How Mississippi Journalist Ron Agnew Makes A Difference - HottyToddy
By Carson Priest
Journalism student
hottytoddynews@gmail.com
In 1982, John Hawkins, the first African American cheerleader at the University of Mississippi, refused to carry the Confederate battle flag onto the Ole Miss football field.
The flag represented oppression and slavery for many students, but for others, it embodied school spirit, and some of his fellow students were angry.
Hawkins received several death threats, and Ron Agnew, another black student, offered him a place to stay in his dorm room so nobody would know where he was.
This anecdote is not an isolated incident. Ron Agnew, executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, has helped others his entire life. His journalistic career has been built on helping others.
An editor and reporter for newspapers in Mississippi, Ohio, and Alabama, Agnew recently received a $1.3 million grant from NPR to work with public radio stations in New Orleans, and Birmingham to create a news collaboration. The grant enables Agnew and his partners to hire 10 news specialists, including healthcare, social justice, and wealth and poverty reporters.
“They will not only report for their city but all three states. The goal is to supply NPR with all these stories,” Agnew said.
This news collaboration is not just a business endeavor for Agnew; for him, it means a stronger bond with his community. It is that immense desire to help others that moves Agnew into doing things. It is a desire he has had his entire life.
Many of his peers agree with Agnew’s particular commitment to the community. “Ronnie is unapologetically a newsman who has lifted up a many of journalists, despite the season of their careers, as a mentor and encourager,” said Marquita Smith, Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies and associate professor at the School of Journalism and New Media of the University of Mississippi.
Agnew highlighted the moral responsibility and special duty that journalists have these days to make governments and companies accountable.
“It is an honorable profession; if you want to, you can make a big difference in people’s lives,” Agnew said.
The desire for helping others has been his objective during his entire career, evidenced during his time as the first African American editor of The Clarion-Ledger, which successfully investigated several civil rights crimes of the past and held government officials accountable.
“Frankly, it is one of my private joys to see the work we have accomplished into these investigations into Ku Klux Klan members who took their last breath in Mississippi prisons; that is something I get emotional about. The fight continues,” Agnew said.
Diversity has always been a priority for Agnew.
“You never know where you’re going to be. It’s a people business, from all demographics, from all walks of life,” Agnew said.
His peers recognize his efforts in keeping journalism an honest industry.
“Ronnie Agnew moved up the professional ladder the old way – hard work and solid journalism,” said Lee Ragland, vice president of public relations at the GodwinGroup in Jackson, Mississippi.
Agnew also talked about the importance of learning everywhere, in any job.
“Some bosses will be a jerk, but others will be good, and you can learn a lot from both,” Agnew said.
Despite surviving threats during his time as an Ole Miss cheerleader, Hawkins, the Ole Miss cheerleader who Agnew assisted during his time as a student, was deeply hurt by the treatment he received from his classmates and others. As a result, he did not return to Ole Miss for a number of years. However, his friendship with Agnew continued, and Agnew finally convinced him to come back and become more active as an alumnus.
Today, Hawkins is a successful businessman who runs a consulting firm. He has worked for several corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Kellogg Company, Novartis, and even the controversial Imperial Tobacco.
Agnew and Hawkins may differ on many things, yet both seem to agree on the importance of standing up for what you believe in and helping others.
https://www.hottytoddy.com/2021/02/22/ole-miss-alum-investigates-leads-covid-19-coverage-in-texas/
Nations such as Austria, Netherlands and Hungary have lost thousands of lives because of the virus. Yet the state of Texas – with 5 million fewer residents than the population of these three countries combined – has experienced 4,000 more COVID deaths.
Ole Miss Journalism graduate Steve Riley stays on top of information like this and has used his to influence as Executive Editor of the Houston Chronicle to focus his paper’s COVID coverage in Texas.
“Steve is a really good editor because he is a really good reporter,” said Ron Agnew, executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting and another Ole Miss alum. “He’s tenacious. He doesn’t accept answers that don’t make sense.”
The intense reporting by the Houston Chronicle during the pandemic has led to “The Outbreak in Texas,” daily coverage of all COVID-19 related statistics in the state. The pandemic has “overwhelmed else else” that the publication has been working on this past year, Riley says.
Riley’s leadership in coverage of the pandemic is just one of the many projects he has led, and which has seen his newspaper being named a Pulitzer Prize semi-finalists multiple times.
“Prognosis: Profits” and “Abuse of Faith” are two of the more prominent series. The latter uncovered more than one hundred pedophiles within the Southern Baptist Church through investigations in 254 counties, hundreds of churches, and many pastors and volunteers within the organization.
Riley originally wanted the series to be entitled “Men of Conviction” because all the sexual predators found guilty during the investigation were men.
A more positive project is “Dexter the Dog,” an in-depth look at the use of therapy dogs in hospitals to help patients emotionally recover.
Riley’s excitement for journalism started when he was in high school in Mississippi.
“I thought about Steve and his obsession with Watergate when he was in the ninth or tenth grade,” said Mike Tapscott who attended high school with Riley in the town of Nettleton and is now an attorney in Tupelo. “I should have known he would become an investigative reporter.”
When Watergate broke in 1972 it reiterated the power of the pen to seek truth and justice. The reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein nearly 50 years ago inspired Riley to become a journalist and led him to enroll at the University of Mississippi. He was a sportswriter for The Daily Mississippian, typing stories on an IBM typewriter.
The technology has changed, but the passion to do good reporting has not.
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