Mark Ethridge oral history interview, 2019 May 13

Mark Ethridge, a journalist, novelist, and media entrepreneur, discusses his career, with special attention to his years as a reporter and editor at the Charlotte Observer newspaper, during the 1970s and 1980s. He begins by discussing his first years as a journalist, as a stringer at Princeton University and in the Boston office of the Associated Press. Most of the interview consists of his detailed recollections of his years as a reporter and editor at the Charlotte Observer, during the 1970s and 1980s. During those years, Mr. Ethridge worked on several prominent reporting projects, including stories about the "Charlotte Three" case, the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 212 in Charlotte on September 11, 1974; a re-opening of an unsolved murder case in Fairfax, SC concerning Wallace Youmans; the impact on North Carolina of growing awareness of the hazards of tobacco use ("Our Tobacco Dilemma"); the prevalence of "Brown Lung" disease among textile workers ("Brown Lung: A Case of Deadly Neglect"); and the 1980s PTL Club scandal, involving televangelist Jim Bakker. (The Brown Lung and PTL Club stories resulted in Pulitzer prizes for the Observer staff, in 1980 and 1988.) Mr. Ethridge recalls the 1970s and 1980s as a time of high influence and prosperity for newspapers such as the Observer, which had very large staffs, circulations, and revenues and profits. Other people discussed in the interview include, Kay Ethridge, James ("Jim") Batten, Michael ("Mike") Schwartz, John York, Richard A. ("Rich") Oppel, Rolfe Neill, George Shinn, Ray Shaw, and Tom Cotter.