Carol Admire at Florida Weekly:
Don’t shoot the messenger.
For 32 minutes, Tom Marquardt’s colleagues at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, experienced that grim reality in its most harrowing form.
Newspapers are accustomed to facing shots of criticism – whether through letters to the editor or canceled subscription threats – but never the blow of the loss of five lives.
That changed on June 28, 2018, when a chilling story made headlines across the nation: “5 shot dead at The Capital.”
A gripping crime story recounted by the survivors boldly dominated newsstands the very next day. The article earned the Gazette staff a Pulitzer Prize citation, a feature on the cover of Time Magazine and several other nationally acclaimed awards.
“Say their names: John McNamara, Rebecca Smith, Rob Hiaasen, Wendi Winters and Gerald Fischman,” began Marquardt, former editor and publisher for the Capital Gazette for 35 years.
Currently residing in Naples, Marquardt spoke to the Press Club of Southwest Florida about his first published book, “Pressed to Kill: Inside Newspapers’ Worst Mass Murder.” With a rich history spanning over 200 years, the newspaper had been his professional home for years, and the victims of that tragic day were his colleagues before his retirement.
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Years later, a memorial was constructed along the city’s waterfront, and efforts are underway to create a national memorial for fallen journalists in the nation’s capital. All proceeds from Marquardt’s book will go toward supporting that cause.