A good friend and a great reporter, Jack McWethy, died yesterday aged 61 in an awful skiing accident.
Jack was one of the band of brothers and sisters who covered the State Department in the momentous years of the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Cold War ended.
I'm too broken up to write more now but I'm posting another tribute by one of Jack's many friends and admirers.
Jack McWethy: All about the Why
By Bob Steele (more by author) Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values
Jack McWethy was a journalist’s journalist. Skilled, savvy, smart. In fact he was exceptionally skilled, really savvy and one of the smartest people you’d ever meet. Jack died Wednesday in a skiing accident in Colorado.Jack’s death breaks my heart. It also prompts me to remember how well he lived; how much he contributed; how much integrity he had.
The public knew him as John McWethy, the veteran, chief national security and State Department correspondent for ABC News. He traveled the globe covering diplomacy, détente and death. He intensely interviewed government leaders and he reported from battlegrounds all over the world. On 9/11, he was inside the Pentagon when that terrorist-piloted airplane knifed into the building. He stayed at his post for hours; his cool, professional reporting a hallmark of journalism’s essential role that fateful day.
What the public didn’t see was Jack mentoring students at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, our alma mater. He would go back to campus to work with the next generation of journalists. Dressed in blue jeans and a flannel shirt, he would hunker down with the reporters and editors at the school newspaper and the radio station. About reporting. About interviewing. About storytelling. About ethics.Most importantly, Jack would ask them questions. Lots and lots of questions.
As a journalist, Jack McWethy was passionate about the journalistic responsibility of “holding the powerful accountable.” He had no hubris. He was not arrogant. He practiced serious, substantive journalism. He was ethical and excellent.As ABC News President David Westin said about Jack, “He was one of those very rare reporters who knew his beat better than anyone, and had developed more sources than anyone, and yet, kept his objectivity…Jack’s work made the people he covered value him, respect him, and always know that he would keep them honest.” In 2003, Jack was the commencement speaker at DePauw University.
In his address to the graduates, he used a word that epitomized his approach to journalism and to life. "The word 'why' is, in my view, the most powerful word in the English language. It is the driving force of my profession, and it's also the driving force and at the heart of your professors, creative sciences, honest politicians, and of good parents,” McWethy said.“Don't stop asking the word 'why' just because you're leaving DePauw. All institutions, all endeavors, all relationships are improved by a good scrubbing using the word 'why.' In democracy it is the question we must all constantly be asking our government and our leaders. It is not unpatriotic to question the government; it is unpatriotic not to
There is profound sadness in losing Jack McWethy. He made a difference, a really big difference in all of our lives.Jack McWethy had integrity.
Jack was one of the band of brothers and sisters who covered the State Department in the momentous years of the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Cold War ended.
I'm too broken up to write more now but I'm posting another tribute by one of Jack's many friends and admirers.
Jack McWethy: All about the Why
By Bob Steele (more by author) Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values
Jack McWethy was a journalist’s journalist. Skilled, savvy, smart. In fact he was exceptionally skilled, really savvy and one of the smartest people you’d ever meet. Jack died Wednesday in a skiing accident in Colorado.Jack’s death breaks my heart. It also prompts me to remember how well he lived; how much he contributed; how much integrity he had.
The public knew him as John McWethy, the veteran, chief national security and State Department correspondent for ABC News. He traveled the globe covering diplomacy, détente and death. He intensely interviewed government leaders and he reported from battlegrounds all over the world. On 9/11, he was inside the Pentagon when that terrorist-piloted airplane knifed into the building. He stayed at his post for hours; his cool, professional reporting a hallmark of journalism’s essential role that fateful day.
What the public didn’t see was Jack mentoring students at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, our alma mater. He would go back to campus to work with the next generation of journalists. Dressed in blue jeans and a flannel shirt, he would hunker down with the reporters and editors at the school newspaper and the radio station. About reporting. About interviewing. About storytelling. About ethics.Most importantly, Jack would ask them questions. Lots and lots of questions.
As a journalist, Jack McWethy was passionate about the journalistic responsibility of “holding the powerful accountable.” He had no hubris. He was not arrogant. He practiced serious, substantive journalism. He was ethical and excellent.As ABC News President David Westin said about Jack, “He was one of those very rare reporters who knew his beat better than anyone, and had developed more sources than anyone, and yet, kept his objectivity…Jack’s work made the people he covered value him, respect him, and always know that he would keep them honest.” In 2003, Jack was the commencement speaker at DePauw University.
In his address to the graduates, he used a word that epitomized his approach to journalism and to life. "The word 'why' is, in my view, the most powerful word in the English language. It is the driving force of my profession, and it's also the driving force and at the heart of your professors, creative sciences, honest politicians, and of good parents,” McWethy said.“Don't stop asking the word 'why' just because you're leaving DePauw. All institutions, all endeavors, all relationships are improved by a good scrubbing using the word 'why.' In democracy it is the question we must all constantly be asking our government and our leaders. It is not unpatriotic to question the government; it is unpatriotic not to
There is profound sadness in losing Jack McWethy. He made a difference, a really big difference in all of our lives.Jack McWethy had integrity.
Labels: colleague, death, journalism, McWethy
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