Up Close: Patrick Sloyan

By Meghan Louttit (Contact)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Patrick Sloyan came to the Washington area in 1960 as a journalist for United Press International. With several awards to his name, including a Pulitzer for his reporting on Desert Storm, he has seen the horrors of war, the incompetence of government and the rise of the Internet.

And almost just as long, since 1968, Sloyan has watched Loudoun County change all around him, even as his home in Paeonian Springs has been left relatively untouched.

During this interview Sloyan discusses how he entered the journalism profession, why he came to Loudoun and the state of journalism in the county.

Q: You joined the army in 1955 at the age of 18. Why did you decide to join?

A: Well, I didn't have the money for college at that point. And I joined on the last day for G.I. bill rights. So by going in that day I got four years of college. In addition, I went to college classes in the army in Germany. The University of Maryland has this very ambitious program; they have full professors teaching all over the world where army troops are based.

Courtesy of Patrick Sloyan

Patrick Sloyan at his home in Paeonian Springs, just outside Leesburg.

Q: How did you come to be a war reporter?

A: I learned journalism in the army. That army was the draft army … I was thrown in immediately with a guy who had just got his masters at Columbia and another who had just gotten his masters at Medill at Northwestern. So they taught me, they educated me. When I came out of the army I could write a pyramid news story and do features and take pictures and lay out a newspaper, do the whole thing. It was equal to any journalism school cause you not only learned how to do it, you did it.

Q: Where did you go to school? When did you graduate?

A: I came out [of the army] and went to my mother's hometown and got a job at The Albany Times-Union. …Then I had to make a decision at the end of eight or nine months to go [to school] full-time and get my degree. I decided to go to the University of Maryland at College Park. …I finally got my degree in 1962, but that had become a very secondary thing for me [since] I started working for UPI in Washington in 1960.

Q: What exactly did you win your Pulitzer for? What did it feel like to win such an award?

A: The award specifically cites the work from after [Desert Storm]. It was nice to get, and all these awards over the years were nice to get. I'm not second-guessing. …You look to do stories that told you something you didn't know. You look over my career most of my stories are actual news as opposed to what they call news today.

Q: You're currently writing a book about Vietnam. What exactly is it about?

A:It's about how [the Kennedy administration] did a cold-blooded assassination of this very brave, courageous, but impolitic leader of South Vietnam. The generals that did the coup wouldn't [kill him], they were so intimidated by him, and so we paid a million dollars to the guy to lead the coup. …So [it's about] what led up to that decision.

Q: When do you plan to have the book done by?

A: A lot of people keep asking me that. Hopefully this year. This will be … murder, assassination, political intrigue. It should be very compelling.

Courtesy of Patrick Sloyan

Patrick Sloyan on the job in New York City.

Q: How long have you lived in Loudoun and how and when did you come to live here?

A: I live in the center of the universe in Paeonian Springs. It's between Leesburg and Hamilton.

I've lived there since 1968 … I had just had my fourth child, and we had a smaller house in Silver Springs. I couldn't afford a bigger house in Washington. So I was covering the Senate in those days, so I put a pin in the middle of the map in the Capitol and drew a circle. I wouldn't drive more than an hour. So we ended up out here.

Q: What influenced your decision to move to Loudoun?

A: Family mostly, but other things too. I had just changed jobs. I had left UPI for Hearst newspapers and worked there … pretty much on my own schedule. Plus we liked getting out of the city.

Q: Loudoun has been a small epicenter of the technology industry, which has greatly altered the way people receive their news. How do you view the role of the Internet and other emerging technologies in the journalism profession?

A: I started off [in journalism] as a dictationist. In those days everything went out on a Teletype machine at 60 words a minute. And speed was of the essence. If you were five seconds, 10 seconds late on a major story you were in trouble. UPI was very competitive with the AP. So today I don't have any mercy for these lame excuses … Rushing is no excuse for getting it wrong.

Q: What has been the biggest change in the county since you've moved here?

A: When my kids went to school in Waterford it was all farm kids. Today there's no farm kids there. 4-H used to be the biggest thing in Loudoun, now it's almost faded away. So there's been a fundamental change. Now good or bad, well, I think good, because people are better educated and you see the median income has gone way up, indicating wealth. But you lose that mixture, the mixture of lower class, middle class, upper class. And the newspapers have gotten worse.

Q: What do you think are the most overlooked stories that go on in Loudoun? What do you wish local journalists paid more attention to?

A: Well this hospital dispute has gone on and there's been no real coverage of what it's really about. Where was the incisive coverage? There was none. Look at what they're charging, here's what they charge in Fairfax, here's what they charge in Leesburg, if there is a difference.

Also, property assessments. Developers. I raised a real stink when they tried to run a power line through Paeonian Springs. I raised a lot of opposition and dug up a lot of information. … No one lifted a finger from any newspaper. And now they're putting three power lines…and nobody's saying anything. Journalism sucks here. The Washington Post included. …You know, journalism is finding out information. There's a lot going on here.

Q: What's the most important thing you've done as a journalist?

A:Covering the [Ralph] Nader business. Because every time you get in an automobile and you put on a seatbelt and in front of you is an airbag inside the steering wheel. I take a big share of the responsibly for that … cause I really covered that more than anyone, including The New York Times, when I was with UPI. …You learn that these engineers knew these cars were killing people and deliberately did nothing about it. So I get great pride out of that, being a part of it.

Q: Has your family stayed in the area?

A: My son and his five children live next door to me in a beautiful house. He's tennis pro in Ashburn. And my other son teaches in Florida now. My daughter lives down the street with her two children. So the family remains in Paeonian Springs.

Q: What's your favorite part about Loudoun?

A: I like the country setting, the air is clearer. I like the living condition and it hasn't changed much since I moved, fortunately. No big developments. Also, the preeminent research institution in the world is now in Loudoun. It's a huge medical research institute at Janelia Farm. So you can't overestimate what that means to the world. …It's an important facility.

Q: Where is your favorite spot in Loudoun and why?

A: Where I live. I moved out here I bought his place and three acres [and] since I've expanded it to eight acres. And I put a tennis court and swimming pool on it and I got horses and a big garden and planted a lot of trees. And I like to go to Ida Lee and swim there. I swim a half-mile, three times a week.

Tagged: journalism, Paeonian Springs, Up Close

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