Retiring Bill Shipp’s Last Column Runs Today
May 20th, 2009 Posted in UncategorizedAfter more than 50 years as one of the most influential journalists to cover politics in Georgia, Bill Shipp has written his last column, AJC reporter Jim Galloway reports.
Shipp joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1953, and quickly had as many adversaries as friends in the Georgia statehouse. Galloway writes that while lieutenant governor, Zell Miller once threatened to “whip the writer’s posterior” (though he most likely did not use that exact terminology). And the day after Sonny Perdue was elected governor in 2002, he barred his staff from speaking to left-leaning Shipp.
After leaving the AJC in 1987, Shipp began publishing a popular and influential political newsletter, Bill Shipp’s Georgia, which he sold in 2000. He’s continued his twice-a-week columns, carried in 60 state newspapers, until today.
One Response to “Retiring Bill Shipp’s Last Column Runs Today”
By Ed Tant on May 20, 2009
Bill Shipp is a giant of Georgia journalism. His columns will be missed for their insight and incitement. His “Murder at Broad River Bridge” was a fine book about a Ku Klux Klan crime that had its roots in Athens, GA. I am a columnist for The Athens Banner-Herald (onlineathens.com) who has been honored with occasional email messages of encouragement from Mr. Shipp for the last few years–ever since we both wrote about the remarks against the war in Iraq that were made in President Bush’s presence at Coretta Scott King’s funeral. I just celebrated 35 years as a newspaper columnist myself and want to congratulate Mr. Shipp on a 50 year track record. Whether people loved him or hated him, Bill Shipp was a scribe of the old school who knew more about Georgia politics than anyone in the state. As I told him in an email once, if there’s ever a statue of Bill Shipp sculpted, it should be made from red Georgia clay! ED TANT, http://www.edtant.com