Clad in his signature bow tie, lifelong journalist Michael Gartner stressed the importance of passion and devotion in journalism and editorial writing.

Gartner, president of the Iowa Board of Regents and principal owner of the Iowa Cubs, spoke Tuesday evening in the Sun Room in the Memorial Union.

Gartner, a native of Des Moines, has managed several newspapers, including The Des Moines Register and USA Today and is the former president of NBC News.

“Gartner is an extraordinarily important figure in American journalism,” said Barbara Mack, associate professor of journalism and mass communication.

In 1997, when he was editor and co-owner of The Daily Tribune of Ames, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.

Good editorial writers must love the place where they live like they would love a spouse, Gartner said.

“A good editorial writer has to be outraged by the time he gets to work, but be filled with energy,” Gartner said. “I read The Wall Street Journal editorials for rage and listened to WOI for energy, so by the time I got to work I was pissed off, but happy.”

Mack said Gartner has helped guide news coverage for four of the top U.S. newspapers that have been responsible for informing readers about the world.

Gartner promoted his book, “Outrage, Passion & Uncommon Sense: How Editorial Writers Have Taken the Great American Issues of the Past 150 Years.”

Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, said the editorials in Gartner’s book evoke the emotions of outrage, passion and uncommon sense.

“It provokes a reminder about what is at stake: the soul of a newspaper, the editorial and how it has altered or influenced the history of newspapering and [public] attitudes,” he said.

Gartner said something great editorial writers of the past had in common was their sense of community and fearlessness to do what is right for the public.

“Editorial writers used to speak their minds; you always knew where they stood,” he said. “But not so much today.”