MURFREESBORO — Journalism icon John Seigenthaler,
a First Amendment champion, civil rights advocate and devoted friend of Middle
Tennessee State University, died Friday at the age of 86.
Seigenthaler, who
lent his name and his prodigious talents to the Chair of Excellence in First
Amendment Studies at MTSU, passed away at his Nashville home with his family at
his side, according to his son, fellow journalist John Michael Seigenthaler.
In 1986, MTSU
established the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment
Studies to honor Seigenthaler's lifelong commitment to free expression.
The Seigenthaler
Chair, housed in the College of Mass Communication, supports a variety of
activities related to free speech, free press rights and other topics of
concern for contemporary journalism, including distinguished visiting
professors and visiting lecturers at MTSU, research related to free expression,
and seminars and meetings dedicated to expressive freedom.
MTSU President
Sidney A. McPhee, who is in China on an international educational excursion
with a group of Rutherford County youngsters, their parents and MTSU
representatives, expressed his grief at Seigenthaler's death and his gratitude
for Seigenthaler's service to the university, the state and the nation.
"John
Seigenthaler's impact upon our university was profound, meaningful and enduring,”
said McPhee. “His friendship and counsel has been invaluable to me as
president, both professionally and personally, and I know I speak for the
entire university community in expressing our deep sorrow on his passing.
"John's
unparalleled leadership as a journalist and an advocate of the First Amendment
was an inspiration to our students and faculty. His deep and prolonged
involvement at our university helped build and propel our College of Mass
Communication in scholarship and service. He was a fixture on our campus.
"Elizabeth
(McPhee) and I are heartbroken by this loss and send our deepest condolences to
John's wife, Dolores, and the entire family. John was a dear friend and will be
missed."
Seigenthaler was a
reporter, editor, publisher and CEO of The Tennessean as well as an
administrative assistant for then-U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
After serving as founding editorial director for USA Today, he established the
Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University in 1991.
Ken Paulson, dean of
the College of Mass Communication and a longtime friend of Seigenthaler's
through their work together at USA Today and the First Amendment Center, called
the elder journalist a "truly special man."
"John was one
of those rare people who was even better than his great reputation," said
Paulson, who also serves as president of the First Amendment Center.
"A man of great
integrity, passion and compassion, his commitment to the First Amendment and
journalism was unflagging. He loved this university and its students and would
do anything he could to help. We've lost a very good man."
Seigenthaler and his
family created and supported the MTSU journalism scholarship that bears his
name in the College of Mass Communication, and he has served since 2005 as the
chair of the college's Board of Professional Advisors.
The School of
Journalism at MTSU launched the Seigenthaler News Service in 2012, a unique
program for outstanding young journalists that lets them work full-time as reporters
covering activities in U.S. District Courts and other federal law enforcement
operations at the Federal Court House in Nashville.
Seigenthaler also
was inducted in April 2013 as a member of the inaugural class of the Tennessee
Journalism Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is housed at MTSU's John Bragg Mass
Communication Building inside the Center for Innovation in Media.
The list of people
who served as chairholder for the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence at MTSU
reads like a Who's Who of media and includes Wallace Westfeldt, former producer
for NBC and ABC News; Bill Kovach, former editor of The New York Times and
curator of the Nieman Fellowships at Harvard; Tom Wicker, former columnist for
The New York Times; John Henry Faulk, humorist and popular CBS radio
personality blacklisted during the Red Scare and a hero of free expression
rights; Jim Squires, former editor of The Chicago Tribune; author and
journalist Wallace Terry; television journalist Sander Vanocur; former U.S.
News & World Report Washington bureau chief John Mashek; and Seigenthaler
himself.
Three current MTSU
professors also have helmed the Seigenthaler Chair: Chris Clark, one of the
longest-tenured TV anchors in American history with 41 years at WTVF-TV, whose
advocacy for public information access led the Tennessee Supreme Court to allow
TV cameras in the state's courtrooms; Beverly Keel, entertainment journalist
and music industry executive who now leads MTSU's Department of Recording
Industry; and Wendell "Sonny" Rawls, Pulitzer Prize winner for
investigative reporting at the Philadelphia Inquirer and a former director of
the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists.
Seigenthaler was
part of an April 17 Windham Lecture Series event at MTSU that featured one of
his former reporters at the Tennessean, MTSU alumnus Keel Hunt, along with
Tennessee's senior U.S. senator, Lamar Alexander, and former U.S. Attorney Hal
Hardin for an in-depth discussion of the unprecedented 1979 bipartisan ouster of
a corrupt governor.
Hunt interviewed the
trio for his book "Coup: The Day the Democrats Ousted Their Governor, Put
Republican Lamar Alexander in Office Early, and Stopped a Pardon Scandal."
"The days and
weeks prior to this, all of the media in Tennessee was telling the story,
either in print or in broadcast, the story of the scandal," said
Seigenthaler that night. He wrote the forward to Hunt's book and was editor in
chief of The Tennessean at the time of Gov. Ray Blanton's ouster.
"There were
very few people in the state at the time who didn’t understand that this
scandal, this crisis, was on us," said Seigenthaler.
You can read a more
extensive story on Seigenthaler's career and contributions at http://ow.ly/z4br1. The cover story of
the Nashville Scene also offers a personal perspective from a former competitor
at http://ow.ly/z3SX2.
You can watch a
video of John and John Michael Seigenthaler, a former weekend anchor for NBC
News in New York who now anchors Al Jazeera America’s prime-time news program, from
their September 2011 "Living the First Amendment" conversation at MTSU
at http://youtu.be/Onb62YxbOAo.
A video from the
Windham Lecture Series event in April is available at http://youtu.be/nbveNi-5Wzo.
Visitation with John
Seigenthaler's family and friends is set from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the First
Amendment Center on the Vanderbilt University campus, located at 1207 18th Ave.
S. in Nashville. Funeral services will be conducted at 10 a.m. Monday at the
Cathedral of the Incarnation, 2015 West End Ave.
You can learn more
about MTSU’s John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies
at http://www.mtsu.edu/masscomm/chair_mc.php.
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