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The umbrellas and the stars came ' out on a rainy Nov. 21 at the Statehouse Convention Center as Bill Clinton and a parade of venerable newspaper folks threw a 200th birthday party for a state treasure, the old Arkansas Gazette.
But before the 42nd president defended the crumbling newspaper industry as a bulwark against authoritarianism, Arkansas' journalism and business elite saluted the paper they read, worked for and, in many cases, competed against.
The president praised Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter Hussman Jr. for keeping the old paper's legacy alive, and Arkansas Times contributor Ernest Dumas joined others in praising the last Little Rock daily standing. But the whole evening carried a tension between Gazette veterans, who were rightly proud of the paper as one of the state's outstanding institutions, and the Arkansas Democrat veterans who worked for its successor after Gannett Co. shut down the "oldest paper west of the Mississippi" 28 years ago and attached its name to the hybrid model.
Dumas, the Gazette's best political journalist of his age, recognized the last few lions in attendance from the Gazette's finest moment, 1957-58: octogenarians like Ray Moseley, Gene Foreman and Bill Lewis who reported the truth about integration while Publisher Hugh Patterson and owner and editor J.N. Heiskell ultimately stood for the rule of law.
The law at the time compelled letting black students into Central High School.
The Rev. Dr. Christoph Keller, dean and rector of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, prayed for the future of forceful journalism, naming off publishers, Pulitzer winners and plain old reporters who colored a great Southern paper's history....