C.D. “Tony” Hylton
Examining the mysterious world where politics and news media collide
Tony’s been around journalism for most of his 80+ years. When less than a month old, his mother took him to the Logan Banner (WV) to visit his sports editor father. A member of the back shop brought out a pad of printers’ ink covered his foot and made a print on newsprint. That was the beginning. In the third grade, he sold the Banner on the streets of Logan buying them for three cents and selling them for a nickle – really rolling in the money.
His life-long connection with the honorable journalism profession has taken many forms:
- Editor-publisher of the Hinton Daily News (now Hinton News)
- Visiting professor of journalism/public relations at Susquehanna University
- Public relations practitioner for a national trade association in Washington, D. C.
- Communications Director for AARP, Virginia
- Public information Officer for a major U. S. Army command in the Republic of Vietnam
Tony’s political experience includes serving in the West Virginia House of Delegates and being an unsuccessful candidate for the West Virginia State Senate.
Now a resident of Morgantown, Hylton is a graduate of the West Virginia University P. I. Reed School of Journalism (now School of Media) and also earned a Masters in Political Science from WVU.
As an expert on the news business, Hylton has participated in the “Zoom Into Books” series from his publisher, Headline Books. His entertaining presentation examined how “Fake News” was added to our Nation’s political lexicon and discusses Freedom of the Press and what moved our founding fathers to make it part of our First Amendment rights. He examined the troubling demise of local newspapers, and its negative impact on small communities across the country.
His political experience provides Tony with a behind-the-scenes view of the rough and tumble world of southern West Virginia politics in the historical 1960 Democrat Presidential Primary which vaulted John F. Kennedy into the White House. This inside knowledge allows his fiction to provide valuable and extremely realistic insights for readers.