In Memory - and In Praise - of One of Those Damn Liberal Media Types!

Ira Harkey, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, dead at age 88

PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI (AP) - Retired Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ira B. Harkey Jr., has died. Harkey's eldest son, Ira the third, said his father died of complications from Parkinson's disease at Parsons House in Kerrville, Texas, where he'd lived for the past two years. He was 88.

Harkey was awarded the 1963 Pulitzer for editorial writing while editor and publisher of The Chronicle Star in Pascagoula, Mississippi. His 1962 editorials called for the peace and order during the integration of the University of Mississippi with the enrollment of a black student, James Meredith.

Harkey was vilified for those editorials, his life threatened, and the newspaper and its advertisers boycotted. A cross was burned in front of the newspaper office, a rifle was fired into the front door, and a shotgun blast took out his office window before the FBI was called.

Harkey detailed the events in his autobiography, "The Smell of Burning Crosses," in 1967.

Funeral will be Tuesday at First United Methodist Church in Kerrville and Friday in New Orleans.

And the Winner Is ...

Eric has announced the winner in his contest to select the Fire Ant Gazette's new tagline. Not my choice, but I don't go there for the tagline. I go for the content ... regardless of Eric's claims about being content-free..

What a Way to Continue a Season

A few weeks back, I posted this about the start of the Midland Soccer Association's Fall 2006 season of Co-Ed Rec Soccer, complaining that Elder Boy's U-13 age-bracket team opened the season against a U-14 team. Well, a week later, it was another U-14 team.

But, the week after that, there was a break, of sorts ... when our kids were matched against a U-15 team!

Typical ...

But, the kids are still ready to play, and we're still ready to cheer them on to victory, whether it's the kind that shows on the scoreboard, or the kind that shows in their hearts.

Another Way to Depart the Anchor Desk

NBC's Brian Williams may be America's #1 news anchor, but what if the time to go "in a new direction" should come along? How would he cope? Brian, himself, answered those questions here.

Thanks to Brian Stelter at mediabistro.com for the heads-up.