[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 27, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S4309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO DOUGLAS MANSHIP, SR.

 Mr. BREAUX. Mr. President, Louisiana is today mourning the 
loss of a giant in the news media, Douglas Manship, Sr., the chairman 
emeritus of the Baton Rouge Advocate and the founder of WBRZ-TV in 
Baton Rouge.
  Douglas Manship devoted nearly all of his 80 years to providing the 
citizens of Louisiana with timely, objective and thorough coverage of 
the day-to-day events of our state. In the process, he and his family 
have always set the standard for excellence in news reporting in 
Louisiana, winning dozens of statewide, regional and national 
journalism awards.
  For most of this century, the Manship name has been synonymous with 
journalism in Louisiana. In fact, the school of mass communications at 
our state's flagship institution of higher learning, Louisiana State 
University, bears the Manship name and has already trained a generation 
of young journalists to follow the example of journalistic excellence 
set by Douglas Manship and his family.
  Those of us who knew Douglas Manship knew him as someone totally 
committed to his community and just as dedicated to the daily 
dissemination of fair and objective news. In almost every way, Douglas 
Manship was what a journalist should be. He believed that a public 
given the facts on a particular issue would invariably make the right 
decision. And he fought tirelessly through his newspaper to throw open 
the closed doors of public bodies all over Louisiana so that citizens 
could become better informed about the important business that was 
being conducted in their behalf.
  Of course, Douglas Manship's imminent fairness and objectivity didn't 
stop him from expressing his opinion and using his newspaper to 
champion a cause when he believed his state and his community could do 
better. In the early 1960s, long before other southern media leaders 
recognized the need for racial integration, Douglas Manship used his 
position at WBRZ-TV to bring Baton Rouge community leaders together to 
discuss ways to peacefully achieve racial integration. WBRZ's 
courageous advocacy on behalf of desegregation resulted in threats of 
violence against Manship and his station. But he never backed down. And 
I believe that Baton Rouge made great strides because of principled 
leaders like Douglas Manship who put the well-being of his community 
ahead of his economic interests.
  Nothing distinguished Douglas Manship more than the strength of his 
character and his strong sense, as he put it, of who he was. ``If there 
is any attribute that I have that has any meaning,'' he once said, ``it 
is that I know exactly who I am. That's where you get into trouble . . 
. when you think you are something you are not. I believe that after 
all these years I have learned who I am, what my limitations are.''
  Mr. President, today we remember Douglas Manship as a principled 
community leader, a courageous and fairminded journalist and a loving 
father and husband. I know that I join with the entire journalistic 
community of my state in saying that his presence and leadership will 
be sorely missed.

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