Jack McElroy grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where he attended the University of Arizona, earning a bachelor's degree in English in 1975. McElroy has worked at various Scripps papers, including the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. He worked there 10 years and was managing editor when the Columbine High School shootings occurred. McElroy was appointed editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel in November 2001.
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Jack McElroy: Let's hear it yawn for the dads
Published 6/17/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 0 comments
Today marks the close of the summer holiday season at the McElroy household. The kids can heave sighs of relief. It has been, as usual, a ponderous progression of salutes to the doddering parents.
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Jack McElroy: Knox tax burden has fallen since 1999
Published 6/10/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 30 comments
The News Sentinel supported a tax increase to pay for the $35 million boost to the school system's budget. Still, it's easy to understand why Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and County Commission were loathe to take the plunge and ...
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Jack McElroy: Sentinel unveils weather radio app
Published 6/3/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 0 comments
It was a year ago that Knox and surrounding counties were declared disaster areas after a string of savage spring storms. Thankfully, the thunderstorm season has been kinder so far this year, but we've all been reminded of the fury ...
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Jack McElroy: Dumbing down gets ?short shrift a
Published 5/27/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 0 comments
Did you catch the story about the "dumbing down" of Congress? The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation found that the nation's lawmakers are debating at the average reading level of a high school sophomore, down from the level of a junior back ...
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Jack McElroy: Will paychecks shrink as pay rises?
Published 5/20/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 6 comments
Join me, if you will, in a thought experiment.
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Jack McElroy: Sadly, secrecy mostly ruled session
Published 5/13/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 29 comments
Secrecy was an open-and-shut case during most of the legislative session.
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Jack McElroy: Students' values were focus of bills
Published 5/6/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 4 comments
Education wasn't a big focus of the Legislature this year. Still, lawmakers found some time to dabble, and most bills were forays in the ongoing fight over cultural values.
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Jack McElroy: Winning label can be half the battle
Published 4/22/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 7 comments
State Rep. Bill Dunn called me the other day with a request. Don't use shorthand labels for bills that distort their intentions and play into the hands of critics, he asked.
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Jack McElroy: Bloated pay lies in eye of beholder
Published 4/15/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 76 comments
Knox County Commission candidates invariably list education as a top priority. But with School Superintendent Jim McIntyre asking them to put $35 million where their mouths are, talk has shifted to concern about waste in the district's Central Office.
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Jack McElroy: What Obama and Romney agree on
Published 4/8/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 21 comments
One of the cool things about journalism is that it sometimes gives you a front-row seat to history.
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Jack McElroy: Knoxville stands together for justice
Published 4/1/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 2 comments
This past week, we began to see website traffic rise on old stories and videos about the murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The Trayvon Martin case is rekindling interest across the nation in the Knoxville tragedy. At first ...
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Jack McElroy: No alternative to learning evolution
Published 3/25/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 14 comments
Five hundred years ago, the controversial scientific theory of the day was heliocentrism, the idea that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of things.
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Jack McElroy: A case for expanding the madness
Published 3/11/2012 at 5:00 a.m. 4 comments
The birds are singing, the trees are blooming and the days are growing bright. So naturally our thoughts turn to television and hunkering down for 67 games of NCAA basketball, staring with dismal fascination as our tournament brackets dissolve.
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Jack McElroy: Lessons from the Lenoir City school newspaper
Published 2/26/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 21 comments
By 11 a.m. Thursday, more than 150 comments were posted on Knoxnews.com reacting to that morning's story about Krystal Myers, the editor of the Lenoir City High School newspaper, whose editorial about being an atheist was rejected by administrators who ...
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Jack McElroy: Richard Baumgartner questions have merit
Published 2/19/2012 at 4:00 a.m. 38 comments
For me, the most disturbing part of Jamie Satterfield's "Court of Secrecy" story last week was the response of the Knox County Sheriff's Office to her inquiries about Judge Richard Baumgartner.
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