Uvalde Leader-News publisher receives 2023 Tom and Pat Gish Award at Texas event focusing on local journalism

Craig Garnett, middle, accepts the Tom and Pat Gish Award alongside Al Cross, left, and Benjy Hamm from the Institute for Rural Journalism. (Texas Center for Community Journalism photo)

The Uvalde Leader-News owner and publisher Craig Garnett accepted the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism on Feb. 29 during a Texas Center for Community Journalism event, which included panel discussions on community reporting needs and challenges. The Community News in Aledo editor and publisher Randy Keck and the University of Kentucky’s Institute for Rural Journalism director Benjy Hamm participated in leading the discussions alongside Garnett.

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues first announced Garnett as honoree in 2023. The annual award is named for the couple who published the Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Kentucky, for more than 50 years.

Garnett was unable to attend the original award ceremony, set last October in Lexington, and offered remarks by video. “What happened in Uvalde was crushing. It continues to be an enormous weight on many of our shoulders, especially the families of the victims, and we have endeavored to cover every aspect of that shooting,” Garnett said at the time.

Garnett, who earned an economics degree from Southern Methodist University, joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1977 and moved to the Kansas City Star in 1978. He became general manager of the Leader-News in 1982 and owner and publisher in 1989.

The newspaper has won many awards under his ownership. Earlier in 2023, the Texas Press Association honored Garnett with the Frank W. Mayborn Award for Community Leadership. He has won dozens of TPA and South Texas Press Association awards for editorial and column writing.

The Institute for Rural Journalism exists to sustain rural journalism and help rural journalists define the public agenda in their communities.