Al Smith was exemplar, advocate for rural journalism

By Al Cross
Director and Professor, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

If you're a regular reader of The Rural Blog, you understand the sort of rural journalism exemplified by Al Smith, who died Friday, March 19.

It's rural journalism that keeps public service at top of mind, providing insight and leadership to the community, and going beyond the county line to help the audience understand state, regional and national issues and actors that affect their communities.

Al Smith accepts the first Al Smith Award
Award from IRJCI Director Al Cross in 2011.

That's the sort of journalism Al Smith and I practiced when I worked for him. I learned how to write about controversial people in a way that you could hold your journalistic head high and still look them in the eye and exchange a greeting the next day. That was the basis for what I teach students today, that the key to real success in community journalism is managing the ever-present conflict between your professional obligations and your personal comfort. It's not for everybody, but Al Smith knew how to do it, and even make it fun.

His newspapers campaigned for better schools, which didn't sit well with farmers who didn't want higher taxes. When one who was upset with Al's crusading walked into his office one day and started giving him a lecture, Al turned to his typewriter, recorded the visitor's thoughts, whipped out the paper, handed it to the farmer and said something like this: "You just wrote a letter to the editor. Sign it and we'll put in in the paper." He loved the clash of ideas.

He had a preternatural curiosity that was more than a journalist’s quest for a story, or knowledge of how things worked; it was a human curiosity that reflected true care about humanity and its condition, and it brought him a wide circle of friends. One called him “a collector of humans.” 

Several years ago he reflected on his approach as small-town editor and publisher: "Because I have a certain combativeness about social issues, it didn’t take me long to decide that part of my job was to conduct the paper with an urgency rooted in a conviction that if we didn’t build more jobs, there would be grass in the streets instead of people on sidewalks. I became a total resource person, devoted to all kinds of proposals for bettering the community—all of them, I liked to think, of a progressive nature."

When I started working for Al, he was president of the Kentucky Press Association, which was halfway through a campaign to give Kentucky some of the nation's best open-meetings and open-records laws. He went on to be Kentucky's greatest public citizen, leading, guiding and supporting a wide range of causes, and left a national legacy with the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. He liked to say that "It has a long name because it's the caboose that drives the train: the issues."

Always remembering Al's example, the Institute stands for the proposition that rural Americans deserve good journalism as much as urban Americans. I would like to think that his example, and the Institute, have raised the bar for rural journalism in Kentucky and the nation.

Al was chairman emeritus of the Institute advisory board, now co-chaired by community journalist Jennifer P. Brown of Hopkinsville, Ky., and retired daily newspaper executive Nancy Green.

Nancy wrote: "Al Smith was a first-rate journalist, publisher, mentor, coach, friend, lover of his adopted state of Kentucky. The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues encouraged and established recognition programs for smaller community editors doing good work, not just in Kentucky but around the nation. So many small newspaper publishers like Al successfully address serious issues with limited resources. Al believed in recognizing these successes.  . . . Thanks to Al's tenacious attention to the good work of rural journalists, we are able to have a better picture of what is happening in rural America."

Jennifer wrote, "More than anyone I know, Al Smith made it possible for rural journalists to see the merit and meaning of their work. He set an example to pursue stories about people and issues in small towns with the same purpose and drive as a reporter working for a metropolitan paper. Al treated rural communities as places worthy of our best efforts in storytelling and watchdog reporting. More than ever, I think we need his example to strengthen rural newsrooms and the communities they cover. Knowing Al made me a better journalist. I was fortunate to know him and to have his support."

We welcome other recollections and tributes to Al Smith, to be added to this post. Click the Comment pencil at the bottom of this post, or send an email to al.cross@uky.edu. Here's a start:

Steve Beshear, Democratic governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that most people considered Smith an icon in journalism, “but he also actively worked to make life better for Kentuckians.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in a press release, "Al Smith was the gold standard of community journalism in the Bluegrass. On radio, on television and in print, he covered everyone from Kentucky’s most famous to those who wouldn’t be known outside their small town. In short, Al told our story. . . In writing about his human vulnerability, he became an inspiration for his readers to face their own. It’s my hope others will follow Al’s path of integrity and professional excellence."

The first quote in the Louisville Courier Journal's obituary was from a foreword to one of Al's books, buy O. Leonard Press, founding director of Kentucky Educational Television: "The essence of Al Smith is that he was born to be a public figure, in print and in person. And in one way or another, he always has been."

KET Public Affairs Managing Producer Renee Shaw, who co-produced "Comment on Kentucky" with Smith for 11 years, told the Herald-Leader that Smith was “my personal hero who saw my potential, nurtured it, and at times challenged it, convincing me to bloom where I was planted. Often a stem-winder orator, Al, to me, was gentle in his mentoring pep talks and believed more for me than I could see. . . . I, and others, will cling to memories of his feisty spirit, fervent intellectual curiosity and deep passion to connect our experiences and elevate rural communities.”

Retired Kentucky journalist Art Jester wrote, "It can’t be overstated that Martha Helen was crucial in Al’s getting his life back together from his worst days as an alcoholic, and was truly his partner in everything, most notably running their newspapers. I have always thought that Martha Helen stayed anchored —cheerfully and skillfully so — thus enabling Al to sail around to his many interests, meetings, interviews, and obligations, not to mention his endless, long telephone conversations. (I was just one of many who benefitted from his unselfish chats and advice.) In short, Al could not have become the man that he was without Martha Helen’s love, support and partnership in everything they did. Al had the talent and drive, but Martha Helen’s steadfastness made his greatest accomplishments possible. They were an incredible team."

Former Paducah Sun political writer Bill Bartleman wrote, "Al Smith truly understood the role and importance of community journalism. He overcame challenges in his life to be one of Kentucky’s most influential leaders who never held public office. He worked tirelessly to improve education at all levels, to demand accountability of elected officials and demand that reporters work diligently to be aggressive and honest in their work and maintain the highest level of integrity. As moderator of “Comment on Kentucky,” he did more to influence a positive state agenda than any person or group. He used his show to inform Kentuckians from Paducah to Pikeville of state news and called on journalists from throughout the state to give perspectives on major events. Even though he was friends with presidents, senators, congressmen, governors and the rich and famous, he never forgot his rural roots and days in poverty. I, like many others, was a better journalist and a better Kentuckian because I knew Al Smith."

Alice Brown, former president of the Appalachian College Association, was one of many people outside journalism but in other forms of public service whom Al helped: "Al called me "a beggar for beggars." He sent me to DC to beg at the Appalachian Regional Commission. After the Appalachian College Program became an independent association, Al guided me in the area of personnel development; as I hired new employees for that new office, Al reminded me about the importance of hiring people familiar with the culture of Appalachia and about the importance of giving them a lot of praise to soften whatever negative criticism I might need to share with them. . . . Like a guardian angel, he seemed to appear at many right moments in my life. And he always came with subtle suggestions about where I might find funding to support my work or how I might better communicate the mission of that association. While I remember only a few of the specific actions Al took on my behalf, I will never forget his spirit intent on helping all those with whom he came into contact. And I will always be grateful that I was one of those with whom he came into contact.'

Mark Neikirk, former managing editor of The Kentucky Post, wrote that Smith was "Kentucky's poet laureate of public policy. By his marshaling words, whether in print or broadcast, he guided his adopted state toward a better Commonwealth."

David Thurmond writes, "One of the first people to befriend Al Smith when he moved to Russellville in 1958 was my dad, Hal Thurmond Sr., who grew up in Russellville and had set himself up in a pretty successful business in Hopkinsville, two counties to the west. They found themselves to be kindred spirits. Both were die-hard, gregarious liberals swimming in a sea of Southern Kentucky conservatism. . . . My dad had great admiration for Al, for kicking the bottle and for his open expression of liberal thought in his newspaper. The admiration was mutual, as Al couldn't believe how a businessman could be so successful while aggressively pushing a Western Kentucky civil-rights agenda from Hopkinsville. They say one measure of a truly great man is honest humility. So in the summer of 1968, I find myself the subject of an unsolicited public apology from this man that I so looked up to.  As the war in Vietnam was raging, I had asked him for his help when, as the newly self-appointed, 18-year-old chairman of the Christian County Citizens for McCarthy, I privately reached out to him for advice and support. He very politely, being the gentleman he was, brushed me off. Then, a week or so later, he published an apology for it in The Logan Leader, came out in favor of Senator McCarthy, and against the war in Vietnam, all at once! Needless to say, we became fast friends, and I followed him to this very day. Common sense, high intelligence,  compassion, remarkable leadership, an easy, "front porch" way of conversing,  and  remarkable journalistic  skill are some of the qualities by which I will remember him. Al Smith embodied what is truly the best of Kentucky.

By Keith Runyon

Retired opinion editor, The Courier-Journal (posted Nov. 11, 2021)

When I was a young journalist in the early 1970s, Barry Bingham Sr. often said that three things hold the Commonwealth of Kentucky together: the governor, University of Kentucky basketball, and The Courier-Journal. Before much longer, there was a fourth – Kentucky Educational Television, and most of all, its foremost newsman, Al Smith.

The influence of The Courier-Journal would, before Al died earlier this year, wane, but KET’s role became even more important. “Comment on Kentucky,” which Al and Len Press created in November 1974, has become the glue of commentary that manages to meld all 120 counties. Or at least it tries to. And under the remarkable leadership of Ginny Fox and then Shae Hopkins, it has matured, expanded and now become must-viewing for us all.

My friendship with Al and Martha Helen began a few months before “Comment” made its debut. We were part of a weekend hiking trip to the Red River Gorge, a few days after the Great April 3 Tornado, along with a band of now legendary Courier-Journal staffers including Carol Sutton and Charles Whaley, John Finley and Linda Stahl, Chris Doughty Johnson, and Jean Howerton.

During the day we hiked in the woods, but at night we ate lasagna, sat by a roaring fire in a cabin at Natural Bridge State Park. Sang. Played Pictionary. Charades. And drank way too much. All of us but Al. His personal victory over alcohol was an inspiration, one that I, a 23-year-old guy, dazzled with all of this energy and fun and talent, couldn’t comprehend.

Al was liberal.

Al was literate.
Al was loving.Al was loaded with righteous indignation.
Al made life real, and honest, and it is still hard for me to turn on Comment without expecting to see him there…and once in a while, me with him. Reading from that damned teleprompter…Al, never Keith!

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