Steven A Smith, Author at SpokaneFāVS

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. Smith is former editor of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. As editor, Smith supervised all news and editorial operations on all platforms with a staff ranging from more than 140 in 2002 to 104 at the time of his resignation in October 2008. Prior to joining The Spokesman-Review, Smith was editor for two years at The Statesman Journal, a Gannett newspaper in Salem, Oregon, and was for five years editor and vice president of The Gazette, a Freedom Communications newspaper 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 MA in communication from The Ohio State University where he was a Kiplinger Fellow, and a BS in journalism from the University of Oregon. Smith serves on the SpokaneFāVS Board.

Mourning for Celebrities

January 24, 2023 Commentary 0

David Crosby died last week. That will not mean much to young people. But to people of a certain age, my age, the loss was significant. And emotional. I felt it in ways I did not expect.

Dreams of Newsrooms Now Gone

January 17, 2023 Commentary 3

They say we dream more vividly as we grow older. That is certainly true for me. And I remember my dreams now in ways I never did when younger. And because I spent most of my life in newsrooms, that is where dreams take me. Soon enough, the newsrooms I remember will live only in dreams. And an institution so important to American democracy will be all but gone. Not a dream, but a nightmare.

The Evil in this World: The Evil Men Do

January 10, 2023 Commentary 1

There is evil in this world. I have seen it. And I have experienced it.

The Press and the Suspected Killer

January 3, 2023 Commentary 3

A Washington State University Ph.D. student, Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in the Pennsylvania Poconos. Aggressive reporting that cites sources close to the investigation tells us police focused on Kohberger before Christmas as they closed in on a Hyundai Elantra that had been photographed near the crime scene and simultaneously traced DNA evidence to Kohberger family members.

Bad Year, Good Year

December 27, 2022 Commentary 1

It is said that time seems to move faster as we get older. In some ways, I think that has been true for me. I wake up on a Jan. 1 and the next thing I know we are celebrating New Year’s Eve. But 2022 has not moved so quickly. It has seemed interminable.

Hanukkah and Antisemitism

December 20, 2022 Commentary 0

Hanukkah began Sunday. And like all American Jews, I am a little nervous this year. Hanukkah ends on Dec. 26, creating an unusual confluence of holidays. And it comes during a time of growing antisemitism in the U.S. and the world. The number of antisemitic incidents in 2021 was the highest in nearly 50 years, and 2022 is going to be worse.