Beyond just their Southern locales and even with 600 miles between them, the link between Baylor University and the Overby Center for Southern Journalism & Politics, based on Ole Miss’ campus, is largely thanks to the longtime support of a few Bears. After years of advocating for First Amendment rights by advancing the tenets of quality newswriting and reporting, the Overby Center currently counts three Baylor alumni among its arsenal of experts and analysts. For Managing Fellow Tony Pederson, the position is still a surprising one.
“It’s a little bit of an accident, to tell you the truth,” he says.
While nationally renowned religion reporter Terry Mattingly has remained affiliated with the Center for a number of years as its inaugural fellow, Pederson only recently came into his managing position. His distinguished career before included over two decades at Southern Methodist University, as well as tenure as the Houston Chronicle’s executive editor and senior vice president. Pederson retired in Spring 2023 after 19 years as SMU’s Belo Foundation Endowed Distinguished Chair in Journalism. Now a professor emeritus—a “great honor,” he says—it wasn’t long before Pederson received a call in March from the Overby Center’s namesake.
“I’d known Charles Overby for at least 35 years, beginning at Gannett and later when he became CEO of the Freedom Forum,” he explained, referring to the Washington D.C.-based institution dedicated to the nonpartisan support of quality journalism and emphasizing objectivity and free speech.
Like so many institutions, the Center entered a semi-dormant state through the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. With the subsequent reopenings and a returns to campuses, Overby saw it as a moment of opportunity.
“Charles was really thinking of a kind of restart,” Pederson continued. “The emphasis had been on programs and not so much on the website’s news and analysis.”
The first result of this change, he says, is the launch of a completely redesigned website that is “much cleaner and more navigable,” with a larger focus on original writing and reporting. Gone are the titles of “fellows” in favor of simply referring to the staff’s expertise—a staff that now includes Baylor alum and Editor Emeritus Robert F. Darden, as well. Pederson also anticipates a greater social media presence. For the Baylor alum, the Overby Center’s new era couldn’t have come at a better moment.
“This is a pretty good time to launch. It is a very divisive time in American politics, and I think we’re just going to see that played out,” Pederson said. “What I think we’re going to do in terms of political reporting is to be as objective as we can in offering analysis, but also point out what are going to be some of the really difficult issues.”
After over two decades of unprecedented media industry turmoil, the 2024 presidential election poses a truly difficult moment for journalism. The number of newsroom jobs has decreased by nearly 30 percent between 2008 and 2020. An estimated 37,000 media workers faced layoffs, reduced pay, or furloughs during the pandemic—all set against a backdrop of both local and national outlets closing up shop for good. Years of bitter public divisiveness have resulted in suspicion, if not downright hostility, toward journalists attempting to pursue honest, well-informed stories. Meanwhile, poor business strategies continue to force many of the remaining publications further toward either side of the ideological spectrum. Pederson describes the summation of the situation as a “tragic development.”
“I think that, above all else, we’ve seen so much fairness thrown out the window in terms of modern news reporting,” he said. “So much of journalism now, so much about news organizations, is really about attracting an audience, whether it be eyeballs on the television or readers in the digital realm.”
He points to a curious irony at this potential national crossroad—numerous surveys and mountains of data indicate most people think they desire news sources that are unbiased and “down the middle,” as Pederson describes it.
“And yet very clearly the data shows the conservatives have their particular news sources and the progressives have their particular news sources,” he explained. “There really is unfortunately that echo chamber that has developed on both ends of the political spectrum and it seems to persist in a way that just exacerbates the hostility.”
Pederson wishes for a magic wand to wave away all the “viciousness” affecting everyday journalists, but knows that’s just not the case. Instead, he believes “voices of reason and voices of sincerity” and true journalistic rigor need to return to the forefront of discourse. And Pederson, along with both Darden and Mattingly, know exactly what that looks like from their time at Baylor under the direction of legendary journalist and professor David McHam.
“That generation of Baylor students was taught the value of absolute, total in-depth reporting and fairness,” Pederson said.
“He was the first professor I had who talked to us as equals. It was like being inducted into a secret society or club,” Darden said in a recent Overby Center retrospective on McHam’s life. “Among people I know, David has always been one of the best listeners. He listens with his whole body.”
With McHam’s lessons passed down through Baylor’s alums and throughout their own careers, Pederson is confident the Overby Center is ready for its next chapter.
“We hope that voice of reason is an influence that calms the waters. Civil dialogue is very much what we’re about. … There is quality news and quality journalism and quality reporting out there if you really want to find it,” he says. “And you can.”
