ME’s job during presidential visit was to man newsroom
Missouri Governor Joseph P. Teasdale, left, is interviewed by St. Louis KSDK television reporter and anchor, Chris Condon, right, during President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Hannibal on Aug. 23, 1979. The Courier-Post newsroom, located at 200 N. Third, served as a hub of activity for regional and national press corp members. Photo by Mary Lou Montgomery of the Courier-Post staff.
MARY LOU MONTGOMERY
Thom Gross was managing editor for the Hannibal Courier-Post in August 1979, and while there was much activity going on within blocks of the newspaper’s office at 200 N. Third on the morning of Aug. 23, his role was to man the newsroom.
“I remember being star struck, with all the media in town who were moving through our newsroom,” he said. “I was feeling excited to be coordinating (the coverage) for us, and helping out other news media.”
One member of the national press who he remembers is Howell Raines. “He was covering (Carter’s visit) for the New York Times, as the Atlanta correspondent. He had a southern accent. I’m a native of Georgia and Atlanta, and we struck up a conversation. I gave him full access to our newsroom.
“Howell was very charming; I saw him as a possible contact at the New York Times, to use later to get a job,” Gross said. “He had an unbelievable stellar career.” After covering Carter’s trip down the Mississippi, “He became White House correspondent, London bureau chief.
“I kept up with the guy for awhile; he was a superstar in journalism.
“Back in the early 2000s, Howell was executive editor of the New York Times. He had to resign in a scandal; the ME, Jason Rank, resigned at the same time. It turns out that there was a reporter who had been fabricating stories and plagiarizing. An investigation showed that Rank hadn’t done anything about it.
“Howell left in a scandal, but went on to do other great things as a journalist,” Gross said.
Howell’s accomplishments included winning a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1992 for “Grady’s Gift,” a memoir which focused on his childhood in Alabama.
In addition to Howell Rains, Gross also remembers that national photographers used the Courier-Post darkroom.
“For a photographer, National Geographic was the ultimate. There was a National Geographic photographer on the boat.” That day, “there were a lot of people passing in and out of newsroom; I was just 27 at the time and had just been appointed managing editor. I was gaga over the experience.”
While the Hannibal news staff was out and about all day, “I don’t think I left the newsroom the whole day,” Gross said. “It was a vicarious experience, living it through Mark (Prout, Courier-Post photojournalist) and our reporters who were down there.
“I was proud of the Courier-Post staff for their efforts. I suspect that Jimmy Carter wasn’t very popular in Hannibal in those days - I wasn’t his hughest fan - but I was so thrilled to have him there.”
Gross remained at the helm of the Courier-Post newsroom unit 1982, when he went to work for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. He ultimately left journalism at the end of 1996, when he started working for a public relations firm, Fleishman Hillman.
”Working in Hannibal was most fun I ever had,” he said. “I lived on Center Street. I would literally run to work in the morning. I loved how the adrenaline flowed all day. When I got back from lunch, the paper was running off the presses. it was so exciting.
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