Fresno Editor Will Head So. Baptist News Service

Herb Hollinger, editor of a weekly newspaper for California Southern Baptists, has been chosen to head the denomination’s national news service, which was embroiled in a dispute over editorial freedom last summer.

Hollinger, 50, of Fresno, was the unanimous choice of the officers of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee to fill a position that has been vacant since the Rev. Al Shackleford was fired by the Executive Committee along with Baptist Press News Editor Dan Martin.

The fundamentalist leadership of the large Protestant denomination had accused Baptist Press of partisan coverage of the internal conflict with so-called moderates and of writing too many “negative” stories. The firings drew criticism from publicists and religious media specialists. The news service served many Southern Baptist publications and secular newspaper religion reporters, who had praised it as a respected news source.

The Rev. Charles Sullivan of Lenoir City, Tenn., a member of the Executive Committee, said that Hollinger will “bring a new day of respect for Baptist Press on the part of all Baptists.”

Stan Hastey, a former Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press and now head of the moderate Southern Baptist Alliance, acknowledged that Hollinger enjoys credibility.

“Hollinger is an interesting choice in that I am afraid his selection will cause some of the editors of Southern Baptist-related newspapers to assume that it will remain a credible news service, and I think that remains to be seen,” Hastey said.

Hollinger, an ordained minister, said that he considers himself “a conservative in the traditional sense” but that he feels that Baptist Press must operate as “a fair, balanced and responsible news service.”

He has edited the state newspaper since 1983. Observers said the paper, with a paid circulation of 18,000, reflected the conservative theology of the approximately 400,000 Southern Baptists in California as well as their generally apolitical views of the long denominational infighting.

Hollinger did not take a public stand on last year’s firings at Baptist Press. But, he added, “Dan Martin is a personal friend of mine, and I hurt for Dan Martin.”