From
Editor and Publisher
The date was October 10, 1973. Jack Carlton was the night copy editor at Tribune Review, owned by Richard Mellon Scaife.
After reading a wire service report on the Agnew resignation, a reporter at the Tribune-Review named Jude Dippold said, quite presciently, "One down and one to go." Of course, the "one to go" was President Richard Nixon, then embroiled in the Watergate scandal.
Word quickly got back to Scaife, who had purchased the paper four years earlier, and who had donated $1 million to Nixon's 1972 campaign against George McGovern. Two days later, Dippold was fired. The Columbia Journalism Review declared that the reason was that "his political views didn't mesh with editorial policy."
Carlton argued with Scaife about the firing, and ended up quitting in protest. Within hours, 10 of the paper's 24-person editorial staff also quit.
"He had a lot of principle," Dippold, now managing editor of the Warren (Pa.) Times Observer told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past weekend. "There was no need for him to quit when I was fired, but he saw that it was wrong and said 'I'm not going to put up with this.'"
I wonder how many people today would be so courageous. This is the kind of person we need to remember. It isn't getting any easier to stand up for what you believe; it's harder, if anything, because of the chill in the political climate. Our health insurance is tied to our jobs, our homes are mortgaged, our families need to be fed.
We need to remember Jack Carlton, who stood up for his beliefs. He died of heart failure last Friday at the age of 71.