Editor, The Wichita Eagle, Retired
Address: 21 Cypress, Wichita, KS 67206
Phone: (316) 686-1916
Fax: (316) 686-1916
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Davis “Buzz" Merritt was a reporter and editor for Knight Newspapers and Knight-Ridder for 42 years. A Morehead scholar at the University of North Carolina, he graduated with a journalism degree in 1958 and joined the sports staff of The Charlotte Observer. Over twelve years, he was a government reporter, city editor, copy desk chief and national editor for the Observer, then went to the Knight Washington Bureau as a reporter. He was editor of the Boca Raton News for two years, then returned to the Washington Bureau as news editor. In 1975 he was named editor of The Wichita Eagle, and retired from the Eagle in 1999. He since has taught media ethics at the University of Kansas and Wichita State University and consulted with news organizations.
He was one of the founders of the public journalism movement and is the author of three journalism books: Public Journalism and Public Life; The Two W’s of Journalism (with Max McCombs); and Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism is Putting Democracy at Risk.
He and his wife, Libby, live in Wichita and have three children and six grandchildren.