Ronnie Dugger (born 1931) is an American progressive journalist. Dugger attended UT and was editor of

The Daily Texan ''The Daily Texan'' is the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of roughly 12,000 during the fall and spring semesters, and it is among t ...

1950–1951. He was the founding editor of The Texas Observer from 1954 to 1961. Later he served as the Observer's publisher, spending more than 40 years with the political newsmagazine. Dugger has published hundreds of articles in Harper's Magazine, The Nation, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Progressive and other periodicals. In 2011 Dugger won the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

in recognition of his lifelong achievements in journalism. The following year he was dubbed the "godfather of progressive journalism in Texas" in an in-depth feature published in the

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is owned by Gannett. The paper prints Associated Press, ''New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times'' internation ...

by Brad Buchholz.

Political involvement

In 1952 Dugger, along with Ralph Yarborough,

John Henry Faulk John Henry Faulk (August 21, 1913 – April 9, 1990) was an American storyteller and radio show host. His successful lawsuit against the entertainment industry helped to bring an end to the Hollywood blacklist. Early life John Henry Faulk wa ...

, and others campaigned against Governor Allan Shivers, a Democrat who supported the Republican Party presidential candidate, Dwight Eisenhower. Shivers accused Dugger and his friends of being

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

. Dugger criticized

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

and his shift away from the left of the Democratic Party when he came under the influence of

Herman Brown KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) is a U.S. based company operating in fields of science, technology and engineering. KBR works in various markets including aerospace, defense, industrial and intelligence. After Halliburton acquired Dress ...

and George R. Brown. "The alliance (of Brown & Root and Johnson) became common knowledge as his political identity changed from left to right before everyone's eyes." Dugger said. In 1996, Ronnie Dugger also co-founde
The Alliance for Democracy
a national grassroots populist organization. In 2000 Dugger sought the Green Party's nomination for the U.S. Senate in New York. Dugger used his 2011

acceptance speech to question the nuclear policy of mutually assured destruction, saying, "Why are nuclear weapons called weapons of mass destruction when morally they are weapons of mass murder?" This continued his long vocal concern about nuclear weapons going back to his questioning of LBJ about how many would be killed in a nuclear war up to expressing doubts when President Obama calls for a nuclear-free world.

''The Texas Observer''

Dugger and his friends decided to build '' The Texas Observer'' into an independent liberal weekly paper. From the first "I sought to practice journalism according to three basic standards, accuracy, fairness instead of 'objectivity,' and moral seriousnes.." He went on to mentor and influence progressive Texas journalists Willie Morris,

Molly Ivins Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins (August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007) was an American newspaper columnist, author, political commentator, and humorist. Born in California and raised in Texas, Ivins attended Smith College and the Columbia Univers ...

, Billy Lee Brammer,

Lawrence Goodwyn Lawrence "Larry" Goodwyn (July 16, 1928 – September 29, 2013) was an American writer and political theorist whose work transformed historians' understandings of American populism. He served as a professor at Duke University from 1971 to 2003. G ...

, Kaye Northcott, and

Jim Hightower James Allen Hightower (born January 11, 1943) is an American syndicated columnist, progressive political activist, and author. From 1983 to 1991 he served as the elected commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture. He publishes a monthly ...

Teaching career

Dugger taught at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mo ...

, and the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

. He also held fellowships from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Ca ...

, and the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Wash ...

Selected works

*''Dark Star, Hiroshima Reconsidered'' (World, 1967) *''Our Invaded Universities'' (W.W. Norton, 1973) *''The Politician: The Life and Times of Lyndon Johnson'' (W.W. Norton, 1982) *''On Reagan'' (McGraw Hill, 1983), * Edited ''Three Men in Texas: Bedichek, Webb, and Dobie'' for UT Press

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dugger, Ronnie E. 1931 births American male journalists University of Texas alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Journalists from Texas George Polk Award recipients University of Virginia faculty Hampshire College faculty University of Illinois faculty Rockefeller Fellows