Don White, who published mug shots of convicted drunk drivers and did much more as a weekly editor, dies at 74

Don White (Photo via Somerset Commonwealth Journal)

Don White, who as a weekly newspaper editor drew national attention by publishing photos of people convicted of drunk driving, then entered the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, died Wednesday in a one-car accident that may have been caused by a medical condition. He was 74.

In 1998, White had been editor of The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg for 20 years when he decided to tackle drunk driving in Anderson County, which had about 19,000 people at the time. “Most violators of the law dislike having their name in the local paper,” he wrote in an editorial announcing his plan. “We hope the certainty that their picture will also be published will keep more drunks off our highways.” In that edition, he also ran drunk-driving statistics and stories about seven people killed by drunk drivers. A few months later, he limited the photos to residents of counties where the paper circulated, according to an ethics case study for the Society of Professional Journalists by Elizabeth Hansen, then a journalism professor at Eastern Kentucky University.

"The only cases in which photos were not published were those where the DUI suspect was injured, taken to the hospital for treatment and, although charged, never processed at the jail and never photographed," Hansen wrote. "Only once did White give any person special treatment. When the chairman of the county Democratic Party was convicted of drunk driving for the second time in five years, White published his mug shot and a story on Page 1 rather than on the District Court page."

From 1999 to 2000, drunk-driving cases in the county declined 37 percent, and the National Commission Against Drunk Driving gave White an award. When he retired in 2006, Ben Carlson, the new editor-manager placed by Landmark Community Newspapers, stopped the practice. He wrote that publishing mug shots of those convicted “adds a level of punishment, or at least embarrassment, beyond what is imposed by a judge.” He told the Lexington Herald-Leader, “I really don’t think that the role of a community newspaper is to punish or embarrass anybody. It’s to report the news and provide information.”

White was softspoken but resolute in his convictions, and had a quick wit. He was news editor of the Commonwealth Journal in his hometown of Somerset and wire editor of The Lexington Leader, but joined Landmark as editor of the Casey County News in 1976 because he missed contact with the public. He won many awards and helped spur school consolidation in Anderson County, but also restoration of a one-room school, one of several civic activities. After retiring, he traveled the state writing syndicated features and a book, Paper Boy: Giving His Heart to Journalism. “He called what he did with feature writing ‘living obituaries.’ It was so important to him to tell people’s stories,” his daughter, Amanda White Nelson, told the Somerset paper.

"Don was the ultimate community journalist, Hansen wrote on her Facebook page. "I often used his work as an example in my community journalism classes at EKU. I will miss him." Funeral services were held Sunday; the family says expressions of sympathy should be a subscription to your local paper or a donation to the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame Fund "to support and honor the work of journalists, like Don, who are passionate about telling Kentucky's stories."