Covington native Mike Farrell was among those inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame at the Grand Reserve in Lexington.
The 2017 inductees also included Tom Butler (posthumous induction), Paducah’s WPSD-TV news vice president, Lewis Conn (posthumous induction) and William E. Matthews, co-founders of the Kentucky Weekly Newspaper Association, Ron Daley, former editor and publisher of the Troublesome Creek Times in Hindman, Bill Francis, former reporter and anchor for WDRB-TV, Mary D. Ferguson (posthumous induction), the first female reporter for Hopkinsville’s Kentucky New Era in 1962, Bettye Lee Mastin, former Lexington Herald-Leader reporter, and Joe Palmer (posthumous induction), racing editor of the New York Herald Tribune.
Mike Farrell
Farrell lives in Latonia. He is the former managing editor of The Kentucky Post, co-founder of the NKyTribune.com and special projects editor, and is a full professor and director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media.
He will be interim director of the School when current director Lars Willnat departs on May 1.
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Director and journalism professor Al Cross conducted the 37th Annual Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame luncheon and induction ceremony.
Each inductee made a brief speech about their careers in journalism and the ways of the profession today. Family members accepted the posthumous awards.
“I am convinced journalism is alive and well, and just as important as ever,” Farrell said. “Even in Kentucky, where the governor doesn’t believe he owes the public answers to tough questions, and prefers softballs from supporters, journalism is vibrant.”
The crowd laughed at the “inside stories” and remembrances of the journalists told during their acceptance speechs.
Cross congratulated the inductees and said: “We must not only recognize great journalists; we must defend our craft.”
