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12 P.S. What kind of newspaper was the Arkansas Gazette? How much did it matter to the state of Arkansas and to the people who lived there? Carrick Patterson: I watched on A&E a biography of Jackie Kennedy the other night, and there was a lot of talk about Camelot and that sort of thing. And what that really meant, I think, was how excited those people were to be there, how really vital they felt, how they felt they were doing something important, that they were changing things, that they were doing good, that they were blowing and going, that they were having an influence, and how stimulating it was to be in that intellectual and productive environment. And I think that’s what they meant by Camelot, more than the actual accomplishments at the time. Being at the Gazette in the time I was there, before the economic pressures from the newspaper war became so exhausting and all consuming, was a similar environment to that. You were working on something that you thought was really important to do with people that you really respected and that you were learning from. You were working alongside, toward a common goal that everybody pretty much understood and was signed up for. You were having a hell of a good time doing it, and you were feeling good about yourself while you were doing it. Your victories were shared, victories that everyone enjoyed. Your failures were only an incentive to go out and work harder the next day. You were in an environment not only of colleagues but of friends—of almost a vocation, a feeling of a vocation as well as an occupation. And it was an incredible feeling to be part of that. And that’s what, I think, everybody who worked there at that time misses the most. It would have been that way without me. I certainly didn’t cause it. My dad didn’t cause it. My grandfather 271 may have caused it somewhat, but, at the same time, we did help create an atmosphere where it could take place. So I give us credit for that. And, in return, I got to partake of that atmosphere, and it was a wonderful feeling to be part of that group. And I think those who consumed the product felt some of that. And so, to that extent, they’re also missing out, now that it’s gone. Smith: I covered a couple of campaigns of David Pryor’s, traveling with him and Barbara, just with them all day for weeks at a time. In one of those campaigns , either ’72 or ’74 I guess it was, we came back into Little Rock late on a Saturday night, flew back into the airport, and he had a car there. A young college guy was driving it, and so the Pryors gave me a ride to the Gazette, where my car was parked. So we pull up there, and the lights are shining at the Gazette. It is midnight, and I think maybe Pryor said, “Give us a first edition of the paper,” or something. Anyway, he, David, turns to this young driver, and he says—I know partly for my benefit but partly because it is true—he said, “You know, Rick, the difference between Arkansas and Mississippi is the Arkansas Gazette.” Hugh Patterson: I remember one time Bill Fulbright saying that he’d always considered himself to be something of a political accident coming from Arkansas and having achieved the position he had, but he said he didn’t think it could have ever occurred had it not been for the longtime enlightening influence of the Arkansas Gazette. Powell: I think that the Gazette’s editorial influence was enormous. Because we were arguing for all of the unpopular, un-Southern things over the years. [State Senator] Ben Allen, for example—of course, he may give more credit than is due—he thinks that we fashioned the course of Arkansas’s history. Ben thinks that the Gazette’s role in those years was the most powerful thing that happened in the state. Dumas: Did it help avoid the course of Alabama and Mississippi? Powell: Absolutely. During those twenty-five years that I was on the editorial page, there was only a handful of what I regard as good newspapers in the South. Others were arguing the same old lines that the South had always argued. When...

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