Elliott Maraniss was a crusading investigative journalist, a fierce defender of the First Amendment, and a mentor to generations of young journalists.
He joined The Capital Times in 1957 after one of his columns caught the eye of William T. Evjue, the newspaper’s founder and editor. Just weeks after joining the paper, he exposed paper mill pollution in the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, which spurred legislation that continues to have a lasting environmental impact more than 60 years later.
In 1978, after working as the paper’s city editor and executive editor, Maraniss became the third editor-in-chief in The Capital Times’ history.
A trailblazer in the field, he also made The Capital Times one of the first newspapers in Wisconsin to diversify its news staff. He hired the paper’s first black reporter and filled several reporting positions with women in an effort to make the staff more reflective of the community it covered.
As an editor, Maraniss served as a strong mentor for young reporters. He taught them to stand up for the First Amendment, instilling the importance of exposing wrong-doing.
Maraniss’ fearless questioning of authority and relentless pursuit of the truth made him one of Wisconsin’s finest journalists.
