Steven A Smith

Steven A. Smith is clinical associate professor emeritus in the School of Journalism and Mass Media at the University of Idaho having retired from full-time teaching at the end of May 2020. He writes a weekly opinion column. Smith is former editor of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. As editor, Smith supervised all news and editorial operations on all platforms until his resignation in October 2008. Prior to joining The Spokesman-Review, Smith was editor for two years at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon, and was for five years editor and vice president of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is a graduate of the Northwestern University Newspaper Management Center Advanced Executive Program and a mid-career development program at Duke University. He holds an M.A. in communication from The Ohio State University where he was a Kiplinger Fellow, and a B.S. in journalism from the University of Oregon.

To Challenge or Not to Challenge?

During dinner we had a conversation that many of you probably have had, too. When you see someone flouting public health rules and recommendations, do you say something, do you confront?

The “Big Lie”

Whether Trump is a liar and whether the term “Big Lie” is journalistically appropriate has been the subject of some debate within FāVS this week following the posting of this column, though not as much debate as you might expect.

A Very Bad Year – Again

Yes, 2021 has been a bad year. Not as bad as 2020, but pretty awful nonetheless.

Like A Kid Again

It is something of a given that in our old age we revert to our younger selves. The so-called “second childhood,” turns out, is not just a baseless cliché.

A Christmas Memory

But I also remember a Christmas Eve night shift when a sad-looking young couple came into the store. And while the wife toyed with the penny candy, the man shoplifted a half-dozen TV dinners. Of course, Paul spotted the theft immediately.

On Being a Journalist

Understanding the distinction between the right and the wrong is essential if non-journalists are to understand and trust the people who bring them the news, who try to sort truth from falsity.

Truth to Power

Bill Morlin is gone. The legendary Spokesman-Review investigative reporter died Nov. 20, the result of a brutal infection.

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