A Loss For Democracy

The death of newspaper legend Howard H. "Tim" Hays Jr., who led The Press-Enterprise for decades, is a loss for Americans everywhere.

Hays died Friday in St. Louis. He was 94.

I accepted a job at that Riverside newspaper in 2000 because of the fearless reputation Hays created at The Press-Enterprise. I am a passionate believer in the First Amendment and I think objective reporters have a special mission in a democracy to expose corruption.

And I thought The Press-Enterprise was then the perfect newspaper to be the reporter I wanted to become.

I majored in journalism at the University of Florida, graduating in 1993. It was there I studied “Press-Enterprise I” and “Press-Enterprise II,” two US Supreme Court victories that improved our democracy by allowing public access to pretrial hearings.

The Press-Enterprise has won one Pulitzer Prize, but so what? Lots of newspapers have those. The “PE,” as we called it, has two Supreme Court victories, a source of great pride during my nine years at the paper.

Beginning in 2004, I assumed the courts beat in San Bernardino County. Because of the PE’s reputation, I was never shy about challenging judges who would issue orders prohibiting the publishing of pictures or banning the public and media from court records or hearings.

I would have let down Tim Hays if I had capitulated to such idiot judges.

The Press-Enterprise is a gutless shell compared to the great newspaper it once was. I suspect Hays would have been ashamed how newspapers, as a whole, have collapsed as an institution and how the PE has become a newspaper afraid to fight.

Regardless, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, as well as the United States, are more democratic, and less corrupt, because of Tim Hays. There must be a special place in newspaper heaven for him.