere.

The Susan Smith story put Union County on the map. The woman’s lie held everybody breathless. The claim that a black man had carjacked Smith’s vehicle and run off with her children set the county on edge and handcuffed the nation’s attention. Smith held fast to her story. It seemed nothing could break her. Then Sheriff Howard Wells took Smith’s hand and prayed with her.

It was a simple little cop trick he played. He told a a white lie that set her off her tracks. Moments later, as Wells would tell a jury, Smith asked for his service weapon so she could kill herself. The young blonde woman confessed and Wells became, for the moment, the best lawman on this side of the Mississippi.

Fourteen years can change a lot. Smith is in prison for life. Wells is no longer the sheriff. He is now, with three other man, under federal indictment.

The case itself takes a long time to explain. It involves lying to federal investigators, kickbacks, county government corruption, and, on the sexiest of angles, using a county office as a stash house for cocaine and prescription drugs. The best reporting on the story thus far is coming from the Spartanburg Hearld-Journal. Check out this explainer to get a feel for the depth and importance of the story.

Of course, someone has to come in and save the day. Someone has to bring order to the chaos. Someone has a job to do. And that brings me to a picture that pretty much defines South Carolina as it stands today.

That’s a photo taken by Gerry Pate in yesterday’s SHJ story from top reporter Jason Spencer in which we learn that Governor Mark Sanford (yes, thatMark Sanford) headed up to Union County to appoint and swear in a new county clerk to replace the one who resigned while under State Law Enforcement Division investigation.

And people wonder why I never bothered to leave the Palmetto State.

It was the SHJ’s Spencer who tipped me to a fantastic L.A. Times article on the state I’ve called home for a decade. Here’s the CliffsNotes version:

It’s the latter of these that makes reporters like Spencer (who you can follow on Twitter here) such an asset to people like me–voracious news consumers who need real reporting, regular follow-ups, and subjects that are more than just “talk around the water cooler” material. Spencer doesn’t spend his day looking for stories that will make people buy his paper on one day. He looks for stories that will make people buy his paper every day.

Over the past 15 years since the Susan Smith story, it’s been hard not to notice a shift in the people who manage journalists. While the business of TV news and newspapers has always been about making money, it’s becoming more and more common to see news managers and producers shrug off what used to be the first order of the day: journalism. Now, it’s not uncommon to hear the top dogs say without a hint of regret, “It’s a business. We’re here to make money.”

That’s where the line is and why there are so many complaints about the state of journalism today. The good news managers are the ones who find ways to appease the corporate overlords while still respecting the tenets of journalism. Those people still exist, but they are becoming increasingly hard to find. My friend CJ (with whom, admittedly, I have many a disagreement) is one of them. He is one of the people who can remain true to his craft while still respecting he has to make money for his company. There is nothing wrong with either side of the coin, but it takes a pretty talented person to not go the easy route and cheapen the news by turning into a televised online forum where people post pictures of their kids and dogs.

When I first heard Elise Hu and Matt Stiles were getting out of the business, I chalked it up to two more people who weren’t up to fighting the losing battle in which I surrendered five years ago. Then I heard where they were going, and I couldn’t be more proud to know them.

Hu and Stiles are among a small group of Texas journalists who are starting up the non-profit Texas Tribune, a fresh media outlet with the stated goal of being “‘A non-profit, nonpartisan public media organization” with the mission “promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern.”

It’s one of those “wow…just wow” concepts that makes me remember why I believed in journalism in the first place.

To point out the Texas Tribune as something fantastic is not to say that all media outlets should follow the example and go non-profit. However, it should provide inspiration for all journalists to find a way to work on stories that matter, a way to make people watch when their kid is not on TV, and a way to look at themselves in the mirror and think, “I did something good today.”

South Carolina is a great place to be a journalist and people who manage journalists in this state would do well to remember they have a lot of extraordinary opportunities to do good work here. There is no lack of material, and just because it’s harder and doesn’t show results in the daily ratings books, it doesn’t mean that people don’t hunger for it and won’t pay for it if you do it right.

As the L.A. Times story reminded us, in 1860 an attorney named James Petigru called South Carolina, “too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.”

And that’s a place where real journalism should thrive.