Lexington Ky Herald-Leader Names New Editor

The Herald-Liberal ^ | April 13, 2004 | Jim Jordan

[fightin kentuckian]

Marilyn Thompson, a 51-year-old investigative reporter and editor for The Washington Post, was named the editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader yesterday.

In making the announcement, Publisher Timothy M. Kelly told newsroom staffers that he had fulfilled the promise he made in June to find an "extraordinary" editor for the newspaper.

"I really do feel I have gotten the best editor I possibly can for this newspaper," Kelly said.

Thompson's achievements at the Post include leading investigative teams that won two Pulitzer Prizes for public serv-ice.

Last fall, she broke the story that South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, once a leading segregationist, had long ago fathered an illegitimate child by his family's black maid.

She was also co-author of Ol' Strom: An unauthorized Biography of Strom Thurmond with Jack Bass.

At the same time that she was working on the Thurmond story, Thompson was undergoing chemotherapy after surgery for cancer.

She will join the Herald-Leader on July 1, succeeding Amanda Bennett, who was named editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer in June.

"The excitement of taking this job is that it offers the challenge of taking a good, solid, lively newspaper with a fine reputation and making it truly great," Thompson said yesterday. "All the pieces are in place, the talent is there and it presents the opportunity to raise the level of the game."

She said her trademark is "accountability journalism -- holding government agencies and institutions accountable for their actions and their management of public dollars."

At the same time, "I also want to infuse the front page and all sections of the newspaper with rich stories of human lives and how they are affected by the governments and institutions designed to serve them," she said.

"I want to make the newspaper vital to the community, to look for ways to tap into the ideas and expertise of our readership," Thompson said. "I want to make the newspaper indispensable to the young and the old, and to the diverse communities that have sprung up in Lexington and its suburbs."

Kelly thanked Herald-Leader managing editor Tom Eblen for his leadership of the newsroom during the search for a new editor and said he selected Thompson because she produces "great journalism.

"The primary role of an editor is to be the newspaper's chief journalist. And Marilyn is clearly a superb journalist," Kelly said.

"She started out as a cub reporter in Columbia, S.C., and worked her way up to directing the investigations of The Washington Post. As both a reporter and as an editor, she has produced great journalism," Kelly said. "I look forward to her doing the same for the Herald-Leader."

Thompson, the mother of two teenage sons, is a native of Salisbury, N.C., and a graduate of Clemson University.

She began her journalism career as a governmental affairs and investigative reporter at The Columbia Record in Columbia, S.C.

She was named a Congressional Fellow by the American Political Science Association in 1982, the same year she joined The Philadelphia Daily News where she worked as a general assignment and investigative reporter.

Thompson joined The New York Daily News in 1986 as a general assignment reporter. She was promoted to assistant city editor for investigations in 1987 and transferred to the newspaper's Washington, D.C., bureau in 1988 to cover the Justice Department.

While in New York, Thompson wrote the first stories on Wedtech Corp. and the allegations of government contract fraud by that company.

She covered the Wedtech scandal for several years and later wrote a book on the subject: Feeding the Beast: How Wed-tech Became the Most Corrupt Little Company in America.

Thompson joined The Washington Post in 1990 as a government reporter in Prince George's County, Md., and was promoted to metropolitan projects editor the next year.

She moved to the Post's national desk in 1992 when she was named deputy national editor for domestic coverage. Thompson was promoted to investigations editor and then in 1999 to assistant managing editor in charge of the investigative team.

Her most recent book is The Killer Strain: Anthrax and A Government Exposed in 2003.

[fightin kentuckian]

As if this paper isn't liberal enough they've brought in a true blue republican basher from the Washington Post. And I thought the Herald-Liberal couldn't get any worse.

[fightin kentuckian]

After she takes control of the paper we can reasonably expect Pres Bush and Gov Fletcher to take a hit in the polls.

[fightu4it]

"Last fall, she broke the story that South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, once a leading segregationist, had long ago fathered an illegitimate child by his family's black maid."

She "broke" a story that had been common currency in Washington for decades?

I am sure what the conservative Commonwealth of Kentucky needs is a liberal reporter from the Washington Post heading the Lexington newspaper.