Pat Cunningham was a journalist dedicated to his craft in seeking out the truth and exposing whatever that truth revealed.
I first saw him on Channel 13 News. He was a no-nonsense type of individual, and non-animated in presenting a story, without a big smile or unnecessary hand gestures as is required today.
His stories were not “fluff” pieces intended to fill up a broadcast. They were of importance to people living in society.
He was not a young person when I first saw him as compared to today’s local reporters. Currently, we have reporters who present stories about which they do not understand or have not learned its’ history occurring in Rockford or the surrounding communities.
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Pat understood the context of a story in relationship to the history from which it had been generated. He also was able to dig into a story and expose the unvarnished truth that politicians and public figures may not have liked and also explore subjects we had ignored or neglected. He was an example to me of what a true reporter was all about.