Remembering T. R. Hanrahan

Like a moth seeking the light, T. R. Hanrahan could never resist jobs where the better you did, the more likely you were to be fired.

He believed in the First Amendment, he believed in the power of journalism to shine a light on activity that others wanted to keep hidden and more than anything, he believed in inspiring young journalists to seek the truth.

That rare shining light (sprinkled with profanity,) shines no more.

The death this week of Thomas R. Hanrahan at age 57 comes after years of deteriorating health and was accompanied by heartfelt remembrances from those whose lives he touched, particularly the young journalists who benefited from his guidance.

In a Facebook post Friday, Rebecca Haines, who specialized in features during her years at the Carthage Press, told the story of how T. R. guided her in that direction:

TR knew I was a feature writer before I did.

One semester, I wasn't really enjoying a certain class in the world of communications because the teacher was very stern. She was a very by-the-book kind of teacher, and after venting about her in The Chart office, TR had a special assignment for me.

He had arranged for me to go to this teacher's home, interview her and write about her.

I was only about a minute into my visit with this teacher and saw her in a completely different light. She was an artist - done beautiful work - I loved her warm home and she and I had the best visit together.
I came back to that Chart office with nothing but good things to say about her, and there was TR ... with that smirk.

I never complained about her class again.

And I fell in love with feature writing because it opens the door to seeing people in completely different, wonderful ways.

Others shared similar stories.

I met T. R. in 2008 at a Missouri College Media Association conference at Missouri Southern where I gave a presentation on blogging and corresponded with him frequently through e-mail and Facebook for the next seven years. That time included the highlight of his years at MSSU- the coverage of University President Bruce Speck.

A misconception about the job of adviser for a college or university newspaper is that the adviser is the one who chooses what stories the students are going to cover. While the adviser offers advice and makes sure the students maintain standards and ethics, it is the students who direct the coverage.

And let's face it, when Bruce Speck was university president, it would have been journalistic malpractice for the students not to investigate the damage he was doing to MSSU.

Speck repaid T. R. Hanrahan by firing him.

I wrote about in the April 23, 2011 Turner Report:

Hanrahan, who does not have tenure, was told a few days ago his services would not be required for the fall semester. Many were surprised he lasted this long. His young staff broke one story after another revealing controversy and incompetence during the three years the university has been led by President Bruce Speck.

Hanrahan never backed down from his belief that a reporter’s job is to seek the truth. Not once did he tell the young people under his charge to back off a story because it dealt with a sensitive subject. He never took the easy route. Had he done so, he might still have a job.

A few weeks ago, the Chart won MCMA’s Sweepstakes Award as the best newspaper in its division, while its editor, Brennan Stebbins, was named Journalist of the Year, for exposing the university’s hiring, without a background check, of an accounting teacher who had pleaded guilty to embezzling at least $130,000 when he worked at the William McKinley Museum in Canton, Ohio.

That was just the latest in a string of scoops that embarrassed university officials, including the following:

-A complete investigation into the hiring of Speck, who was the only person interviewed for the position.

-One of Speck’s underlings removing all copies of the newspaper from a recruitment fair because it had stories that were critical of the university.

-Complete coverage of a faculty vote of no confidence in Speck’s administration

--Coverage of the president’s refusal to speak with members of the media, including the Chart, and a strong editorial noting how juvenile it was for the president to stay silent on important issues.

That is only a partial list. Were it not for the hard working young reporters at the Chart, the taxpayers would have remained blissfully unaware of what was going on in this area’s most prominent institution of higher learning.

For a long time, the Joplin Globe did not print anything about the controversy at MSSU. Finally, one intrepid reporter, Greg Grisolano, began mining the nuggets that had been unearthed by the Chart and delivered a series of hard-hitting stories that earned him investigative reporting awards.

Unfortunately, by the time he received those awards, Grisolano had been pulled off the beat and the critical focus on the university was abandoned by the area’s paper of record.

The reasons why were revealed in an e-mail sent from Joplin Globe Publisher Michael Beatty, formerly the publisher of the Baltimore Examiner, to Speck.

In that April 6, 2010, e-mail, Beatty said he had put a stop to Freedom of Information requests filed by Grisolano, offered to bring the newspaper’s editor to meet with Speck to give him "examples of positive stories" the Globe wanted to run about MSSU, and offered Speck advice on how to manage the news to avoid further controversy.

The university and some of its top financial supporters are major Joplin Globe advertisers.

The Globe publisher’s shirking of his responsibilities as a newspaper publisher would have remained a secret, as I am sure Beatty intended, had it not been for a Freedom of Information request filed by The Chart.

The job done by the Chart staff, under T. R. Hanrahan’s direction, has been a sterling example, not just of what student journalism should be, but what journalism should be.

At a time when the First Amendment was under siege in this community, the Joplin Globe (under different management at that time) didn't lift a finger to support the students.

T. R. Hanrahan was the one who put his job on the line and never once hesitated, writing about it a November 23, 2011, blog post.

I taught young people that reporting is a noble profession. Every student editor I worked with but one is employed by a newspaper. 

My students broke stories and finished in the money for national awards with the likes of The Harvard Crimson and students from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. My colleagues named me Missouri College Media Association Adviser of the Year in 2010. My students selected me Teacher of the Year in 2011. And my school’s Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution of thanks for my work. Then I got fired.

But everything we published was accurate and ethical.

I am unemployed. I am a college media adviser.

You bet your ass I am a journalist.