The editor of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s online newspaper says fellow journalists covering politics in the state capital shouldn’t be surprised about getting scooped on a breaking news story.
Kentucky Today editor Roger Alford editorialized Sept. 7 that he was intrigued about banter on social media following his story on an assistant attorney general who resigned under duress after being reprimanded for talking to a journalist.
Roger Alford
Alford, who has been working 30 years in journalism, said one fellow who described Kentucky Today as “upstart” might be surprised to know that his least experienced staff member has 12 years of journalism experience. Or that his Frankfort bureau reporter, former International Mission Board correspondent Kristen Lowry, worked seven years in “political hotspots that make Frankfort look like Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood.”
Alford, communications director for the 2,400-church affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention, said his staff is “working to be the statewide conservative voice that has been missing for far too long” in Kentucky politics.
Kentucky Baptist Convention Executive Director Paul Chitwood announced formation of Kentucky Today as part of a three-pronged legislative strategy in 2015. Along with a lobbyist and chaplain serving in the state capital, Chitwood envisioned a “world-class online newspaper” providing news and perspective on the issues of the day as “a complement” to Western Recorder, a print newspaper serving Kentucky Baptists since 1825.
Alford, a former bi-vocational pastor and Associated Press correspondent who was elected KBC communications director in 2013, said his publication strives for news coverage “that is fair, balanced and accurate” and to “provide a decidedly conservative editorial voice on the important issues of our day.”
“Kentucky Today has a broad readership that includes the state’s top-elected leaders and policymakers,” Alford wrote. “That’s important because our aim goes beyond keeping Kentuckians well informed about what’s going in their state, nation and world. We also aim to speak loud and clear to political leaders through our opinion pages.”
The online paper’s masthead carries the motto “because you deserve the truth.”
Alford said some of the online banter among journalists and politicos pointing out that Kentucky Today is owned by the Kentucky Baptist Convention, the state’s largest religious group with 750,000 members, “appeared to be intended as some kind of slight” against the publication.
“It’s not at all out of the norm for a religious organization to produce top quality journalism,” he replied. “The Christian Science Monitor, as one very well-known example, has won multiple Pulitzer Prizes.”
“My point is that a newspaper should be a newspaper whether it’s owned by the Baptists or the Binghams, whether by Gannett or McClatchy or Hearst or the Tribune Co,” he said.
Previous story:
Kentucky’s Southern Baptists hire lobbyist, Capitol chaplain