The Joplin Business Journal, Joplin Daily, and now the Springfield News-Leader have been added to the news sources that have stories about the death of former Joplin Globe Editor Tom Murray on their websites.
The first link I placed to the Murray story Monday came from a Kentucky publication.
So far, unless something was included in today's print edition, which I have not seen yet, the Joplin Globe, where Murray spent most of his life, has not run a separate article on its former editor, only a one-paragraph death notice and a paid obituary.
I do not know the reason for this appalling news judgment, perhaps it dates back to the circumstances of Mr. Murray's departure from the Globe, but a newspaper's responsibility is to report on news of importance to its community. Sometimes that involves going back to the past and reminding the readers why someone was important. For a long time, Tom Murray played a powerful role in the city of Joplin. It was he, just like Edgar Simpson today, who decided what stories the Globe covered and what kind of placement they should receive. And in a one-newspaper town, which the Globe was during that era, that made Mr. Murray an important person.
I have written this many times before, but a newspaper can be judged by the way it handles the passing of prominent people. That definitely applies to those who have been prominent, but Mr. Murray fits into both categories. Not only was he a major figure in Joplin media in the past, but he made a comeback this year as editor and publisher at the Joplin Business Journal.
Of course, this decision was made by the same people, who ran longtime Globe columnist Gary Garton's death on page three, while running a months-old picture of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake and the infamous wardrobe malfunction on page one.
7 comments:
Randy,
This is what the Joplin Globe ran in yesterday's paper. It's identical to all of the links you are posting in your several posts about the globe not running anything except the obituary. Here's the text the Globe ran: (it's on their Web site under "Obituaries, Aug. 7, 2006)
Compare.
Longtime Joplin journalist, Thomas Patrick Murray, 60, died at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006, at his home after a three month battle with cancer.
Tom was born Sept. 21, 1945, in Joplin, to James Francis and Louise Godbout Murray. He was a graduate of McAuley High School and attended Pittsburg State University and Missouri Southern State University. Tom was a sports writer for the Joplin Globe and the Louisville Courier-Journal. Returning to Joplin, as a sports writer, he later moved into management positions spending 34 years at the Joplin Globe. In September 2005, he was the founding editor of the Joplin Business Journal, which he served as publisher/executive editor at the time of his death.
Tom married Leah Alfers on March 17, 1973, in Axtell, Kan. She survives.
Tom was preceded in death by his parents; infant brother, Gerald; and sister, Dorothy; brother, J. Leon; sister, Helen Louise Nelson and her husband, John E. Nelson; and brother-in-law, Eugene L. Travis.
Additional survivors include one daughter, Christine Cochran and husband, Todd, of Washington, DC; one son, Sean, Joplin; a sister, Kathleen Travis, Joplin; brothers, James Murray and wife, Rosa, of Salina, Kan., Jack Murray and wife, Betty, of Duenweg and Dick Murray and wife, Saundra, of Bella Vista, Ark.; and numerous nephews and nieces.
The family will receive friends Monday from 7 to 8 p.m. at Parker Mortuary chapel. Funeral services will be Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Graveside services will be Wednesday at St. Michael’s Cemetery, North of Axtell, Kan.
Memorial contributions to McAuley Library or to the Sisters of Mercy - Omaha Region, Health and Retirement Fund, in honor of Tom Murray.
You are absolutely right, but with the Joplin Globe, the story should have run separately from the obituaries. The death of a prominent citizen or one who has been involved in an important story is news. Tom Murray should have received the same kind of page-one coverage that the Globe recently afforded Granny Shaffer, but did not afford to its own Gary Garton or to Mr. Murray. These other publications in Kentucky, Springfield, and elsewhere, had no obligation or necessity of putting Mr. Murray's story anywhere other than the obituary section, the Globe did.
I doubt Tom would have even run news of his death on the front page, unless it involved a toad, can of beer and nine-iron.
In that case, I would have respectfully questioned his news judgment, too.
Just out of curiosity Randy, do you expect the Carthage Press to memorialize you on the front page when you kick?
Randy will never "kick," he'll just blog away.
Sorry couldn't resist.
I'm sure champaign will be toasted in the newsrooms when Randy dies. Then someone will ask his family for $300 to report the news.
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