Nobody Hated Dolly || Michael Reneau on Faith, Home, and the Craft of Editing
A newspaper editor from East Tennessee on why Dolly Parton was one of the last people almost everyone agreed on, and what that says about faith, place, and the work of editing well.
Michael Reneau, executive editor at The Dispatch, joins Corey to talk about growing up 50 miles from where Dolly Parton was raised, and what her death revealed about a country that still finds a handful of people impossible to dislike. The conversation moves from Appalachia and Hurricane Helene to Bryan College, Flannery O'Connor, and the hardest thing Michael has ever watched his parents live through.
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Key takeaways
- Dolly Parton's death pulled praise from across the political spectrum, and Michael sees that as a clue about what Appalachia's isolation and hardship actually produced: solidarity, not the caricature.
- Editing longer-form work, learned in part from mentor Marvin Olasky, means being ruthless about finding a story's essence, and Michael treats AI strictly as a tool, never as a substitute for that judgment.
- The formative event of Michael's faith was watching his parents grieve his infant sister's death and hold onto their belief anyway, not any theological argument he later studied.
About Michael Reneau
Michael Reneau is executive editor at The Dispatch, where he oversees editing across the newsroom. Before joining The Dispatch in 2022, he was editor of World Magazine, and prior to that spent several years as editor and writer for an award-winning daily newspaper in East Tennessee. He lives in Greeneville, Tennessee, with his wife and four kids.
Links
- The Dispatch: thedispatch.com
- Michael's tribute to Dolly Parton: thedispatch.com/article/dolly-parton-tennessee-music-philanthropy
Connect with us
- Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com
- YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion
- Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, X, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn: @coreysnathan
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Nobody agrees on much these days. Dolly was the exception.
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