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TUESDAY. APRIL 4, 2006
10A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
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In October, Dolph wrote a column lambasting Provest David Shulenburger's office as a "bottleneck" for new ideas proposed by KU faculty. Quoting anonymous sources, he lamented what he called a negative attitude toward change by Shulenburger.
"That wasn't initiated by me necessarily, it was a number of faculty people who talked to me," Dolph said. "Things were slow getting done, slow getting executed and the nickname for the provost's office was 'the no office.'"
The University is an excellent state-aided University, but it has failed to tell its story in the legislature and throughout the state, Dolph said.
Critics say the Journal-World's coverage of the business community is soft and seldom negative. It also provides little coverage of peace and environmental groups, they say.
Tim Miller, religious studies professor at the University and columnist for The Lawrencian, a local alternative monthly paper, is a self-described Dolph critic. Miller has two main problems with Dolph: He owns the only paper in town, and he didn't earn his position, he says.
Shulenburger declined to comment on the column. However, he said Dolph held strong views on the University and his newspaper was a platform from which he could express those views.
The paper's politics
Dolph acknowledges he got a head start from his grandfather and father. His father, however, told him there was no guarantee that he would get the job. If he had been a misfit, he wouldn't have been able to fill the leadership position, he said.
The Journal World refuses to cover businesses in a negative light, Miller said. It supports what's good for businesses and provides little coverage of labor, he said.
Dolph said he wished more business writers worked at the Journal-World. Journalists lack
THE WORLD'S WEB:
The World Company owns a variety of media outlets, mostly in northeast Kansas
- Lawrence Journal-World
•6News Lawrence
•Tonganoxie Mirror
•Basehor Sentinel
•Bonner Springs-Edwardsville
Chiefsitn
•De Soto Explorer
•Eudora News
•Baldwin City Signal
•Lansing Current
•Shawney Dispatch
•KTKA 49 News Topaka
•Craig Daily Press (Craig, Colo.)
•Hayden Valley Press (Hayden,
Colo.)
•Steamboat Pilot and Today
(Steamboat, Colo.)
•Payson Roundup (Payson,
Ariz.)
"I've talked to people in the journalism school and the business school. I wish that KU had some courses between journalism and business," he said.
training in business writing, he complained.
Kendrick Blackwood, the former Journal-World reporter, said that to his knowledge, Dolph never required reporters to slant articles in a pro-business manner. Blackwood recalled that he wrote some "semi hard-hitting" articles about Doug Compton, who owns First Management Inc. and may be the largest real estate developer in Lawrence. Compton advertises in both the Journal-World and the Kansan.
Amber Fraley, editor of The Lawrencian, says the Journal-World tends to avoid stories important to local liberals. Journal-World and Channel 6 news staffers may avoid the stories because they don't know how interested people are in them, but the lack of coverage also has to do with a mindset that begins with Dolph, she says.
"We all have our passions and business is his passion."
Carey Maynard-Moody Vice Chairwoman of the Lawrence chapter of the Kansas Sierra Club
"I get the impression that he's pro-business and politically conservative," Fraley said. "He operates his paper with the assumption that everyone in Lawrence thinks that way, too."
Even so, she says, the paper
has become more liberal in the past 20 years, perhaps for business rather than political reasons.
A newspaper should run conservative columnists even if the publisher or owner is a "staunch, liberal Democrat," Dolph said.
"It took a long time for Dolph and the company to realize the liberals are not just drugged-up hippies with no jobs." Fraley said. "The liberals in this town have good-paying jobs. They spend money in the community and they want a voice as to what happens in the community. For financial reasons, they can't continue to shut out these people."
erals as Leonard Pitts and Ellen Goodman.
Carey Maynard-Moody, vice chairwoman of the Lawrence chapter of the Kansas Sierra Club and resident of Lawrence for 25 years, says Dolph's news operations provide scant environmental coverage. The business community is wary of the potential restriction of development that environmental concerns pose, she said.
"We all have our passions and business is his passion," she said of Dolph.
Dolph describes himself as a "moderate, and more conservative than liberal," but he does not support any candidates financially, he said. In state elections and in national elections, Dolph says he votes most often for Republicans.
"Historically in Kansas, the Republican party has been the majority party and has been able to field the strongest type of candidates," he said. "There have been Democrats though, such as Bob Docking, who we supported editorially and personally."
Like his father, Dolph has long been involved as a member and officer of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, the city's most important advocate for business interests, and Journal-World editorials have generally supported proposed developments or business expansion in the city.
The Journal-World runs opinion columns from socially conservative syndicated columnists Cal Thomas and James Dobson, founder of Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Focus on the Family, but also carries such lib-
Melinda Henderson, coordinator for Progressive Lawrence Campaign, an organization that she says believes in sensible growth, complained that Dolph writes that people in her organization don't want the city to grow at all.
"That's my biggest complaint
— That he's says there's a small group of no-growths," Henderson said. "A lot of his columns make total sense, but then he'll try to paint the picture that people want to stop growth."
Dolph said he told Gardner she should make clear to the chamber that just because she served did not mean that she would support its position.
pocket of a city manager, or a mayor, or a chamber of commerce, or a football coach, or an athletic director or a chancellor." Dolph said. "You need to be supportive and helpful, but you just can't be in their hip pockets. That's not just our business."
“It's something that needs to be discussed,” he said. But the chamber and businesses are not “going to get a blank check from the Journal-World,” he said.
Ann Gardner, editor of the Journal-World's opinion page, is one of the chamber's past presidents. Because the newspaper has editorialized about business and growth issues, that raises questions as to a conflict of interest. While the Journal-World doesn't share its code of ethics with readers, The Kansas City Star's code of ethics states, "editorial employees should not belong to organizations about which they must write or make editorial judgments."
Gardner explains, "I'm not unilaterally forming editorial opinion for the Journal-World. I'd have to lead a pretty sequestered life to not write anything and to not be involved in a community this size."
"You can't ever be in the hip
Local politicians of both parties describe Dolph as involved in the community.
Mark Buhler, vice president and sales manager at Stephens Real Estate, says he used to speak with Dolph regularly when Buhler was a Republican in the Kansas Senate and a member of the board of the Chamber of Commerce. He and Dolph talked about growth, planning and real estate, he said.
"He's a much easier person to talk to than people think he is," Buhler said.
Paul Davis, an attorney and Democrat in the Kansas House of Representatives, says he talks with Dolph periodically about legislative, community and KU issues.
"He has his political opinions, as we all do," Davis said. "It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat — he's always willing to talk."
The future
The odds for keeping any successful business in the family decrease with each generation, Dolph said, acknowledging that the number of independent media companies is shrinking, too. Tax laws, the increasing complexity of the information business and the future of newspapers are among his chief concerns. Though his two sons hold leadership positions in the company, he's given permission to both his sons and his two daughters to sell the company. But he says he's confident Dan and Dolph III can carry on The World Company.
Until then, despite what critics say, Dolph will continue to lead his dominant World Company the way he always has supporting growth for both his business and his community, yet wary of potential competitors.
NATION
Edited by Frank Tankard
Storms in Tennessee kill at least 27 people
NEWBERN, Tenn. — Homes were shredded to their foundations in zigzagging lines of destruction that stretched for miles as wicked thunderstorms crashed across eight states, spinning off tornadoes, spitting out hail and killing at least 27 people.
The worst damage from Sunday night's storms occurred along a 25-mile path through rural western Tennessee, where raging wind tore off roofs, shattered buildings into splinters and knocked down solid brick homes.
"Most of the houses, you can't count.They're just gone," said Roy Childress,who was part of a church relief crew that was delivering food and water to survivors Monday.
The brunt of the storms, some packing softball-sized hail, blasted an area between the small town of Newbern, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, to Bradford.Twenty-seven people were killed, including an infant and the grandparents who had been baby-sitting him.
"I just feel lost. I've been numb ever since last night," said Diane Wyrick, who lost the mobile home she had lived in since 1973. "I lost, but at least I didn't lose my life and that's a lot."
State police sent teams with search dogs to the area Monday to check what remained of damaged homes and businesses for anyone who might be trapped in the rubble. Many neighborhoods were blocked off to reporters.
Betty Sisk grabbed her son and daughter, ages 10 and 13, and took cover in a closet until the twister blew their house apart and threw them into the yard.
"By the time the sirens started going off, it was at our back door," Sisk said Monday. "I didn't hear a train sound, I heard a roaring."
- The Associated Press