Documenting the American South Logo
Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Virginius Dabney, July 31, 1975. Interview A-0311-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Today's big business enterprise of newspapers hampers editors' freedom of expression

The newspaper business is changing from a local operation to a big business industry. As a result, Dabney believes that editors will have even less freedom to express their opinions.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Virginius Dabney, July 31, 1975. Interview A-0311-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

WILLIAM H. TURPIN:
How about the role of the newspaper editor? In the past you have had people who were identifiable as leaders in the community. I am thinking specifically of you and Louis Jaffé, Ralph McGill, all of these people and now, I guess you would be hard put to name more than three or four newspaper editors in the country. What do you think will be the role of personal journalism in the future?
VIRGINIUS DABNEY:
It does seem to be going out, as you say, and I don't quite understand why it should. I guess editors are being more restricted in their utterances and apparently that is the case in many instances. The newspaper has become sort of a business proposition with an anonymous voice which is not identified with anybody. I really find it a little difficult to understand why, particularly in the South, why it isn't just as easy as in the past for any individual to become known as the editor of a newspaper.