Demanded the truth
Dallas newspaper’s longtime bureau chief left an unforgettable mark on Texas politics.
Journalists rarely write about each other — we know we’re often only interesting to one another — but with Wayne Slater, it’s impossible not to. The longtime Austin bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News until his retirement in 2014, Slater died Monday morning in a head-on collision on a two-lane road near his home northwest of Austin. His untimely passing has evoked bittersweet memories — and stories — from his former Morning News colleagues and his often-frustrated competitors on the politics beat, as well as the men and women he covered through the years.
Here’s Bill Cryer, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards’ press secretary, on Facebook, remembering calls he got from Slater weekly if not daily: He’d call “with a barrage of quick-fire questions for the governor, always pushing for the immediate response. Often with the exhortation about ‘the public’s right to know!’ ‘The sanctity of the First Amendment!’ And ending with ‘blah, blah, blah. Alright Cryer, get back to me on that. I got deadlines! You know about deadlines? Well, I got ‘em! And a paper to publish! And half a million readers!’”
Cryer recalled how Slater strutted, how he pushed and shoved, how he asked embarrassing questions, how he dressed too well. He concluded: “God, I will miss Wayne Slater! And so will hundreds of his pals who, really, shouldn’t have liked him at all.”
We write today because we believe Texas itself is made poorer by Slater’s passing. His kind of journalism was built on the absolute belief that politicians owed the reading public an answer and he was committed to getting it. It’s one of the most basic, and powerful, forms of accountability we have in a democracy. And yet, Slater’s professionalism meant that even the public officials he skewered in his stories trusted him as an honest broker to not just get the story, but get it right.
“Wayne was a whirling dervish of a man,” retired Dallas Morning News reporter Christy Hoppe recalled in a Morning News obituary. Hoppe, who succeeded Slater as Austin bureau chief and worked closely with him for a quarter-century, remembered how her old friend “brought energy into work, into his writing. He had a great instinct for news. When everyone else was looking straight ahead, Wayne was looking around corners for what couldn’t be seen yet.”
Bob Garrett, Hoppe’s successor as Austin bureau chief for the Dallas paper, told the board Tuesday that Slater worked the Texas Capitol with an efficiency few other reporters achieve.
“In his later years as bureau chief, Wayne didn't need to prowl the Pink Dome much anymore,” Garrett recalled. “His sources in the lobby and among longtime Capitol staffers kept him abreast of every major decision, every tale of power moves and palace intrigue. The few times Wayne made an appearance, he was like an actor on Broadway before taking the stage. He made sure his tie was knotted. Every hair was in place. His breath was sweet. And when Wayne arrived in the House or Senate chamber, heads turned. In a reversal of the customary journalistic norms, of pursuer and pursued, the politicians wanted face time with Wayne. Not vice versa.”
That drama played out on the surface, but beneath it all was a fierce determination to seek out the truth — and find it before anyone else in the press pool. Slater was a religious man, and while he was kind and caring, he was not inclined to turn the other cheek, certainly not in his work. Printed on his stationery was a passage from Joshua: “You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.” Just what that passage meant to him, we’re not sure, but it does not imply meekness.
Slater, who was already a veteran AP reporter when he joined the Morning News’ Austin bureau, reported on public figures ranging from Pope John Paul II to presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and the two George Bushes. He spent 16 months on the road following George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign for president and four years later reported on his reelection race against Democrat John Kerry. In Texas, he covered the administrations of Govs. Bill Clements, Ann Richards, George W. Bush and Rick Perry.
He was also co-author of two books about Bush’s political guru, Karl Rove, and enjoyed interpreting Bush and Texas to big-city journalists from the Northeast who were covering the 2000 presidential campaign. Bush called him “Wayner,” a corruption of his name, Wayne R., for Wayne Robert.
“Wayne Slater was a hard-working and insightful reporter,” the former president said in a written statement. “He understood Texas politics better than most and contributed a lot to his field. Laura and I send our sympathy to Dianne.”
As a politician on the receiving end of Slater’s pesky questions, Bush was well aware that the man with a notebook and tape recorder standing expectantly before him was a consummate professional. Slater was asking those questions for a reason. He may have adopted a jocular tone with Bill Cryer about the First Amendment and the people’s right to know, but deep down he was absolutely serious. He believed in those ideals.
As journalists, our memorial to our old friend is to work as hard as he did, to care as much as he did, to believe as deeply as he did in the high standards of his profession. It’s our job to push, always, for the people’s right to know. Just as Slater did.
Godspeed, old friend.