EDITOR’S PAGE

THE GREAT NEWSPAPER WAR



Thirteen years ago, when I graduated from journalism school, my first inclination was to come to Dallas. But one obstacle stood in my way: I cared about my career. Dallas newspapers were simply horrible. Both were home-owned, and both were sound asleep.

I had young friends at both papers who had told me tales of how frustrated they were in their efforts to do good reporting. At the advice of a journalistic mentor, I went to Fort Worth. I didn’t know the city at all, but I knew one thing: Fort Worth had a much better journalistic reputation than Dallas in those days. The reason can be explained in a word: competition.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was being nipped at every day by the much smaller Fort Worth Press. The Press was owned by a newspaper chain, Scripps-Howard. People at the Star-Telegram liked to think of the Press as a sensationalist rag. But deep in their heart of hearts, they respected the Press because it was owned by a bunch of out-of-towners who didn’t give a damn about the powers that be in Fort Worth. The Press didn’t care whose toes it stepped on, and as a result the Press forced both newspapers to be aggressive. Fort Worth benefited immeasurably.

One of the most significant events in modern Dallas history -an event from which we have all benefited – occurred in 1974 when a bunch of out-of-towners bought the Dallas Times Herald.

Shortly alter Times-Mirror Corp. bought the Times Herald, a group of hardball players came in and started running the editorial department. The change has made both the Times Herald and the Morning News much more aggressive, and much better. The out-of-towners made the local folks perform at a much higher level than they’d ever performed before. The Morning News, within the past five years or so, has been out to determine what the Herald would like to do, and then do it first. It’s been a seesaw battle for years. Sometimes the Herald has the momentum and is at that moment the better paper, sometimes the News seizes it and dominates the battle for a while.

Both papers are infinitely better than they were a decade ago. The citizens of Dallas have benefited from this battle in a very important manner: We know more about our city than it was possible to learn a decade ago. The prime example of that is the so-called tax evaluation scandal. We wouldn’t have known there was even anything to worry about at City Hall if the newspapers had not been probing city government, trying to find a good story to cram down each other’s throats.

The publicity over Skip Bayless’ jump from the News to the Herald is just a symptom of the latest round of the newspaper war. (See “Inside Dallas,” page 11). It’s good for Dallas journalists in that Bay-less’ big salary will doubtless have a ripple effect on the salaries of all journalists in the city. That will simply mean that better writers and reporters will come to Dallas, and we’ll all benefit.

Given the resources of the two newspaper giants, the war could go on for a long, long time. We are fortunate to live in a city in which such a war is occurring. No other American city the size of Dallas is so lucky. Despite the financial resources both papers are expending on the newspaper war, both are extremely profitable. Let’s hope they keep it up for a long time.



HOW TO BE A COVER GIRL (OR BOY)



He is – by most contemporary standards – a fraud. He goes by a name that is not his own. He makes his living appearing to be something that he is not. He has impersonated public officials, bankers, doctors – even a rich uncle. He has never been any of those.

Al Evans -real name: Evan Albert Tackett – is a professional face. As of this issue, he has been on the cover of D Magazine three times, posing as a state legislator (“Making Laws and Raising Hell,” June 1979), a judge (“Rating Dallas Judges,” August 1979) and now as a stereotypical city council member (also, page 94). He’s also been in a host of national publications, including Esquire, People and the Wall Street Journal. He’s appeared in about 100 television commercials, doing everything from tasting bread to setting up an imaginary trust fund in a bank ad.

He is chosen not for what he is, but for what he looks like. Evans looks solid, mature, stately, official -or sometimes just officious. We’ve used him twice to illustrate political stories because of his ability to look not just like a political character but a political caricature: Al can look like a real sleazeball. Sometimes we need that talent to get the point across.

Evan Albert Tackett is one of the legions of faces you’ve seen peering at you from billboards, the pages of the Sears catalog, and a thousand other places where professional “people” are used as props. If you ever wonder how those people got there, consider Al Evans.

Evans, like the majority of the “character” models used in the industry, is a part-time actor. He studied acting at Columbia University after the end of World War II, during which he’d served in the Navy. He has spent the majority of his professional life in radio, working at a number of stations in the Dallas area, including KRLD. He was an announcer and the music director for the now-defunct Dallas radio station KIXL until he dropped out of the regular nine-to-five world in 1972 and began working for himself. Since then, a series of modeling, television commercial and dinner theater engagements have been the source of his livelihood. “It’s been a good living,” says Evans. “I’ve worked a lot.”

As soon as we come up with our cover concept each month, our art director chooses the photographer he thinks can best illustrate the concept and then the two of them begin “casting” for the cover. The art director will call one of the modeling agencies and say “Send me a dozen people who can look like an auto mechanic” or “Send me ten girls who look good in a bathing suit.”

Models are told what the photo will attempt to illustrate and are then asked “How would you react to that?” Then the person who can assume the “look” the best is chosen. People like Evans are chosen a lot because they are- first, last and always – actors. Evans will act his way through the cover scenario, pretending to actually be the person he is portraying.

Does Evans ever aspire to really becomeone of the people he portrays? In a word,no. “I’ve got too many skeletons in mycloset to ever go into public office,” saysthe 67-year-old model. “I’ve lived my lifetoo fully.”