Word: ponts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Like so much else in Delaware, the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal are owned by the Du Pont family. For years, the Du Ponts insisted on editorial docility. One editor found it wise to keep a Du Pont genealogical table next to his phone so that he could quickly establish who was complaining at any given moment. Creed Black, an editor who showed some independence, left in 1964 when a Du Pont public relations executive was installed above him. Said Black at the time: "I for one need no further evidence that the ownership wants the Morning News...
...once castigated the papers even more vehemently than Black, went back for another look recently and concluded: "Obviously, a revolution has taken place." In fact, the papers now routinely criticize the chemical corporation's influence on Delaware, where 10% of the work force is employed by Du Pont. Senior Vice President Irving S. Shapiro believes that much of the staff "is so anxious to demonstrate independence that the reporters try to find ways to paint the story against...
...startling turnabout dates from 1970, when the former public relations man died. Richard P. Sanger, 42, became president and editor in chief, and John G. Craig Jr., 39, became executive editor. Both had risen through the ranks; both had suffered restrictions that discouraged criticism of the Du Pont family, company and philanthropies. Because his wife is connected to the Du Ponts, Sanger may have struck company officials as safe. "If they thought that," Sanger says, "they made a mistake...
...blue jeans. But changes went deeper than counterculture cosmetics. Sanger and Craig overhauled layout, expanded coverage of national politics far beyond the scope of most small-circulation papers (89,000 for the Journal, 47,000 for the News). They encouraged investigative reporting, including a series charging that Du Pont properties were receiving favorable property-tax assessments (the company denies...
When Ralph Nader released The Company State (1971), a report attacking Du Pont influence in Delaware, the papers gave the document heavy play. More recently, Reporter David Warsh, 28, was sent to Washington to cover Securities and Exchange Commission hearings on the proposed merger between Du Pont and Christiana Securities, the holding company through which the family owns the papers. Warsh's coverage was so acerbic that, as one Du Pont man bitterly put it, the reporter became an instant "folk hero...