Garnett accepts Gish Award at symposium

Uvalde Leader-News Publisher Craig Garnett (center) accepted the Tom and Pat Gish Award from the Institute for Rural Journalism, represented by Al Cross, (left) director emeritus, and Benjy Hamm, director, during the recent symposium Celebrating Courage, Tenacity, Integrity and Innovation in Rural Journalism at UT Austin.

From the Texas Center for Community Journalism

AUSTIN – Journalists, students and media professionals from across the state were on hand to see Uvalde Leader-News Publisher Craig Garnett honored at the recent “Courage, Tenacity, Integrity and Innovation in Rural Journalism” symposium at the University of Texas.

The free, one-day conference included panel discussions and an awards luncheon.

Garnett is the 2023 winner of the Tom and Pat Gish Award in part for his newspaper’s relentless and courageous coverage of the 2022 school shooting that left two Uvalde teachers and 19 children dead.

“There is no one more deserving of this award than Craig Garnett,” Al Cross, director emeritus of the Institute for Rural Journalism at the University of Kentucky, told the crowd of more than 80 in attendance. “The award recognizes not only Craig’s courageous coverage and commentary about the tragedy, but his longtime willingness to tell hard truths about things that matter in Uvalde County.”

The award is named for the couple who published The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Kentucky, for more than 50 years. Their son and successor, Ben Gish, is on the award selection committee. He said of Garnett and the Leader-News:

“It’s one thing to read national news accounts about law enforcement not moving quickly enough to save the lives of many of the victims, but it’s entirely something else to read the local newspaper’s far deeper accounts of that continuing controversy. . . . The Leader-News does not hesitate when it comes to letting family members of the victims have their say, nor does it shy away from printing the responses of those whose actions, or lack thereof, are being questioned.”

Garnett accepted the Gish honor virtually at the 2023 Al Smith Awards Dinner. He formally received the award at the Austin event.

The symposium was co-sponsored by the IRJ, the Texas Center for Community Journalism at Tarleton State University, and the Center for Ethical Leadership in Media of the UT School of Journalism and Media.

The morning panel was moderated by IRJ director Benjy Hamm and featured Garnett along with Randy Keck, editor and publisher of The Community News in Aledo.

Former Gish Award recipient Laurie Ezzell Brown of The Canadian Record was slated to be on the panel as well, but she was unable to attend due to the Panhandle wildfires that were affecting her community at the time. Brown won the Gish Award in 2007. Cross spoke on her behalf during the morning panel discussion.

The afternoon panel was moderated by Austin Lewter, director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism. It focused on successful innovation in rural journalism and featured John Starkey of newly nonprofit Rambler Texas Media, in addition to Daniel Walker.

Walker bought the Vernon Daily Record, Burkburnett Informer Star and Clay County Leader last year and launched the brand-new Iowa Park Journal on Feb. 1, 2024.

Walker told symposium attendees that community journalism is alive and well in Texas.

“To all of you students here,” he said, “I implore upon you to give community journalism a try. Newspapers are as viable as ever…You can have a hell of a lot of fun and make a hell of a lot of money — and do work that matters.”

Another Panhandle publisher, Tara Huff of the Eagle Press in Hutchinson County, was slated to appear on the afternoon panel. She too was unable to attend due to the wildfires.

Bill Patterson, publisher of the Denton Record Chronicle joined the panel in Huff’s place.

“This was a wonderful event,” Lewter said. “Community journalism is a tribe — a fraternity. Any time you get this many smart people in one room, great ideas ensue. That’s what happened here today. We are blessed to have so many wonderful people in the Texas press corps. I agree with Danny (Walker), the future is bright.”

In addition to journalists and managers, the event was also attended by journalism students from Tarleton State and the University of Texas.

“This was an eye-opening conversation,” Tarleton student journalist Haeley Carpenter said. “Getting to know these people has been amazing. More than anything, I came away energized and inspired.”

The Tarleton students produced a video account of the event that is available on the Center’s website, www.tccjtsu.edu.