Former Commercial Appeal Editor Will Speak at U of M Oct. 31
For release: October 22, 2003
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey

Angus McEachran, former editor and president of The Commercial Appeal, will give his opinion of today's media, including the Internet and talk show hosts, in an Oct. 31 lecture "Whatever Happened to Civility in Reporting?" at the University of Memphis. The talk, at 1:30 p.m. in Mitchell Hall Auditorium, is free and open to the public.

McEachran, who is serving as a Distinguished Professional in the U of M Department of Journalism, retired from The Commercial Appeal last year. He began his career at the newspaper in 1960 as a copy clerk and handled a variety of reporting assignments before becoming assistant city editor in 1966. In 1969, McEachran was named metropolitan editor; in that role, he supervised coverage of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1970, McEachran became the CA's assistant managing editor.

McEachran was named editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald in 1977 and joined the Pittsburgh Press in 1982. A year later he was appointed editor, a position he held until 1992. During his tenure, the Press won two Pulitzer Prizes. The U of M alumnus returned to The Commercial Appeal in 1992 and became editor and president in 1994. That year the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize, only the second in the paper's history.

He has received the U of M's Distinguished Alumni Award and Journalism's Charles E. Thornton Outstanding Alumni Award.
The talk is part of the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities Lecture Series. For more information, call 678-3550.

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