Afflicting the comfortable: journalism and politics in West Virginia ISBN: 9781933202044 Platform/Publisher: ACLS / West Virginia University Press Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Ten pages at a time; Download: Ten pages at a time Subjects: American: 1900-present;
In 1990, the New York Times wrote, ""Government corruption was not invented in West Virginia. But there are people who contend that West Virginia officials have done more than their share over the years to develop state-of-the-art techniques in vote theft, contract kickbacks, influence peddling and good old-fashioned bribery, extortion, fraud, tax evasion and outright stealing."" While investigating such events as the Invest Right scandal, Thomas Stafford, a former journalist for the Charleston Gazette, would find himself in a very precarious position. As a reporter he felt obligated to tell the whole truth, and he believed in the need to serve the public and those West Virginians who were being abused by a political machine.
In Afflicting the Comfortable, Stafford relates such tales of the responsibility of journalism and politics in coordination with scandals that have unsettled the Mountain State over the past few decades. His probing would take him from the halls of Charleston to the center of our nation's ruling elite. Guided by his senses of duty, right, and fairness, he plunged head first into the misdeeds of West Virginia's politicians. His investigations would be the preface to the downfall of a governor and an adminstration that had robbed the state and the citizens of West Virginia for years.
Thomas F. Stafford (1914-1993) was born in Grafton, West Virginia, USA. He began his career in journalism with The Raleigh Register in Beckley, West Virginia. In 1954 he joined the staff of The Charleston Gazette where he served as a political reporter, writer of the ""Affairs of the State"" column, and associate editor. In 1989 he was presented with a special award from the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University for his career in journalism and his service to the university.
