Tuesday, December 8, 1987TThe Battalion n
State and Local
&M assistant professor tries variety of careers
bout
By Todd Riemenschneider
Reporter
The professional life of Dr. Don
omlinson can be described in one
ord —diversified.
Tomlinson’s career experiences
nge from being a deputy prosecut-
g attorney to owning a television
reduction company.
During many of these years, Tom-
ison was working as a part-time
liege teacher. He taught every-
ing from television journalism to
jlitical science.
He is now an assistant professor of
urnalism at Texas A&M.
T had a sincere interest in higher
lucation,” Tomlinson said.
A suggestion by his wife, Beverly,
ive Tomlinson the drive to become
rollege professor.
“1 wanted to do something with
ng-term stability,” Tomlinson said,
wanted to be at an institution
liere I could enjoy myself.”
Tomlinson said he had a choice of
o colleges at which to teach,
uthern Methodist University and
:xas A&M. He came to A&M in
185.
I am absolutely confident I made
right choice in coming to A&M,”
said.
Tomlinson said he enjoys the
yan-College Station community
d also likes being at a large public
stitution. He keeps busy most of
time, he said.
What little spare time I have I
e singing and playing country mu
on the guitar,” he said. Tomlin-
played in rock bands during
gh school and college, but he says
musical activities are less public
“Now I just pick and grin for my-
If or anybody who might come
ongand want to listen,” Tomlinson
id.
Tomlinson’s career can be traced
Jonesboro, Ark. where he at-
nded Arkansas State University,
uring his senior year at Arkansas
ate, Tomlinson was the managing
litor of the campus newspaper.
Tomlinson said he “became enth-
' ,onit lied” with the electronic side of
urnalism during his senior year,
omlinson said he had a part-time
at a local television station,
AIT. He said KAIT was compara-
maa
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Photo by Shelley Scbluter
Dr. Don Tomlinson has recently completed a documentary.
ble to Channel 3, KBTX-TV, here in
Bryan-College Station.
He was offered a job at a junior
college in Beebe, Ark. after he grad
uated from Arkansas State. He said
he took the job with the understand
ing he would work only one year be
cause he had a desire to attend grad
uate school. While he was working at
the junior college Tomlinson was the
sponsor for the school newspaper
and also the annual. He also did
public relations work for the college.
After receiving his master’s de
gree in journalism from North
Texas State University, Tomlinson
went to work for a television station
in his hometown of Little Rock, Ark.
At KTHV, a CBS affiliate, he
worked as a reporter and a weekend
anchor.
Tomlinson then switched to the
ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Ark.,
KATV. At KATV he was also a re
porter and a weekend anchor, but
there he was producing monthly,
hour-long documentaries. He said
he had always had an interest in
making documentaries, and being at
this station would allow him to do
something he really wanted to do.
Tomlinson said he believes docu
mentaries are “as pure a form of
journalism as there is.”
As a reporter, Tomlinson covered
a lot of state government issues, and
he found himself becoming inter
ested in law. He decided to go to law
school to be a participant, rather
than an observer, in the legal proc
ess.
“When I was covering govern
ment as a reporter, I found myself
wanting to raise my hand, wanting to
have the floor and have input,”
Tomlinson said.
He started law school at the Uni
versity of Arkansas-Fayetteville,
which he attended for one year. He
then transferred to the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock so he could
work during the day and go to
school at night. While attending law
school, Tomlinson did public infor
mation work for various state agen
cies.
After law school, Tomlinson went
to work as a deputy prosecuting at
torney in Little Rock.
“Normally this job entails working
for a prosecutor who prosecutes all
kinds of crimes,” Tomlinson said. “I
did a little of that, but my main job as
a deputy prosecuter was the pros
ecution of two different kinds of cri
mes.”
In his position as deputy prosecut
ing attorney, Tomlinson enforced
the payment of child support.
“This type of child support deals
with the person who has a clear abil
ity to pay child support, but has a
genuine desire to avoid paying,” he
said. Tomlinson added his office did
not deal with visitation rights, only
support payments.
“What our office was trying to do
was save the public from having to
pay child support — through such
vehicles as welfare — for individuals
who could clearly do it themselves,”
he said.
The other type of crime Tomlin
son prosecuted — as both a deputy
prosecuting attorney and later as a
deputy attorney general — was
white-collar medical fraud, for ex
ample when dentists, doctors, phar
macists and others in the medical
profession defraud the Medicaid
program.
“In Arkansas there is a generic
drug law,” Tomlinson explained.
“This law allows a generic equivalent
for a drug to replace a name brand,
so the cost is less.”
Tomlinson said some medical
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law.
“A pharmacist was distributing
generic drugs and was listing them
as name brands and was getting
more money than he was entitled
to,” he said.
Tomlinson said the attorney gen
eral’s office ran a sting operation
where they would send a person into
a pharmacy who would pretend to
be on Medicaid, and this person
would receive the medication and
the bill.
The attorney general’s office
would then check the records of the
pharmacist to see if the drugs he was
ordering were the same as he was
dispensing. If the pharmacist was
dispensing generic drugs for name
brand drugs, it would show up in his
records. If a pharmacist’s records
showed he was dispensing generic
drugs for name brands, charges
would be brought against the phar
macist for fraudulent activites.
“As long as I was there (in the at
torney general’s office), we never
lost a case,” Tomlinson said.
Trial law is a high-stress job, Tom
linson said, and after several years
he realized that he didn’t want to do
it on a long-term basis. He chose to
pursue his interest in broadcasting,
and he moved on in his journalism
career by forming a televison pro
duction company, The Video Pro
duction House. His company, based
in Little Rock, did work for private
industry by makirw videos for com
panies. “Private oocumentaries” is
what Tomlinson called the videos his
company made. At this time he also
had a private law practice.
Tomlinson moved his company to
Gulf Shores, Ala. and changed its
name to CableTime. CableTime
produced television commercials for
local insertion into network cable
television programming. In late
1983, Tomlinson sold the company.
“I got an offer I couldn’t refuse,”
he said.
The Country Music Televison
Network was the next place Tomlin
son tried his hand at something new.
In Nashville, Tomlinson was making
videos for the network and also was
serving as legal counsel. At CMTV,
Tomlinson was able to combine both
his journalism and his legal careers.
The most recent project Tomlin
son was involved in was to work on a
documentary for the A&M Sea
Grant College Program. This docu
mentary, which Tomlinson pro
duced and directed, is titled,
“Trashed-out Texas Beaches: The
Junk Stops Here.” It is about the
growing problem of trash washing
up on Texas beaches.
“People for 4,000 years have been
throwing trash in the water,” Tom
linson said. “Until the last 40 years it
didn’t matter, because there was less
traffic and no plastic.”
Plastic is not biodegradable, so it is
starting to wash up on the beaches,
Tomlinson said. The documentary is
in the editing stages, he said.
He said he hopes to get the docu
mentary on the Public Broadcasting
Service as soon as possible.
“This university, with the amount
of research it does, has a wonderful
opportunity to do documentaries,”
Tomlinson said. He said he is trying
to create a mechanism for more doc
umentaries to be made about the re
search that goes on at A&M.
Unit considers
tax exemption
for elderly
AUSTIN (AP) — The govern
ing body of a taxing unit may of
fer a residence homestead
exemption to people 65 or older
without offering the same
exemption to disabled people —
or vice versa, according to Attor
ney General Jim Mattox.
Bobby Joe Mann, Palo Pinto
county attorney, requested Mat
tox’s opinion, which was released
Monday.
Mattox noted that the Texas
Constitution and Tax Code either
require or authorize various types
of political subdivisions to grant
or offer residence homestead
exemptions from property taxa
tion.
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