The Nation - News from Nov. 13, 1988

Wearing black and carrying black balloons that said “Free Press?” about 250 Atlantans marched in a New Orleans-style funeral to protest the resignation of Bill Kovach as editor of the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution. Kovach, 56, resigned abruptly Nov. 4 in a dispute with the newspapers’ publisher. His two-year tenure was widely credited for the Atlanta newspapers’ return to national prestige. The protesters, led by Lillian Lewis, wife of Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), and novelist Pat Conroy, accused the newspapers’ owners, Cox Enterprises, of promoting “mediocre journalism” to keep from offending the city’s business community. But Publisher Jay Smith, in an Op-Ed column, said that a power play over control of the Cox Washington bureau was central to the trouble.