Stanley R. Tiner
Encyclopedia
Stanley Ray Tiner has since May 2000 been the executive editor
and vice president of The Sun Herald
newspaper
in Biloxi-Gulfport
, Mississippi
. He previously served briefly as the executive editor of The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City
and as editor of the Press-Register
in Mobile, Alabama
. The Sun Herald under Tiner's editorship won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize
for public service because of its coverage of Hurricane Katrina
. Tiner dedicated the Pulitzer gold medal to the people of South Mississippi for their perseverance in the wake of such massive adversity.
When he was with the Press-Register in 1995, Tiner was a judge on a five-person panel to select the winning editorial for the Pulitzer Prize that year.
, the seat of Caddo Parish and the largest city
in north Louisiana
. Ray Tiner was a native of rural
Tyro in Lincoln County
in southeastern Arkansas
, a son of John Bunyan and Lula Mat Tiner. John Bunyan Tiner, Stanley Tiner's grandfather, operated a gristmill
and blacksmith
shop with other family members. Ray Tiner attended the University of Arkansas at Monticello
, then Arkansas A&M College, where he played football and captained the Boll Weevil basketball team. On the university's centennial in 2009, Ray Tiner served as grand marshal of the homecoming parade.
Stanley Tiner graduated in 1960 from Fair Park High School
in Shreveport. He has a sister, Betty T. Fulgium, and her husband, Don Fulgium, of Shreveport.
In 1969, Stanley Tiner received his bachelor's degree
in journalism
from Louisiana Tech University
in Ruston
. He was the editor during his senior year of The Tech Talk, the student newspaper, and studied under journalism chairperson Wiley W. Hilburn
, who instructed him to bring current political issues into the student newspaper. A long-time editorial writer for the Shreveport Times, Hilburn was subsequently inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
in Winnfield
because of his expertise in Louisiana politics. Tiner was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. He is a former chapter president of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi.
Tiner served in the United States Marines during the Vietnam War
.
, a small daily which specializes in local news, in Minden
, the seat of Webster Parish located in northwestern Louisiana some thirty miles east of Shreveport. He was the Press-Herald managing editor
from September 1969 until March 1970, when he thereafter left to join the staff of The Shreveport Times.
At The Times, he became the newspaper's chief political correspondent and covered the 1971–1972 gubernatorial campaign from which Edwin Washington Edwards became the dominant political figure in Louisiana for the rest of the twentieth century. Edwards, after having barely secured the Democratic
nomination over then State Senator
and later U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., of Shreveport, faced a stronger-than expected Republican
challenge waged by the then Metairie
lawyer and later U.S. Representative and Governor
David C. Treen
. Tiner soon became, like John McGinnis
(author of The Louisiana Hayride) one of the resident experts on the flamboyant Edwards and Louisiana politics in general.
. The Journal was the smaller of the two Shreveport papers and was struggling to remain competitive. Tiner was seen as the "new blood" the paper needed. In 1976, the Attaways sold the paper to the Shreveport industrialist Charles T. Beaird
, who was also an intellectual and a philanthropist
. Beaird, a liberal Republican, and Tiner, a Democrat, moved The Journal, which was known for its previous conservative editorials during the Attaway tenure, far to the political left.
While at The Journal, Tiner offered an editorial position to former Shreveport Mayor
James C. Gardner
, later the president of the first city council under the mayor-council government and also the vice-president of the Southwestern Electric Power Company. Gardner turned him down because of salary and retirement considerations, but Tiner often held up Gardner as his idea of a "model" public official. He wrong a lengthy editorial on Gardner's legacy as "Mr. Shreveport" when the councilman decided not to seek reelection in 1982.
Tiner stayed with Beaird until the mid-1980s, when he became a public relations
spokesman for a natural gas
company. The Journal closed in 1991 but operated as an editorial page within The Shreveport Times until the last day of 1999. Beaird died in 2006.
, a copy of Playboy
magazine
, and Democracy in America
by Alexis de Tocqueville
. Tiner asked Edwards, a Roman Catholic who had once been a Nazarene
preacher, if he believed in the Christian
concept of Jesus Christ sacrificing Himself for the sin
s of mankind, undergoing crucifixion
on a Roman
cross, and then resurrection
from the dead. Edwards told Tiner that he did NOT believe in the essence of the Christian faith and that he doubted that he would go to heaven
after death. "I think Jesus died, but I don’t believe He came back to life because that’s too much against natural law. I’m not going around preaching this, but He may have swooned, passed out, or almost died, and when He was taken down, with superhuman strength, after a period of time He may have revived Himself and come back to life," Edwards told Tiner. Reports of Edwards' revelations, however, surfaced AFTER the 1983 campaign, and the disclosures, which angered many conservative Christians, did not stop him from winning yet a fourth term eight years later.
may have stepped aside from seeking a seventh full six-year term because Long may have been unseated by Republican U.S. Representative Henson Moore
of Baton Rouge. Long's successor, John Breaux
, also a U.S. representative at the time from Crowley
, however, defeated Moore, who had led in the jungle primary
, in the general election. Long said that he merely wanted to have a few years of retirement while the calendar
was still somewhat favorable to him. Long lived until 2003.
In 1991, Tiner noted in an interview that the returning Edwards, poised to win his fourth and final term as governor, was dependent on disillusioned supporters of former Governor Charles E. "Buddy" Roemer, III
, a Democrat-turned-Republican, to provide victory over then State Representative
David Duke
, the one-time figure in the Ku Klux Klan
who was opposed by nearly two thirds of Louisiana voters. According to Tiner, "The Duke vote is impenetrable. It's going to be there even if a tidal wave rolls across the state. Edwards is dependent on the Roemer voters who despised him four years ago -- he was the dragon Buddy Roemer promised to slay. That's a pretty scary prospect if you're sitting in Edwards's seat." As it turned out, Tiner appeared to have overrated Duke's electoral appeal in 1991.
, a former aide to Roemer, and Democrat Foster Campbell
, then a state senator and later a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission
and a 2007 gubernatorial candidate. Tiner trailed Campbell, a self-styled "populist" by 4,653 ballots and was hence eliminated from the special election runoff. McCrery prevailed over Campbell and held the seat until his retirement in January 2009.
Some had wondered if Tiner's liberal
newspaper editorials had cost him potential votes in the congressional race. In a 1987 interview, Tiner publicly praised David O. Connelly (born ca. 1952), a native of Ohio
and the arts
critic of the Shreveport Journal for having declared Connelly's homosexuality
in a newspaper column. Tiner added that he could recall no other person of standing making such a declaration in Shreveport, the last capital of the Confederate State of America. Tiner said that Connelly's declaration could be helpful in fostering awareness of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
issues: "ASME embraces the long American tradition of open courts and open trials.,The press serves as a surrogate to the public. The American public can’t be crammed into a trial room. The press represents the public at the trial. Newspaper editors are troubled by what appears to be an overzealous emphasis on privacy bordering on secrecy in the courtroom."
Tiner added: "The Founding Fathers built Independence Hall in Philadelphia on the principle of open trials."
, in which he discussed how The Sun Herald covered the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. He invited media representatives to come to the Gulfport-Biloxi metropolitan area
to see firsthand the impact of the storm. API president Andrew B. Davis noted that newspaper executives need "leadership skills to deal with a wide spectrum of chaotic management scenarios," as the devastation of Katrina so proved.
Journalism Department in Tuscaloosa
to produce Alabama’s Black Belt
, a 20-page special section on the old Cotton
Kingdom of the state. Associate Professor Bailey Thomson and a team of advanced undergraduate and graduate students spent six months immersed in the life of three Black Belt counties. The students reported on the area economy, culture, and politics. Press Register assistant editor Dewey English coached the classes on in-depth reporting and helped to edit the stories for publication. The Press-Register staff laid out the stories and photos, and the paper ran the project on January 18, 1998.
"We have tried to do two things: encourage students to think of journalism as a grand opportunity for public service, and to promote a deeper understanding of a remarkable region that struggles to adapt to changing times," wrote Tiner in his introduction to the project.
in Acadia Parish. The Tiner children include Marcus Gerard "Mark" Tiner of Washington, D.C.
(born ca. 1969), Jon Stuart Tiner, a Gulfport attorney
born 1970 in Shreveport, and his wife, Betsy Sadie Tiner; Chris Tiner of Shreveport, and Heather Nicole Tiner Liles of Baton Rouge (born ca. 1973). Tiner described himself in a 1987 interview as, like his father, a "dedicated Baptist".
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
and vice president of The Sun Herald
The Sun Herald
The Sun Herald is a U.S. newspaper based in Biloxi, Mississippi, that serves readers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It is owned by The McClatchy Company, one of the largest newspaper publishers in the United States....
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
in Biloxi-Gulfport
Gulfport-Biloxi metropolitan area
The Gulfport-Biloxi Metropolitan Statistical Area is a metropolitan area in the Mississippi Gulf Coast region that covers three counties - Hancock, Harrison, and Stone. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 246,190. The area was significantly impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. He previously served briefly as the executive editor of The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
and as editor of the Press-Register
Press-Register
The Press-Register is a daily newspaper serving the southwest Alabama counties of Mobile and Baldwin. The newspaper is a descendant of one founded in 1813, making the Press-Register Alabama's oldest newspaper...
in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
. The Sun Herald under Tiner's editorship won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for public service because of its coverage of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. Tiner dedicated the Pulitzer gold medal to the people of South Mississippi for their perseverance in the wake of such massive adversity.
When he was with the Press-Register in 1995, Tiner was a judge on a five-person panel to select the winning editorial for the Pulitzer Prize that year.
Early years, education, military
Tiner was born to E.R. "Ray" Tiner (1908–2010), an oil refinery worker, and the former Nannie Lea "Nancy" Randolph in ShreveportShreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
, the seat of Caddo Parish and the largest city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
in north Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Ray Tiner was a native of rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
Tyro in Lincoln County
Lincoln County, Arkansas
Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas and is included in the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population is 14,134. The county seat is Star City. Lincoln County is Arkansas's 65th county, formed on March 28, 1871, and named for Abraham Lincoln,...
in southeastern Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, a son of John Bunyan and Lula Mat Tiner. John Bunyan Tiner, Stanley Tiner's grandfather, operated a gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
and blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
shop with other family members. Ray Tiner attended the University of Arkansas at Monticello
University of Arkansas at Monticello
The University of Arkansas at Monticello is a public university and college for vocational and technical education located in Monticello, Arkansas, United States....
, then Arkansas A&M College, where he played football and captained the Boll Weevil basketball team. On the university's centennial in 2009, Ray Tiner served as grand marshal of the homecoming parade.
Stanley Tiner graduated in 1960 from Fair Park High School
Fair Park High School
Fair Park Medical Careers Magnet High School is a high school located at 3222 Greenwood Road in Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.A. When it opened as Fair Park High School in 1928, it was the second high school in the city. C.E...
in Shreveport. He has a sister, Betty T. Fulgium, and her husband, Don Fulgium, of Shreveport.
In 1969, Stanley Tiner received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
from Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University, often referred to as Louisiana Tech, LA Tech, or Tech, is a coeducational public research university located in Ruston, Louisiana. Louisiana Tech is designated as a Tier 1 school in the national universities category by the 2012 U.S. News & World Report college rankings...
in Ruston
Ruston, Louisiana
Ruston is a city in and the parish seat of Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,546 at the 2000 census. Ruston is near the eastern border of the Ark-La-Tex and is the home of Louisiana Tech University. Its economy caters to its college population...
. He was the editor during his senior year of The Tech Talk, the student newspaper, and studied under journalism chairperson Wiley W. Hilburn
Wiley W. Hilburn
Wiley Wilson Hilburn, Jr. , is a prominent journalist in Ruston, Louisiana, whose communications career began in the late 1950s when he was a student at Louisiana Tech University. In 1968, at the age of thirty, Hilburn returned to his alma mater to chair the Journalism Department and serve as...
, who instructed him to bring current political issues into the student newspaper. A long-time editorial writer for the Shreveport Times, Hilburn was subsequently inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, highlights the careers of more than a hundred of the state’s leading politicians and political journalists. Because three governors, Huey P. Long, Jr., Oscar K...
in Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
because of his expertise in Louisiana politics. Tiner was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. He is a former chapter president of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi.
Tiner served in the United States Marines during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
A political reporter
Tiner began his newspaper career at the Minden Press-HeraldMinden Press-Herald
The Minden Press-Herald is a Monday-Friday daily newspaper published in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, by Specht Newspapers, Inc...
, a small daily which specializes in local news, in Minden
Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...
, the seat of Webster Parish located in northwestern Louisiana some thirty miles east of Shreveport. He was the Press-Herald managing editor
Managing editor
A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...
from September 1969 until March 1970, when he thereafter left to join the staff of The Shreveport Times.
At The Times, he became the newspaper's chief political correspondent and covered the 1971–1972 gubernatorial campaign from which Edwin Washington Edwards became the dominant political figure in Louisiana for the rest of the twentieth century. Edwards, after having barely secured the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nomination over then State Senator
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
and later U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., of Shreveport, faced a stronger-than expected Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
challenge waged by the then Metairie
Metairie, Louisiana
Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...
lawyer and later U.S. Representative and Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
David C. Treen
David C. Treen
David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr. , was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S...
. Tiner soon became, like John McGinnis
John McGinnis
John Oldham McGinnis is a professor at Northwestern University School of Law and author of over 90 academic and popular articles and essays. His popular writings have been published in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and Policy Review....
(author of The Louisiana Hayride) one of the resident experts on the flamboyant Edwards and Louisiana politics in general.
The Shreveport Journal
In 1974, Tiner, then thirty-two, was recruited from The Times to become the editor of the afternoon daily, The Shreveport Journal, published by Douglas F. AttawayDouglas F. Attaway
Douglas F. "Doug" Attaway, Jr., was president and publisher of the defunct Shreveport Journal , a daily newspaper in northwest Louisiana. He was chairman of the board of KSLA-TV, the Shreveport, Louisisana CBS affiliate from 1966 until the channel was sold to Viacom in 1979...
. The Journal was the smaller of the two Shreveport papers and was struggling to remain competitive. Tiner was seen as the "new blood" the paper needed. In 1976, the Attaways sold the paper to the Shreveport industrialist Charles T. Beaird
Charles T. Beaird
Charles Thomas Beaird of Shreveport, Louisiana, was an industrialist, newspaper publisher, philanthropist and civic leader. He was a self-identified "liberal Republican" politician and a champion of civil rights. Born to James Benjamin Beaird and Mattie Connell Fort Beaird, his mother died six...
, who was also an intellectual and a philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. Beaird, a liberal Republican, and Tiner, a Democrat, moved The Journal, which was known for its previous conservative editorials during the Attaway tenure, far to the political left.
While at The Journal, Tiner offered an editorial position to former Shreveport Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
James C. Gardner
James C. Gardner
James Creswell Gardner, I, known as Jim Gardner , was a power company executive best known as the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, who served a single term from 1954-1958....
, later the president of the first city council under the mayor-council government and also the vice-president of the Southwestern Electric Power Company. Gardner turned him down because of salary and retirement considerations, but Tiner often held up Gardner as his idea of a "model" public official. He wrong a lengthy editorial on Gardner's legacy as "Mr. Shreveport" when the councilman decided not to seek reelection in 1982.
Tiner stayed with Beaird until the mid-1980s, when he became a public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
spokesman for a natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
company. The Journal closed in 1991 but operated as an editorial page within The Shreveport Times until the last day of 1999. Beaird died in 2006.
Tiner and Edwards
Tiner was known for his inside sources in the Louisiana political world. For instance, after the 1983 gubernatorial race in which Edwards unseated Treen to win a third nonconsecutive term, Tiner reported on a controversial conversation that he had with the Louisiana legend. Tiner found three books in Edwards' possession: a BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, a copy of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
, and Democracy in America
Democracy in America
De la démocratie en Amérique is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville. A "literal" translation of its title is Of Democracy in America, but the usual translation of the title is simply Democracy in America...
by Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution . In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in...
. Tiner asked Edwards, a Roman Catholic who had once been a Nazarene
Nazarene
Nazarene may refer to:* Nazarene , a title applied to Jesus of Nazareth* Nazarene , a sect of 4th century Christianity described by Epiphanius* Church of the Nazarene, modern Christian Pentecostal denomination...
preacher, if he believed in the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
concept of Jesus Christ sacrificing Himself for the sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
s of mankind, undergoing crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
on a Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
cross, and then resurrection
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
from the dead. Edwards told Tiner that he did NOT believe in the essence of the Christian faith and that he doubted that he would go to heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
after death. "I think Jesus died, but I don’t believe He came back to life because that’s too much against natural law. I’m not going around preaching this, but He may have swooned, passed out, or almost died, and when He was taken down, with superhuman strength, after a period of time He may have revived Himself and come back to life," Edwards told Tiner. Reports of Edwards' revelations, however, surfaced AFTER the 1983 campaign, and the disclosures, which angered many conservative Christians, did not stop him from winning yet a fourth term eight years later.
On Long, Roemer, and Duke
In 1986, Tiner opined that retiring U.S. Senator Russell B. LongRussell B. Long
Russell Billiu Long was an American Democratic politician and United States Senator from Louisiana from 1948 until 1987.-Early life:...
may have stepped aside from seeking a seventh full six-year term because Long may have been unseated by Republican U.S. Representative Henson Moore
Henson Moore
William Henson Moore III , is a retired attorney and businessman who is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, having represented the Baton Rouge-based Sixth Congressional District, from 1975-1987. He is only the second Republican to have represented Louisiana in the House since...
of Baton Rouge. Long's successor, John Breaux
John Breaux
John Berlinger Breaux is a former United States senator from Louisiana who served from 1987 until 2005. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1972 to 1987. He was considered one of the more conservative national legislators from the Democratic Party...
, also a U.S. representative at the time from Crowley
Crowley, Louisiana
Crowley is a city in and the parish seat of Acadia Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 14,225 at the 2000 census. The city is noted for its annual International Rice Festival. Crowley has the nickname of "Rice Capital of America", because at one time it was a major center for...
, however, defeated Moore, who had led in the jungle primary
Jungle primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...
, in the general election. Long said that he merely wanted to have a few years of retirement while the calendar
Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
was still somewhat favorable to him. Long lived until 2003.
In 1991, Tiner noted in an interview that the returning Edwards, poised to win his fourth and final term as governor, was dependent on disillusioned supporters of former Governor Charles E. "Buddy" Roemer, III
Buddy Roemer
Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III is an American politician who served as the 52nd Governor of Louisiana, from 1988 to 1992. He was elected as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party on March 11, 1991...
, a Democrat-turned-Republican, to provide victory over then State Representative
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
, the one-time figure in the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
who was opposed by nearly two thirds of Louisiana voters. According to Tiner, "The Duke vote is impenetrable. It's going to be there even if a tidal wave rolls across the state. Edwards is dependent on the Roemer voters who despised him four years ago -- he was the dragon Buddy Roemer promised to slay. That's a pretty scary prospect if you're sitting in Edwards's seat." As it turned out, Tiner appeared to have overrated Duke's electoral appeal in 1991.
Tiner's own campaign
Tiner himself ran for the U.S. House in a special election held on March 8, 1988, the same day as the presidential primaries. The opening developed when Roemer vacated his Fourth Congressional District seat to become governor. Democrat Tiner ran third with 19,567 votes (16 percent), with the runoff held in April between Republican James O. McCrery, Jr.Jim McCrery
James Otis "Jim" McCrery, III , is an American lawyer who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1988 to 2009; he represented the 4th District of Louisiana, based in the northwestern quadrant of the state.McCrery was a ranking member on the House Ways and...
, a former aide to Roemer, and Democrat Foster Campbell
Foster Campbell
Foster L. Campbell, Jr. , is a Democratic member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, a former 26-year member of the Louisiana State Senate, and an unsuccessful candidate for governor in the October 20, 2007, jungle primary. Campbell polled 161,425 votes and won two parishes: Red River and...
, then a state senator and later a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission
Louisiana Public Service Commission
Louisiana Public Service Commission is an independent regulatory agency which manages public utilities and motor carriers in Louisiana. The commission has five elected members chosen in single-member districts for staggered six-year terms...
and a 2007 gubernatorial candidate. Tiner trailed Campbell, a self-styled "populist" by 4,653 ballots and was hence eliminated from the special election runoff. McCrery prevailed over Campbell and held the seat until his retirement in January 2009.
Some had wondered if Tiner's liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
newspaper editorials had cost him potential votes in the congressional race. In a 1987 interview, Tiner publicly praised David O. Connelly (born ca. 1952), a native of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
and the arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
critic of the Shreveport Journal for having declared Connelly's homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
in a newspaper column. Tiner added that he could recall no other person of standing making such a declaration in Shreveport, the last capital of the Confederate State of America. Tiner said that Connelly's declaration could be helpful in fostering awareness of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
First Amendment issues
Tiner took a leadership role in the American Society of Newspaper Editors as chairperson of the Freedom of Information Committee. He became vocal in his support of First AmendmentFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
issues: "ASME embraces the long American tradition of open courts and open trials.,The press serves as a surrogate to the public. The American public can’t be crammed into a trial room. The press represents the public at the trial. Newspaper editors are troubled by what appears to be an overzealous emphasis on privacy bordering on secrecy in the courtroom."
Tiner added: "The Founding Fathers built Independence Hall in Philadelphia on the principle of open trials."
Pulitzer Prize
In 2006, Tiner addressed an American Press Institute seminar in Reston, VirginiaReston, Virginia
Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The population was 58,404, at the 2010 Census and 56,407 at the 2000 census...
, in which he discussed how The Sun Herald covered the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. He invited media representatives to come to the Gulfport-Biloxi metropolitan area
Gulfport-Biloxi metropolitan area
The Gulfport-Biloxi Metropolitan Statistical Area is a metropolitan area in the Mississippi Gulf Coast region that covers three counties - Hancock, Harrison, and Stone. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 246,190. The area was significantly impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A...
to see firsthand the impact of the storm. API president Andrew B. Davis noted that newspaper executives need "leadership skills to deal with a wide spectrum of chaotic management scenarios," as the devastation of Katrina so proved.
Encouraging student journalists
Tiner often encouraged journalism students in colleges and universities. When he was the editor in Mobile, the Press-Register teamed with the University of AlabamaUniversity of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
Journalism Department in Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...
to produce Alabama’s Black Belt
Black Belt (region of Alabama)
The Black Belt is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama, and part of the larger Black Belt Region of the Southern United States, which stretches from Texas to Maryland. The term originally referred to the region underlain by a thin layer of rich, black topsoil developed atop the chalk of the Selma...
, a 20-page special section on the old Cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
Kingdom of the state. Associate Professor Bailey Thomson and a team of advanced undergraduate and graduate students spent six months immersed in the life of three Black Belt counties. The students reported on the area economy, culture, and politics. Press Register assistant editor Dewey English coached the classes on in-depth reporting and helped to edit the stories for publication. The Press-Register staff laid out the stories and photos, and the paper ran the project on January 18, 1998.
"We have tried to do two things: encourage students to think of journalism as a grand opportunity for public service, and to promote a deeper understanding of a remarkable region that struggles to adapt to changing times," wrote Tiner in his introduction to the project.
The Tiner family
Tiner resides in Gulfport with his wife, the former Veronica Jo "Vickie" Thibodeaux (born June 23, 1947), the daughter of Robert and Irene Thibodeaux from Church PointChurch Point, Louisiana
Church Point is a town in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,756 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Crowley Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
in Acadia Parish. The Tiner children include Marcus Gerard "Mark" Tiner of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
(born ca. 1969), Jon Stuart Tiner, a Gulfport attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
born 1970 in Shreveport, and his wife, Betsy Sadie Tiner; Chris Tiner of Shreveport, and Heather Nicole Tiner Liles of Baton Rouge (born ca. 1973). Tiner described himself in a 1987 interview as, like his father, a "dedicated Baptist".