S.C. Press: Good Old Boys No Longer   

Until a few years ago, South Carolina newspapers were more known for fraternal ties among their publishers, politicians and business executives than for investigatory journalism. Now, things seem to be changing. Newspapers in the state are getting more aggressive.

"The South Carolina press are not good old boys anymore," says Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association. "They are fulfilling their obligatory role."

One indication: Two South Carolina newspapers were among the 13 winners of Investigative Reporters and Editors' 1992 awards, announced March 5, for the best investigative stories of 1991 in an annual national contest that drew more than 450 entries.

Chris Weston, Tim Smith and William Fox of the Greenville News won for their coverage of a University of South Carolina-related foundation. In 1987 the News and the Associated Press sued under the state's FOIA for foundation records that, released after a four-year court battle, led to tax evasion charges against USC President James Holderman. Holderman, who had resigned in 1990 amid criticism of his spending, pleaded no contest to state income tax evasion. Circuit Solicitor Richard A. Harpootlian has said he developed leads and sources for his investigation of Holderman as a result of reporting by the News and the Charlotte, North Carolina, Observer, which circulates 30,000 copies in South Carolina.

And Lesia Shannon of the Sun News in Myrtle Beach won an IRE award for her series exposing a city councilman's dubious lending business. She also reported that a county magistrate had been arresting those who didn't repay the councilman.

Elsewhere in the state, the Sumter Item successfully sued local authorities to get back film of a train accident they had seized from a staff photographer. The triweekly Newberry Observer and Herald & News argued in court for release of documents alleging possible improprieties in the operations of the Newberry County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. And the Rock Hill Herald defied a federal court order not to print the name of a lawyer implicated in a cocaine investigation.

In Columbia, the case of four reporters cited for contempt marks the first detention of journalists in the state's history, according to Rogers. The reporters – Sid Gaulden and Schuyler Kropf of Charleston's Post and Courier; Cindi Ross Scoppe of the Columbia-based State; and Andrew Shain of the Sun News – had refused to testify in the case of State Sen. Bud Long, who was on trial for bribery. Federal prosecutors believed the reporters had information that would strengthen the government's case against Long, but the four claimed reporter's privilege and were cited for contempt. The case is now on appeal.

Some area journalists attribute their more aggressive news-gathering to new blood. A number of family-owned papers have been sold to chains in the past few years and now seem more emboldened to take the heat that politically charged investigations bring.

"There have been a lot of changes in the South Carolina press over the last eight years or so," says John Shurr, chief of the Associated Press's South Carolina bureau. "A lot of people with new ideas are coming in from outside the state, and are also moving up into positions of responsibility."

"The Southeast has a good share of medium-sized papers," says Andy Scott, executive director of IRE and a former Greenville News reporter. "That's the kind of places these talented young journalism school graduates are likely to go."