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Your connection to industry & member news | July 31, 2025
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Order press IDs for your sports journalistsIt's almost time for the return of Friday night lights which means it's also time to order press IDs for your sports reporters, photographers and stringers.
Cards with a clip are $7 each. A card with imprinted "PRESS" lanyard is $10.
Please do not wait until the last minute to order IDs. While we process orders quickly and ship USPS Priority Mail, it can still take a few days to arrive.
All orders must come from SCPA member newspaper and online news publication editors. Freelancers must contact their editor to order a card.
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 | At far right, Chronicle Editor Vic MacDonald records post-game comments by Clinton Football Head Coach Corey Fountain, whose 2024 Red Devils are the Class AA State Champions. (Photo by Fletcher Pruitt Jr.)
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Clinton Chronicle editor celebrates half a century in community journalism
Editor’s note: The Clinton Chronicle hosted a local Chamber Business Connections event on Tuesday, and celebrated Editor Vic McDonald’s 50-year milestone in the news industry!
By Vic McDonald, The Clinton Chronicle
So, if you come to The Chronicle Tuesday evening for our Business Connection, you’re going to see a couple tables in our back-shop dedicated to - Me.
All me. All the time.
I was in the home library on Sunday fishing out some stuff to put on the tables - and I have some other stuff in my office. So a lot of that will be out on the tables if you care to see it.
It is reflective of a 50-year career in community journalism.
Except for a brief time when I was PIO for the Newberry County School District and 5 years when I was an English teacher at Newberry High School, I have worked in journalism. Frankly, I count those two stints as journalism, also. The Newberry County schools needed an infusion of good publicity, and I accomplished that -- and NHS needed somebody who knew his way around words and I have that skill. I also refined a little photography while I was there.
I say it’s been 50 years because, as I recall it, I graduated from Newberry College in May, 1975, and spent about a month living in the fraternity house and working in the dining hall, before I got summoned to Gordon Henry’s office and told that Bill Caulk wanted to hire me to run the weekly newspaper in Bishopville.
I moved there in my grandmother’s Chevy Nova.
That led to positions in Camden, Greenwood, Florence, Newberry, Greenwood again, (teaching), then to Manning and eventually to Clinton. The final move was 2012. I’ve always thought that was a lot of moving, but then I realize I was 8 months in a couple places and 8 years in Florence.
I worked in Newberry for more than 2 decades. I saw the second floor of the Opera House when it was a pigeon coup.
The building where I worked is now the town’s Art Center (even though it still does and always has looked like a grocery store).
I’ve had a lot of adventures along the way. Covering Jimmy Carter when nobody knew who he was and John Jenrette brought him to Florence. Later, in Camden, I interviewed Chip Carter on the campaign trail. Read more
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By Tommy Cardinal,
My Horry News
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| Column: Goodbye, Horry County
Two years ago, one day after I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed, I drove 10 hours from Orlando to Myrtle Beach and met the editor of MyHorryNews in a bar on Kings Highway.
I was about to make a big life change, uprooting from my home state of Florida — just me and my cat — to take a job with MyHorryNews, an outlet I had not heard of until I applied for a reporter position. When I got the email from Hannah and saw the address in the signature, I did a double take. Conway, South Carolina? Like Conway kitty, my beloved cat? Yeah, I’ll interview with them. I’m glad I did.
Back to July 2023. Hannah, her husband and newborn baby opening up Pine Lakes Tavern, just the four (three) of us talking about what the job would entail and what Horry County was like. I thought “these are good people.” They were. And so were so many people I met while working in the county.
If you haven’t heard, I’m headed back to Florida. I accepted a job offer at the Sarasota Observer, my hometown newspaper. The paper’s offices are downtown in the urban district my father had a hand in designing through the city’s master plan, in the city I grew up in. I’ll be closer to my mom, my girlfriend, my brother and friends from school. It was a no-brainer. But man, I’ll miss Horry County and the people I met here. Read more
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Khurshudyan joins CNN as senior enterprise reporter
WASHINGTON, DC – Isabelle Khurshudyan has joined CNN as a Senior Enterprise Reporter/Writer, the network announced [last week]. In this role, she’ll dig into the big stories shaping Washington, reporting on the seismic shifts that are underway and helping audiences understand their impacts at home and abroad.
Khurshudyan most recently served The Washington Post’s Ukraine bureau chief based in Kyiv. She reported from the front lines, covering the war since the first day of Russia’s invasion. Fluent in Russian and proficient in Ukrainian, she also managed a team of local journalists in her role as bureau chief.
Prior to this, Khurshudyan was a Moscow correspondent for The Post, reporting on everything from Vladimir Putin’s impact on Russian civil society and attacks on Alexey Navalny to environmental issues and Russia’s coronavirus response.
Khurshudyan started her journalism career as a sports reporter, primarily covering the Washington Capitals in their 2018 Stanley Cup run. She was part of The Post team recognized with the International Women’s Media Foundation Award for Courage in Journalism in 2023 and was a finalist for the 2023 Livingston Award for International Reporting for her work in Ukraine.
Khurshudyan is a University of South Carolina [and Walhalla High School] graduate and will be based out of the network’s Washington, DC bureau.
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 | Jay Bender skydives in tandem with instructor Brian Martins. (Photo courtesy of Skydive Carolina in Chester)
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| Jay Bender makes one more leap of faith
Jay Bender and his twin brother, Ray, were born in Oklahoma in 1944. The family moved to New Mexico soon after. Jay still visits the Land of Enchantment regularly and Ray, a retired Army officer, lives in San Diego.
Jay jumped out of a perfectly good airplane for the first time in 1963, while stationed at Fort Rucker, Alabama. He was a private assigned to Fort Rucker’s aircraft maintenance school. His only excuse was there wasn’t much to do recreationally in Lower Alabama. As a native Alabamian, I can heartily agree with that reasoning.
A member of skydiving clubs at Fort Rucker, Fort Lee, Virginia, and West Point, along with a civilian club in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jay made 50 jumps between 1963 and 1966, when he followed Coach Paul Dietzel from West Point to Columbia.
“In the Army planes were available at no charge. Civilians pay to jump and as a college student I couldn’t afford to jump any longer,” he says.
Bender has been practicing law in Columbia since 1975. He earned a journalism undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina in 1970, and a law degree from there five years later.
“I was also a fulltime faculty member in both schools between 2006 and 2016,” Bender said.
Bender’s law career has largely focused on media issues, which has earned him a national reputation. He has been legal counsel for the South Carolina Press Association and newspapers, for over 40 years. He also represented the Catawba Indian Nation in the settlement of a land claim that arose in 1840. He is regarded as South Carolina’s foremost authority on the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.
By Mike Cox, The Columbia Star | Read more
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Chaos in Calhoun Falls: Resignations, crumbling services, and a mayoral challenger emerges
Frustration, accusations and warnings of further collapse echoed through Calhoun Falls Town Council chambers Monday night as leaders and residents grappled with the aftermath of resignations, rising utility concerns and dwindling police coverage.
The meeting opened with standard protocol before quickly diving into concerns over administrative errors, staffing turmoil and transparency. No votes were taken on any actions throughout the meeting. ...
During public comments, in addition to asking council if they had a copy of and understood Roberts Rules of Order, resident Brian Dixon accused the town of violating South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act after receiving no response to seven document requests filed July 1. Under the state law, public bodies must respond to FOIA requests within 10 business days
“We’re on day 20,” Dixon said. “This council is in direct violation of the FOIA.”
Dixon’s remarks were echoed by others who expressed concern about government accountability and lack of public access to information.
The Index-Journal also submitted a FOIA request to the Town of Calhoun Falls on May 20, seeking extensive documentation related to the town’s financials, vendor agreements, utility billing, payroll, and council meeting records. As of July 29, more than two months later, the newspaper has received no response.
By Renee Ortiz, Index-Journal | Read more
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Editorial: Charleston’s silent surrender on statue exposes larger problem of council’s secrecy
Readers of a certain age will remember the literal “cone of silence” that frequently descended over the slapstick spies of TV’s Get Smart, a 1960s James Bond spoof that gleefully mocked the culture of secrecy in government.
Today, our local elected officials have a loftier-sounding name for the cone of silence they employ to keep us from overhearing their private discussions about public business. They call it “executive session” — a legally allowed but often misused mechanism for closed-door meetings.
And as we saw once again on July 15, Charleston Mayor William Cogswell and Charleston City Council have grown all too quick to lower their executive session cone of silence anytime a real debate threatens to break out in public view.
Five years ago, city council openly and hotly debated a resolution to take down the controversial John C. Calhoun monument, ultimately voting unanimously to do so. At the time, elected members said it would be placed in storage until the city could find an appropriate institution — probably a museum — to display the staunchly pro-slavery statesman’s visage with context required.
But then last Tuesday night, city council voted to go into executive session to receive legal advice on several issues, including on a legal settlement with the “heritage” group that
sued the city over the Calhoun statue decision. After meeting for 45 minutes behind closed doors, they voted in public unanimously — without any public debate whatsoever — to settle the suit by giving the statue to the plaintiffs. Hmmm. Curious.
From Charleston City Paper | Read more
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What happens when you get the name of the dog? Journalism magic.
If the citizens of Philadelphia now have the power to judge the popularity of the name of their dog, they have me to thank. Let me explain.
Journalism has more than its share of helpful sayings for reporters on the exercise of their craft:
“Follow the money.”
“Get a good quote high in the story.”
“Don’t bury the lead.”
My favorite bit of wisdom is often attributed to me, but I learned it from my first city editor, who learned it from his city editor, going back to, maybe, Ben Franklin. I have repeated this imperative sentence so often, in speech and in writing, that I no longer feel an ethical imperative to give credit to someone else. Its most prominent resting place is in Chapter 14 of my bestselling book “Writing Tools.”
OK, maybe I have buried the lead, so here it is in all-caps and boldface:
GET THE NAME OF THE DOG.
By Roy Peter Clark, Poynter | Read more
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Free web series will help journalists understand the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” became law on July 4. Weeks later, journalists are still answering the big, beautiful questions: What policies are going to change, and which ones are going to stay the same? How will the new law’s provisions impact Americans across the country? Who and what will be affected most by the new law? What upcoming dates and deadlines will be relevant for your readers and viewers to know?
The National Press Club Journalism Institute and the Bipartisan Policy Center are offering a series of virtual briefings to help journalists enhance their understanding and coverage of the bill’s major themes.
Each session will be held over Zoom at 1 p.m. and there is no charge to attend.
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By John Foust,
Advertising Trainer
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| One way to end presentations smoothly
I used to have a small Zuma sailboat, which I trailered to a nearby lake in the summer. With its 13-foot length and one sail, it was relatively easy to rig and handle on the water.
Interestingly, the most challenging thing about the boat was dealing with the trailer – making sure the tail lights were working, checking tires, and taking care of the tie-down straps.
One time after a day of sailing, I followed my regular procedure of taking the boat out of the water. First, I pulled the boat onto the sandy beach next to the boat ramp, lowered the sail and raised the centerboard and rudder. Then I backed the car down the ramp, so I could walk the boat back into the water and position it between the two parallel rails of the trailer. Finally, I attached a line to the bow to pull it straight onto the rails. Just at that moment, the remains of a wake from a distant powerboat turned the boat sideways and pushed the starboard (right) side into one of the rails. I can still hear the crunch of the rail going through the hull. Read more
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