"The journalistic heart of the nation comes from those closest to the people. Opinionated rises out of the past but speaks directly to the future at a time when it is most needed. This is America speaking."-- Bill Kurtis , president of Kurtis Productions and author of Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News "It shouldn''t be surprising that a state forged by the Civil War would foster a tradition of provocative editorial voices. In the lively Opinionated , Clay Wirestone profiles a dozen of them, from Angelo Scott of the Iola Register to Emanuel Haldeman-Julius of the American Freeman in Girard. Their topics are often not the ponderous issues of Washington but more the concerns of community. Should voters support a levy to encourage more industries in Iola? (Yes, Scott wrote, and it passed.) Should the working people of Girard embrace socialism? (Yes, Haldeman-Julius insisted, to less success.
) Or as William Allen White famously asked in the Emporia Gazette , ''What''s the Matter with Kansas?'' Their ranks have sharply dwindled amid the news industry''s pressures today, but Wirestone persuasively argues that the need for courageous commentary hasn''t diminished. Consider one of the closing chapters about the late Bill Meyer of The Marion County Record . The offices of the newspaper, now run by his son, were raided by police in an act of political retribution in 2023."-- Susan Page , Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY and author of The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History , and a fourth-generation Kansan "Fearless opinion journalism has long played a vital role in American democracy. Through spirited writing and engaging anecdotes, Clay Wirestone has done a masterful job in bringing to life the rich history of this craft, brilliantly illustrating why we must ensure its survival well into the future."-- Victor Pickard , author of Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society "Clay Wirestone has written an important and highly readable guide to Kansas opinion journalists, from famous figures like William Allen White and Lucile Bluford to those who did their work honorably but without accolades. Urban and rural, Black and white, women and men, progressive and conservative--they''re all here. Often elegiac in describing the demise of small-town newspapers and the rise of corporate chains, Wirestone is nevertheless optimistic and focused on what he hopes will be better days to come for his home state and for the craft to which he has devoted his career.
"-- Dan Kennedy , Northeastern University, coauthor of What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate " Opinionated adds an incomparable depth and detail to our understanding of the cultural, political, and journalistic transformations in Kansas that fostered the state''s fertile ground for newspapers and opinion columnists. Clay Wirestone, drawing on the narratives and perspectives of Kansas opinion columnists, offers a comprehensive account of the state''s past while simultaneously conveying the loss experienced by the state and the nation due to the dramatic decline of local and state newspapers and the opinion writers who often anchored these papers and communities. It serves as both a celebratory reflection on the past and a cautionary tale of our current trajectory."-- Shawn Leigh Alexander , author of W. E. B. Du Bois: An American Intellectual and Activist and editor of T. Thomas Fortune: The Afro-American Agitator "The history of local news organizations is, in many ways, the history of America.
That''s evident in this smartly written and thoroughly researched exploration of opinion journalism in Kansas. Wirestone leverages a constellation of public archives, personal papers and newspaper clippings to craft lively profiles of a dozen of the Sunflower State''s most prolific opinion columnists. Readers will learn about the lives of these individual journalists and gain a better understanding of the role a free (and sometimes feisty) press plays in knitting together the fabric of civic life."-- Meg Heckman , author of Political Godmother: Nackey Scripps Loeb and the Newspaper That Shook the Republican Party "Clay melds two essential elements that light the written firmament: rock-ribbed history and bold, nose-to-nose commentary in this thoughtful and carefully researched tome. He reminds us of the towering work of giants like William Allen White and punches through layers of Kansas limestone to find gems like Nick Chiles and Lucille Bluford. He presents the craft in all its honest nobility while retaining the kind of universal intimacy that commentary uses to move people to tears or simply to move. This book is a must for anyone interested in preserving the fourth estate and our currently stress-tested and exhausted democracy."-- Mark McCormick , columnist for the Kansas Reflector, and author of Some Were Paupers, Some Were Kings " Opinionated is more than just a recounting of fact.
It is a book-length rumination on the importance of reasoned and informed commentary in our digitally transmogrified and economically challenged media landscape. The book isn''t a eulogy for commentary in the Sunflower State, but a call for a new generation of opinion writers to engage with the issues of our time, on platforms that were undreamed of in the golden age, and in a form that is damnably difficult to master but arguably offers readers the richest rewards. In Opinionated , aspiring writers will find scattered throughout the best practical and ethical advice for column writing than in just about any stack of traditional journalism textbooks."-- Max McCoy , author of the 2019 Kansas Notable Book Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River "Newspaper editorial writers are great at talking about other people but terrible at telling their own stories. Clay Wirestone respectfully corrects that record for a few regular Kansans called to illuminate the world around them. Whether these journalists took on grand political issues or their own family''s to-do list, their collective labor adds up to essential history. Like the best persuasive writing, Opinionated ''s truths echo far beyond its pages."-- C.
J. Janovy , retired director of content-journalism at KCUR, and author of No Place Like Home: Lessons in Activism from LGBT Kansas.