Journalist Mike Masterson, Pulitzer Prize co-finalist, dies at 78
Michael Rue “Mike” Masterson of Harrison died Sunday, May 18 following a three-year battle with squamous cell cancer of the neck. He was 78.
A native of Harrison, Masterson graduated from what is now the University of Central Arkansas, where he was editor of the student newspaper, The Echo, in 1971. He served in the United States Coast Guard during the Vietnam War and was honorably discharged in 1972.
His first newspaper job after college was at the Newport Daily Independent. In 1973, he moved to The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, first as a special writer and then, within months, as editor of the newspaper.
In 1975, Masterson received a fellowship which allowed him to spend two years traveling America in a motorhome with his family to write about the people “beside the highways” and their mood during the nation’s celebration of its Bicentennial. At least 33 daily newspapers carried his weekly column.
In the early 1980s, Masterson worked for the Los Angeles Times, then at the Chicago Sun-Times. In his first week at the Sun-Times, he turned a minor notice about a young Black man hanged with his shoelaces in a precinct lockup into a major story. Masterson reported that more young Black men died in Chicago’s precinct cells over the prior year than the combined total of Los Angeles and New York, and stuck with the story until the FBI became involved and the Chicago Police Department announced significant reforms.
In 1982 Masterson returned to the Arkansas Democrat as an investigative reporter. He began reporting on Ronald Carden, who had been convicted of murdering a still-unidentified Jane Doe. Masterson uncovered evidence that led to Carden’s exoneration. Carden was awaiting sentencing when Masterson’s story broke in the Democrat. Three weeks later, Carden was a free man.
Then-Associated Press Bureau Chief Dennis Montgomery wrote in a letter to Arkansas Democrat Publisher Walter E. Hussman, Jr. concerning Masterson’s Ronald Carden articles: “That the press is the palladium of our liberties is something which could be demonstrated in no manner more profound than by Masterson’s unflagging determination to see justice done for an innocent man.”
Masterson later worked for the Arizona Republic, where his reporting team was twice named co-finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. In the early 1990s he became head of the Kiplinger Public Affairs Reporting Fellowship Program at the Ohio State University School of Journalism. Five years later he became editor of the investigations department of The Asbury Park Press in New Jersey, where he did a series detailing the absence of federal agency review of the deaths of incarcerated people. He eventually testified in Washington, D.C., on the issue, leading to the Dying in Custody Act being passed.
Masterson soon returned to Arkansas as executive editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times in Fayetteville, where he began his regular Sunday column. In 2000, he became columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, writing three columns a week for the Voices page.
Among Masterson’s many accolades are two National Headliner Awards, three Heywood Broun Awards, four Robert F. Kennedy Awards, four Paul Tobenkin Awards from Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, the IRE Award for newspapers of less than 75,000 circulation, the IRE Gold Medallion for Best Investigative Reporting in the United States, the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award from National Society of Newspaper Columnists for body of work, the National Association of Black Journalists First Place Award, the Congress of American Indians Congressional Achievement Award, three Certificates of Merit from American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Awards and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Mass Media Gold Medallion. Additionally, he was a finalist to become First Journalist in Space before the program was cancelled following the Challenger disaster. In 2023, he received APA’s Golden 50 Service Award for more than five decades of service to the newspaper industry.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Rue B. and Helen Elaine Hammerschmidt Masterson, and a son, Brandon Masterson. He is survived by his wife Jeanetta McCroskey; daughter Anna Kathleen (Stacy Tise) Masterson of Memphis, Tennessee; step-children Kelley Lynn Foust of Joplin, Missouri, Franklin Patrick McCroskey of Harrison, Kenda Leigh McCroskey of Nixa, Missouri and Kara LeNay Bortner of Republic, Missouri; brother Grant Masterson of Denton, Texas; sister Gaye Masterson Lindberg of Hot Springs; three grandchildren, a nephew and two nieces and multiple step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren.
A family-conducted celebration of Masterson’s life will be held at the Harrison Country Club at a later date.