Louisville Magazine

FEB 2014

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/250528

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 51 of 100

arts, local politics and state government; soon it will add community health. Reynolds had been watching the rise of nonproft investigative journalism via such organizations as ProPublica, which won Pulitzer Prizes in 2011 and 2010. Te idea seemed a natural for public radio. Generally, these enterprises start from scratch, without so much as the appropriate nonproft tax status. "And then they don't have the facilities, they don't have the funding structures, and it's been rough for them to get going," Reynolds says. "I thought, if we nurtured (an investigative team) within public radio, we already have the 501c3 (nonproft tax status). with a series questioning the park's safety. Hart sued and won before a jury, but WHAS appealed. Te case eventually landed in the state Supreme Court, which found in Hart's favor in a 4-3 ruling. Te legal wrangling went on for 10 years. "We're probably one of a handful, a handful, of companies that ever successfully won a defamation lawsuit involving electronic media," Hart says. But at least one of the justices thought that victory came at a steep cost to journalism. In a dissenting opinion, Justice William Cooper wrote, "Te real tragedy of today's decision, however, is that it signifcantly diminishes the 'breathing space' led to a Sept. 25 exploration of the culture of harassment in the Kentucky legislature, and a second story that uncovered holes in the criminal-justice system. On Dec. 6, readers of the News and Tribune in Southern Indiana learned about Richard Carley Hooten, a six-time felon arrested in the murder of a 17-year-old Clarksville girl on March 2, 2013. Te story detailed how the man charged with the rape and murder of Tara Rose Willenborg had a long record of sexual assaults and violent crimes, a record that courts seemed to ignore in plea bargains and delays that allowed him to roam free. Te story, "Te Man "You will see our stories in print. You will see our stories on television. You will always hear them on FPL, and on our website," says Center for Investigative Reporting managing editor Brendan McCarthy. We already have the building. We already have the fund-raising structure. We already have a membership structure in place. Maybe we can make this work within Louisville Public Media." An initial positive discussion with the LPM board led him to develop the concept further with the help of R.G. Dunlop, an investigative reporter who had recently retired from the Courier-Journal. Dunlop, whom Reynolds called "the dean of investigative reporters in this community," is now part of the Center for Investigative Reporting. As plans came together, Reynolds turned to Hart. "I was told he was someone who had an interest in investing in local journalism," Reynolds says. You might say Hart's interest in the efort was personal. On July 26, 1994, during his frst stint as owner of Kentucky Kingdom, there was an accident in the park. Two cars collided in the dark on a ride called the Starchaser. Five people were injured, including a seven-year-old whose liver was lacerated. Hart says he immediately released information about the accident, attributing it to an error by the ride operator. But WHASTV reported that the ride was unsafe, the accident caused by a mechanical problem. Hart protested. Te station declined to retract the claim, then followed up its initial broadcast . . . that is imperative for a vigorous and competent press." He added, "Te majority's departure from the protections provided by theĀ First Amendment and our common law will have a deleterious efect on the openness of societal debate on public matters." But Hart doesn't see it that way. "It's not a victory against journalism. Tis is a victory for journalism. Because good journalists don't want to compete with bad journalists." Hart is the frst to raise the issue of how LPM might cover him and his business as a result of his donation. "I don't want it to be perceived that we would have any infuence on the newsroom; nor will there be an occasion when I pick up the phone and complain about something. I'm never going to initiate any form of a story. And if I did, they wouldn't listen to me. We have this serious Chinese wall," Hart says. And if someone sues LPM for tough investigative reporting, Hart says, "the truth is going to be on your side. It's going to be a question of who's going to defend you. Maybe there are attorneys willing to take it on pro bono." O nly six months old in December, the LPM investigative center had created two story packages: one involving sexual-harassment charges against Democratic state Rep. John Arnold, which With Many Chances," bore the byline R.G. Dunlop, Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. It was the frst sign of how the new Louisville Public Media-supported investigations team would proceed. Shea Van Hoy, editor of the six-day-a-week News and Tribune, says Brendan McCarthy, managing editor of the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, approached him about the Hooten story when reporting was well under way. Although the News and Tribune staf had written more than a dozen stories on the murder, "When Brendan started laying out what they had found, I was like, holy cow, of course we're interested!" Van Hoy says. Sure, it would be nice if his own newsroom staf of 15 had the time to produce that kind of reporting, but readers see it diferently. "Te feedback I've gotten from readers is, they don't really care about that," says Van Hoy. "Tey just want to see the story in the paper. And I think Brendan would agree, the wide majority of the people who read it here didn't see it on the investigative center website." Collaborations like the one with the News and Tribune put the investigation team's stories in front of more people, McCarthy says. It's a practice he intends to expand. "You will see our stories in print. You will see our stories on television. You will always 2.14 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 49

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Louisville Magazine - FEB 2014