Michael Collins garnered Second Place for Journalist of the Year for newspapers under 100,000 circulation with his investigative series “Two Mile Island” in Los Angeles CityBeat.
The Series:
BETWEEN ROCKETDYNE AND A HARD PLACE
Annual Southern California Journalism Awards gala program column by Los Angeles Press Club Judging Chair Michael Collins:
Judging, So That We Can Be Judged
By Michael Collins
Judging Chair
Greater Los Angeles Press Club
Downtown Los Angeles never looked more beautiful than from the top of a stately Victorian home in Angelino Heights — my girlfriend Denise Anne’s abode. That panorama was a welcome sight during 18 hours of my sequestered session judging entries in the 2005 Lone Star Awards held by the Houston Press Club. We need to judge the work done in other cities so that they’ll judge the work done by Los Angeles journalists and submitted to the Southern California Journalism Awards. Reciprocal judging is integral to furthering excellence in journalism and it assures unbiased critiquing.
I was again honored to be the chair of the judging subcommittee this year and was joined by fellow press club judges Bob Baker, Sandy Cohen, Doc Johnson, Diana Lyungaeus, Jill Stewart, Matt Welch and Norma Zager. Together we judged superb work from press clubs as varied as New Orleans, Syracuse, San Francisco and the Cleveland Press Club which covers the entire state. Our very own President Patt Morrison diligently judged 18 pounds of print material from Ohio alone!
Not to be outdone, Houston Press Club President Debra Fraser judged 28 hours of our radio entries! And she and her fellow Texas adjudicators were not alone in deciding the winners of tonight’s 47th Southern California Journalism Awards. Press clubs from Arizona, Cleveland, Florida, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Omaha, San Francisco, Syracuse and Tulsa also joined in to judge our many entries.
“I ended up as President of the Houston Press Club for the past five years because I wanted to help people in our business,” says Fraser. “Everyone needs connections, and I want to provide them. We also do a statewide awards program, appropriately called The Lone Star Awards, and your club helped us with judging once again this year. Then in the fall we do a show that spoofs the news of the year to raise money for journalism scholarships.”
Fraser is also the Station Manager of Houston’s public radio station KUHF and oversees the combined cultural programming and news departments. Debra also manages the station’s public information initiatives. She has been with KUHF for 15 years, serving the last 11 as News Director. Debra joined KUHF in 1988 as a reporter and has seen the news department grow into “Houston’s intelligent news choice.”
“I must say, I really enjoyed judging your groups entries, as did all of our radio panelists,” says Debra. “There is a LOT of talent in your region and you all have much to be proud of.”
”These awards programs are becoming more important every year, as the journalism landscape shifts daily,” she says. “Any media outlet that is maintaining a commitment to regional and community coverage should be commended. It’s quite a struggle for us to keep our distance from opinion-driven journalism, but we have to keep up the fight! We also should commit to training others who share our commitment, so someone will be ready to take over…not anytime soon, of course!”
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