Today's Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times have stories on the death Sunday of Tampa sportswriting legend Tom McEwen — both of them above the fold, so important was he to bringing sports to the Tampa Bay area.
But even amidst all the hosannas, both stories contain an obligatory paragraph or two on how he stretched the ethical boundaries of his job. The Times story by Andrew Meacham includes this comment from Skip Perez, former executive editor with the Lakeland Ledger. "You've got to understand it was a different era…That could never happen today in this environment.."
CL's former editor back when it was called the Weekly Planet, John Sugg, worked with McEwen at the Tribune, and has his own opinions about McEwen as a man and journalist. CL contacted him yesterday for his thoughts:
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2011.