Great Barrington — Thomas J. Casey, 26, was killed last Friday in a head-on collision on Route 7 in Lee, when the vehicle he was driving collided with a northbound pickup truck.
Casey was the News Coordinator at the Berkshire Record newspaper in Great Barrington, where he also lived. According to the Hudson River Zeitgeist, after working as a reporter for The Legislative Gazette in Albany, N.Y., Casey joined the The Register-Star in Hudson, N.Y., where he covered the city in 2011 and 2012. Newsroom colleagues protested management’s firing of Casey in 2012, which began a firestorm of resentment in Hudson against the paper.
The Zeitgeist reported that in their letter to management in support of Casey, his colleagues said that he was an “excellent reporter who covers his beat conscientiously, who thinks deeply about the issues involved, who has developed strong, fertile relationships with his sources, writes imaginatively and accurately and is a warm, intelligent and good humored presence in the newsroom. His record has been spotless and he has never turned down a difficult assignment.”
Three of Casey’s colleagues resigned after the letter “was met with a harsh reaction.”
The Zeitgeist also said that “National journalism-watching outlets, including The Poynter Institute, Jim Romenesko and The Columbia Journalism Review, covered and analyzed the firing following coverage in the local blogosphere.”
The Register-Star episode was further explained on WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s All Things Considered. Click here to listen.
Casey was from Sound Beach, New York, and graduated from SUNY New Paltz. He was about to begin studies at City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
Click here for his obituary, calling hours and funeral service, all on Long Island at the O.B. Davis Funeral Home, 1001 Rt. 25A, Miller Place, N.Y., Wednesday 7-9 and Thursday 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 10 at St. Louis deMontfort Roman Catholic Church.
