Jack Willis

Between 140 and 160 law enforcement officers are killed in the line of duty in the United States every year, according to the group Concerns of Police Survivors (or C.O.P.S.). C.O.P.S. is a national nonprofit that provides resources for the surviving family and affected co-workers of a fallen police officer. My daughter, Stephanie, a licensed […]

Nothing attracts a pack of curious readers like a good list. A list of, say, health-inspection violations issued to their favorite restaurants, or the assessed value of houses on their block, or registered sex offenders living in their neighborhood. Such lists ” especially if they’re wrong ” can get journalists into hot water. The Guthrie […]

“Five die as tornadoes hit Oklahoma,” Derrick Henry reported on The New York Times website. “Four dead in Oklahoma tornado outbreak,” according to Little Rock’s KATV-Channel 7 broadcast. “The Oklahoman was reporting Tuesday afternoon that the death toll had been upped from five to seven,” according to an Associated Press story. “Seven lives have been […]

The corporate suits whisked through the newsroom and into the publisher’s office. A visit wasn’t scheduled, so what were they doing in Oklahoma? Something was up. Nothing good ever came from a surprise corporate visit. A few minutes later, the phone rang in my office. The publisher wanted to see me. I panicked, and my […]

Tommy Mason-Griffin, a University of Oklahoma basketball player, recently spoke through his Facebook page ” like many young people today ” to tell the world he was turning pro. Here’s what he wrote, as reported by the media: “On a mission. Its a official dat I am leavin skool and enterin draft. “¦ I aint […]

I felt empathy with Judy Gibbs Robinson as I read about The Oklahoma Daily‘s handling of a controversial editorial cartoon. Judy is editorial adviser of the student newspaper at the University of Oklahoma. Last week, several students and faculty complained to The Daily about a cartoon, a panel showing a man entering a dorm laundry […]

Trying to access the Cherokee County sheriff’s booking records years ago suddenly became a problem for the newspaper. Reporters couldn’t do their jobs, and the public didn’t know who the sheriff was putting in jail. I didn’t understand why he was refusing to release the information. The newspaper had had no problems in the past, […]

The yearly rumor mill stating that Bob Stoops is leaving the University of Oklahoma ” this time for the Notre Dame head coaching job ” is exactly why news media should not publish rumors. Stoops was forced, once again, to deny a report that had him packing his bags for South Bend, Ind. Obviously, the […]

The Associated Press is cutting staff, like most everybody else on the planet, and regionalizing its operations ” and that’s not good for Oklahoma news consumers. The not-for-profit news cooperative, which has won 49 Pulitzer Prizes, has been the standard bearer of journalism for 163 years. It’s an institution widely respected for its news coverage […]