Journalism

Here are a few favorite stories I’ve written.

For The Association of Former Students (2014-present):

  • tx.ag/CenturyTree125 – Find pushes Century Tree’s planting back to 1891.
  • tx.ag/planbrief – A quick ramble (illustrated) through key points in Texas A&M’s 2017 Campus Master Plan.
  •  – What does “Hullabaloo caneck caneck” really mean? Aristophanes might say it’s “Heave to; ribbit, ribbit!”
  • tx.ag/SilverTapsletter – In a 1968 letter home, an A&M freshman explained Silver Taps to his parents. Soon after, Silver Taps was held for him.
  • tx.ag/NewReveille – With arrival of Rev IX, a look at A&M’s mascots past and present.
  • tx.ag/Corregidor46 – An Aggie recalls the ’46 Muster on Corregidor.
  • tx.ag/milstory – Texas A&M’s tight connections with the U.S. military, from 1876 to present.

For the Austin American-Statesman, a couple of my 2011-2013 PolitiFact Texas stories:

  • Do 11 states have more people on welfare than working? (online) (archived)
  • Has drilling hurt the endangered turtles on Padre Island? (online) (archived)
  • Do scientists agree an epidemic will kill 80 to 90 million people worldwide? (online) (archived)
  • Did the head of the IRS claim his employees don’t want Obamacare? (online) (archived)
  • Did Sam Houston oppose slavery? (online) (archived)

I was a reporter, editor and designer at the Austin American-Statesman from 1995 to 2014; my LinkedIn profile has details. In September 2011 I joined the Statesman’s PolitiFact Texas team — you can see more of the stories I wrote or helped with at http://www.politifact.com/texas/staff/sue-owen/. Over the years, I worked in news, business, sports and features, largely on the copy desks doing everything from Friday night high school football madness to laying out business sections and a long stint as the features copy chief, plus working in the Williamson County bureau as an assistant metro editor.

I served as a 2007 Journalist-in-Residence at Texas A&M, my alma mater, and am a past president of A&M’s Former Journalism Students Association. To help A&M journalism students and graduates, I created aggiejournalists.com and the Aggie Journalists blog, where I posted news, photos, job openings and advice; the blog’s Facebook and LinkedIn groups connected some 400 members.

In March 2019, I was one of two primary organizers of The Battalion’s 125th Anniversary Gala, with more than 250 in attendance (tickets sold out three times!) spanning eight decades of Battalion staffers, and $16,000 raised to help the Batt.

My colleagues were nice enough to write me a few recommendations on LinkedIn:

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