Analysis: Friday August 29, Oklahoma State University announced a historic gift to the School of Media and Strategic Communications from OSU alumnus Keith Garton and his husband, David Sheehan.
The commitment is the largest in program history and will establish the Garton Family Endowed Chair for Media and Strategic Communications, but despite a specific request from this writer, OSU declined to specify the gift amount writing, “the donors requested we not publicize the amount of their gift.”
The funds will “support rural journalism and student organizations within the school,” according to the release.
Keith Garton, President & Publisher of Red Chair Publishing holds over 30 years of experience with child-specific educational publishers such as DC Heath, Scholastic, Macmillan McGraw-Hill, Pearson and TIME for Kids. The company specializes in Social, Emotional, Learning (SEL) ideology indoctrination of children.
The amount of the gift will eventually be disclosed by public records, but the compelling question is why a book publisher thinks “rural journalism” needs help? Does the he/him/they/them/whatever family believe rural people need more reporting of local news or more alternative lifestyle promotion?
Regardless, journalism is made possible by paid advertising and subscriptions, not newly graduated ideologues. If the SMSC wants to support rural journalism, train students to successfully sell it. Further, OSU apparently believes in the myth of “nonpartisan journalism” engaged in cultural crusades rather than reports of fact.
“We are immensely grateful to Keith and David for this transformative gift to SMSC, which plays a crucial role in shaping the future of media by educating the next generation of journalists and communicators,” OSU President Jim Hess said. “This generous support will significantly enhance our ability to provide students with unparalleled resources and opportunities, empowering us to continue producing top-tier professionals who will impact the industry.”
The DuckDuckGo search engine AI Assist notes, “Red Chair Press publishes a variety of children’s books that support character development and social-emotional learning, which may include themes related to diverse lifestyles. However, specific titles focusing solely on alternative lifestyles are not explicitly mentioned.”
As many readers here are educators, we welcome their comments, but this writer found no titles among the published material that focused on business, math, or science. Many titles focused on historic figures including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson, Congressman John Lewis, Rosa Parks, and Helen Keller as role-models from “underservered” communities. In this section, they also include Will Rogers which may be the token rural – or could that be Hollywood – representative.
The university release claims, “support will ensure long-term faculty excellence, enhance student-led media initiatives and expand experiential learning opportunities. It will also empower SMSC to broaden its reach into rural communities, ensuring underserved areas have their voices heard.
“These benefits will help equip graduates with the ethical foundation and practical skills needed to lead in today’s rapidly evolving media landscape,” the release adds.
“This extraordinary gift is more than an investment in SMSC — it’s a commitment to the future of ethical, impactful storytelling,” said Melinda Cro, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Keith and David’s generosity ensures that our students will not only learn the craft of communication, but also use it to build community and shape a better world.”
Please read the paragraph above again for illustration of why journalism is currently the least respected career in America. On behalf of working journalists everywhere, I apologize for the statement’s stupidity. The presumption that journalism can define ethics, to say nothing of implementing it, is the craft’s greatest delusion. Readers have ethics. People don’t need reporters to be preachers of any ideology.
A native of Duncan, Oklahoma, Garton’s professional journey has been defined, the university asserts, by an emphasis on ethical communication and audience-centered writing — values rooted in his education at OSU, where he earned degrees in journalism and mass communications.
“OSU opened my eyes to a lot of things I would never have known had I stayed in southern Oklahoma, where I grew up, or if I had left Oklahoma for school,” Garton said. “It’s a great place to learn who you are and make connections with people that will change your life forever.
“OSU was just the most comfortable place in the world to me. And it was important to give back in some way,” Garton concluded.
About the author: David Arnett’s beginning in print journalism was not planned in 1985 but covered by Rebecca Martin writing for the Columbia Journalism Review in 1987. After 11 years in print, he established TulsaToday in 1996 and Straight Up on Substack in 2022. Thank you for reading.