- Barry Bingham, Jr.
George Barry Bingham, Jr. (
September 23 ,1933 –April 3 ,2006 inLouisville, Kentucky ) was an Americannewspaper publisher andtelevision andradio executive. He was the last descendant of the Bingham family that controlled Louisville's daily newspapers, a television station, and two radio stations for much of the 20th century.Bingham was educated at the
Brooks School andHarvard University . [McFadden, Robert D. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/business/media/04bingham.html "Barry Bingham Jr., Louisville Publisher, Is Dead at 72"] , "The New York Times ",{April 4 , 2006. AccessedDecember 12 ,2007 . "He attended the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., and graduated from Harvard in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in history."]"Barry Jr.," as he was almost always called, was the surviving son of
Barry Bingham, Sr. and the grandson ofRobert Worth Bingham , who originally purchased controlling interest in "The Courier-Journal " and "The Louisville Times " in 1919. The original plan by Bingham Sr. was for Barry Jr. to control the family's broadcast properties,WHAS-TV ,WHAS-AM and WHAS-FM, as well as the Standard Gravurerotogravure print plant. Robert Worth Bingham III (known as Worth), the brother of Barry Jr., was slated to run the newspapers, but Worth was killed in a freak driving accident at the age of 34 that broke his neck and killed him instantly in 1966 which changed the elder Bingham's plans, and Barry Jr. took over management of the newspapers in 1971. (His younger brother, Jonathan Worth Bingham, was electrocuted in an accident on the family estate in 1964 at he age of 22.)Bingham Jr. was a different breed of newspaper publisher. Besides his distinctive
mustache and fondness for Scottishtam o'shanter s, Bingham Jr. was a stickler for journalistic ethics—sometimes to a fault, critics claimed—and public service that sometimes trumped profits. He insisted on professionalism at all levels, even to the point of insisting on the removal of his own wife, mother, and two sisters from the company board of directors. This ongoing struggle, particularly with sisterSallie Bingham , eventually led Bingham Sr. to break up the company in 1986 and sell off the parts, with the newspapers being sold toGannett Corporation and the radio stations sold to a predecessor ofClear Channel Communications .During the tenure of Bingham Jr., the "C-J" won
Pulitzer Prize s in three separate years: 1976, for photography regarding of court-ordered public school busing and desegregation; 1978, for an investigation of theBeverly Hills Supper Club fire ; and, 1980 for a series of stories and photos fromCambodia .After the sale of the media properties, Bingham Jr. briefly published a
newsletter aboutethics in journalism. After that effort ended, he largely stayed out of the public light, surfacing only on occasion and then usually to criticize the management of the former Bingham companies. He also was an active supporter of and fund-raiser forActors Theatre of Louisville andBernheim Arboretum and Research Forest .Bingham Jr. was particularly critical of Gannett's operation of "The Courier-Journal," particularly its practice of running
advertisement s on the front page (in a banner across the very bottom) and its closing of the newspaper's regionalbureau s throughout the state. Bingham Jr. kept the bureau network in operation throughout his tenure, despite their high expense.Barry Bingham, Jr. died of
respiratory failure . He was survived by his wife, the former Edith Wharton Stenhouse Franchini; two daughters from their marriage, Emily S. Bingham and Mary C. Bingham (known as Molly); two stepsons from Edith's first marriage, Philip John Franchini and Charles Wharton Bingham; and the two sisters whom he fought for control of the media properties.ee also
*
List of famous Louisvillians References
External links
* [http://scum.wikia.com/wiki/Philip_Bingham Philip Bingham entry at Santa Cruz Underground Music Wiki]
* [http://scum.wikia.com/wiki/Charles_Bingham Charles Bingham entry at Santa Cruz Underground Music Wiki]
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