Wednesday, July 16, 2003 4:32 PM
The debate will continue for some time over who drew the biggest laughs at the Press Club’s June 21 annual awards banquet, where Southern California journalists earned top honors from their peers in numerous categories encompassing print, television, radio, magazine and online reporting.
The night also offered many poignant moments, such as when the winner of the Joseph Quinn Award for lifetime achievement, CBS-2 anchorwoman Laura Diaz, accepted her trophy during a standing ovation that included her mother and father — a former migrant worker who fought poverty to give his family a better life.
Diaz’ longtime friend, Conan Nolan of NBC-4, introduced Diaz with a stirring recounting of largely unknown aspects of her work, including her decision to track the lives of children from different racial backgrounds who experienced the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Diaz has kept in close contact with those children into young adulthood in order to tell their sto- ries. Two of them, one now going into law enforcement and the other in college, attended the banquet and stood to receive warm applause from the audi- ence.
Although tears were shed at moments, the three-hour gala sparkled with upbeat humor, rounds of cheers and plenty of chuckles. The 45h Annual Southern California Journalism Awards drew a crowd of 370 and made headlines on FOX News, CBS, NBC, KTLA, KTTV, KPCC, KNX, and other broadcast outlets.
Many say the funniest moments came from a favorite Press Club awards presen- ter (and past award winner for his writ- ing), “NYPD Blue’s” Gordon Clapp. Clapp threw him
self into his part with gusto, needling the club for its famously long event as he leaned into the microphone and declared in an insecure monotone: “Hello, my name is Gordon. I was not an alcoholic when I got here. But now I am.”
Others say the most hilarious speaker was droll humorist and recipient of the evening’s Presidents Award, Los Angeles Times columnist and author Al Martinez. Martinez got off dozens of good lines, open- ing his acceptance speech by insisting, “I have to get up early tomorrow. I’ll be out looking for the weapons of mass destruc- tion.”
Martinez took several potshots at himself, his age, his attempts to work in television, and the number of years he has been writing for newspapers (since the 1950s). He dryly recounted the moving of his column from a prominent slot in the former Times Metro section to an inside page of the current Calendar section, and had the audience howling over how to go about finding his work in the paper.
The greatest suspense came at the evening’s end, when the Journalists of the Year were revealed.
The six Journalists of the Year in 2003 are: Print Journalist at a Publication Over 100,000 Circulation, Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times; Print Journalist at a Publication Under 100,000, Jeffrey Anderson, Daily Journal, whose colleagues roared like Dodgers fans; Television Anchor, Jordi Ortega, Telemundo-52, whose bilin- gual reports wowed the judges; Radio Journalist, KPPC 89.3 FM’s Kitty Felde (see Profile, Page 4); Sports Journalist, Steve Grad of KNX; and Photojournalist, Don Bartletti, for his stunning work, the Pulitzer
Prize-winning “Enrique’s Journey” in the L.A. Times.
Many curious journalists got to check out one of the top players in California journal- ism, L.A. Times managing editor Dean Baquet, who presented several awards in various categories. Baquet also accepted a number of awards won by the Times, as did Times journalists including Alan C. Miller and Kevin Sack for their investigation, “Vertical Vision,” into deadly crashes of mili- tary jets.
Certain media outlets were powerhouses. KNX won several radio categories, for exam- ple, while many TV awards were taken by KTLA-5. Kudos for making the longest trip went to the San Diego Tribune, which hoped to win in the highly competitive Hard News category for large newspapers. Their trip paid off when the Trib won for its incredible work on the guilty verdict in the David Westerfield murder trial.
One audience favorite was the winner for best political cartoon at a large newspaper, Patrick O’Connor of the Daily News, whose artwork relentlessly pillories the spending habits of state politicians. Another great moment came when Press Club member Corey Levitan, of the Daily Breeze, accepted his award for best entertainment criticism at a paper under 100,000 circulation, for his piece on a Stones concert at Staples Center. Levitan attained center stage by executing a running leap from the ballroom floor.
To ensure fairness, the awards are judged by press clubs in other cities. Because this competition attracts so many journalists — more than 400 entries this year—-the club needs nearly a dozen cities to handle the tremendous workload of judging each entry. In turn, the Press Club judges competitions in those cities. Sincere thanks go to our friends in our sister cities.
