[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 68 (Tuesday, May 5, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          HONORING MARK HEBERT

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to an old-fashioned 
newsman who delivered critical information to the viewers of WHAS-TV in 
Louisville for the last 22 years. This weekend he retired his 
microphone and camera to work for the University of Louisville, and his 
reporting will be greatly missed.
  As a former journalist who moved on to another field myself, I can 
hardly begrudge him the change, but I can't help but mourn the void it 
leaves. At a time when news is adapted to sound bites palatable to 
texters and twitterers, Mark was never content with what he found on 
the surface. Time and again, he peeled that proverbial onion until 
someone cried.
  I am proud to call Mark my friend and proud, too, that my former 
newspaper, LEO Weekly, has named him Louisville's best journalist. But 
if the accolades and friendship had an effect on him personally, you 
would never have known it professionally. I found myself the subject of 
his scrutiny on more than one occasion. We would call the stories 
positive at times and negative at others, but the words that always 
showed up were thorough, intelligent, and fair.
  The loss for WHAS and local media is the university's gain, but our 
entire community is better for his 22 years of reporting and the high 
standard of journalism set by Mark Hebert.

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