Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Legendary Journalists Inspire New Generation at Guild Banquet
A new generation of journalists mingled with two giants in the field May 19 at The Newspaper Guild-CWA's annual Freedom Fund Awards banquet, where Walter Cronkite charmed the audience with memories of his 70-year career and Bill Moyers painted a dire picture of freedoms in peril.
Two Seattle Times reporters and the online public interest journal TomPaine.com were honored with the Guild's highest awards at the event, and awards also went to two outstanding scholastic journalists.
Cronkite got an extended standing ovation before he'd spoken a word from the stage of the Hyatt Regency ballroom in Washington, D.C. When he did speak, he began by pointing to the Guild pin that TNG-CWA President Linda Foley had just given him.
"I just now pinned it on my lapel, but you've been in my heart since 1933," said Cronkite, an early Guild activist during his days as a reporter at United Press International, where he led a strike vote in 1939.
Moyers, whose broadcast investigations regularly expose grave injustice and government misdeeds, said rising secrecy, the corrupting influence of money on politics and the growing consolidation of media ownership are threatening America's democracy.
"That's why tonight is so important - why the Barr and Broun and Block awards are about more than ritual, ceremony or even celebration," Moyers said. "They are a ringing endorsement of what journalism can do."
The awards honor the memories of famed newspaper columnist and Guild founder Heywood Broun, the Washington Post's legendary political cartoonist Herb Block and Guild attorney and mentor David S. Barr. Both the Broun and Block awards come with a $5,000 prize.
The evening's emcee was award-winning Washington, D.C. reporter and anchorman Gordon Peterson, moderator of the nationally syndicated news analysis show "Inside Washington." About 300 people attended the event.
The Broun award went to Seattle Times reporters Christine Willmsen and Maureen O'Hagan for their series, "Coaches Who Prey." The four-part series explored the largely unreported trend of male coaches preying on female athletes and the coaches' success in escaping accountability.
"Overcoming significant reporting barriers to gain access to school records and get teenage accounts on the record, Willmsen and O'Hagan documented how it is not uncommon for coaches who have been found to have engaged in sexual misconduct to easily transfer to a new school and resume victimizing students," the judges wrote. "Willmsen and O'Hagan went beyond the alarming numbers - that 159 coaches in Washington over the last decade had been dismissed, suspended or reprimanded for sexual misconduct - and found that far too often, school administrators failed to investigate complaints or report them to authorities."
The judges cited the series for its depth and detail in exploring a subject that previously had been examined only episodically, raising public awareness of the problem, providing important advice for parents and prompting school authorities to conduct background checks of coaches.
TomPaine.com and its founder, John Moyers - son of Bill Moyers - won the third-annual Herbert Block Freedom Award for being what TNG-CWA called "a consistent voice of reason and democratic discourse at a time of increased political attacks on civil liberties and a flattening of discourse in the mainstream media."
The Herbert Block Award, named after the legendary Washington Post cartoonist known as Herblock, is given annually to a person or organization that best exemplifies Block's devotion to free speech and assembly, his compassion for the weak and disadvantaged, his distrust of unbridled power and his defense of a vigorous free press. The $5,000 prize is funded by Block's bequest to The Newspaper Guild. Block, who died in 2001, was a Guild member for 67 years.
In naming TomPaine.com this year's Block Award winner, TNG-CWA praised the five-year-old website for challenging conventional news-think about a wide variety of contemporary issues, including the war in Iraq, the economy, partisan politics and the culture wars. The site is funded entirely by foundations and private donors.
"Like its historical namesake, TomPaine.com promotes informed public discourse, which is so essential in a democratic society," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said. "The group's continuing efforts to promote anti-establishment viewpoints on issues of the day are exactly what Herb Block's cartoons did for readers of the Washington Post."
In addition to the Seattle Times award, the Broun judges gave two awards of "substantial distinction," each with a $1,000 prize. The winners were Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy for "Mortal Wounds," a compelling series about black-on-black homicides in South-Central Los Angeles; and Andrea Bernstein and Amy Eddings for their radio series, "Handshake Hotels," which explored the cost - in dollars and in lives - of New York City's homeless hotels.
The Broun Award, created in 1941, recognizes "individual journalistic achievement by members of the working media, particularly if it helps right a wrong or correct an injustice."
Two younger journalists took home David S. Barr scholarships, named for the Guild's long-term attorney and trusted advisor. The awards in his name annually recognize one high school and one college student for exceptional journalism promoting issues of importance to working people.
Annalyn Rose Censky, 17, a student at Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, Ariz., won a $500 scholarship for her story on the injustices suffered by teenagers crossing the border illegally. Olivia Cobiskey, a student at Columbia College in Chicago, won a $1,500 scholarship for her story about a non-profit center that helps Muslim families cope with the pressures of Western-style freedom.
The Broun award judges were Boston Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis, journalism professor Chris Hansom of the University of Maryland, New York Times reporter Stephen Labaton, Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent-at-large Andrew Maykuth, television news anchor Tracey Neale, and television reporter Julie Wright. The panel's chair was Susan Watson, a former reporter, city editor and columnist for the Detroit Free Press who was a prominent Guild leader during the Detroit newspaper strike. Watson, who won the Broun Award in 1978, currently is editor of The Detroit Teacher, newsletter for the Detroit Federation of Teachers.
Two Seattle Times reporters and the online public interest journal TomPaine.com were honored with the Guild's highest awards at the event, and awards also went to two outstanding scholastic journalists.
Cronkite got an extended standing ovation before he'd spoken a word from the stage of the Hyatt Regency ballroom in Washington, D.C. When he did speak, he began by pointing to the Guild pin that TNG-CWA President Linda Foley had just given him.
"I just now pinned it on my lapel, but you've been in my heart since 1933," said Cronkite, an early Guild activist during his days as a reporter at United Press International, where he led a strike vote in 1939.
Moyers, whose broadcast investigations regularly expose grave injustice and government misdeeds, said rising secrecy, the corrupting influence of money on politics and the growing consolidation of media ownership are threatening America's democracy.
"That's why tonight is so important - why the Barr and Broun and Block awards are about more than ritual, ceremony or even celebration," Moyers said. "They are a ringing endorsement of what journalism can do."
The awards honor the memories of famed newspaper columnist and Guild founder Heywood Broun, the Washington Post's legendary political cartoonist Herb Block and Guild attorney and mentor David S. Barr. Both the Broun and Block awards come with a $5,000 prize.
The evening's emcee was award-winning Washington, D.C. reporter and anchorman Gordon Peterson, moderator of the nationally syndicated news analysis show "Inside Washington." About 300 people attended the event.
The Broun award went to Seattle Times reporters Christine Willmsen and Maureen O'Hagan for their series, "Coaches Who Prey." The four-part series explored the largely unreported trend of male coaches preying on female athletes and the coaches' success in escaping accountability.
"Overcoming significant reporting barriers to gain access to school records and get teenage accounts on the record, Willmsen and O'Hagan documented how it is not uncommon for coaches who have been found to have engaged in sexual misconduct to easily transfer to a new school and resume victimizing students," the judges wrote. "Willmsen and O'Hagan went beyond the alarming numbers - that 159 coaches in Washington over the last decade had been dismissed, suspended or reprimanded for sexual misconduct - and found that far too often, school administrators failed to investigate complaints or report them to authorities."
The judges cited the series for its depth and detail in exploring a subject that previously had been examined only episodically, raising public awareness of the problem, providing important advice for parents and prompting school authorities to conduct background checks of coaches.
TomPaine.com and its founder, John Moyers - son of Bill Moyers - won the third-annual Herbert Block Freedom Award for being what TNG-CWA called "a consistent voice of reason and democratic discourse at a time of increased political attacks on civil liberties and a flattening of discourse in the mainstream media."
The Herbert Block Award, named after the legendary Washington Post cartoonist known as Herblock, is given annually to a person or organization that best exemplifies Block's devotion to free speech and assembly, his compassion for the weak and disadvantaged, his distrust of unbridled power and his defense of a vigorous free press. The $5,000 prize is funded by Block's bequest to The Newspaper Guild. Block, who died in 2001, was a Guild member for 67 years.
In naming TomPaine.com this year's Block Award winner, TNG-CWA praised the five-year-old website for challenging conventional news-think about a wide variety of contemporary issues, including the war in Iraq, the economy, partisan politics and the culture wars. The site is funded entirely by foundations and private donors.
"Like its historical namesake, TomPaine.com promotes informed public discourse, which is so essential in a democratic society," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said. "The group's continuing efforts to promote anti-establishment viewpoints on issues of the day are exactly what Herb Block's cartoons did for readers of the Washington Post."
In addition to the Seattle Times award, the Broun judges gave two awards of "substantial distinction," each with a $1,000 prize. The winners were Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy for "Mortal Wounds," a compelling series about black-on-black homicides in South-Central Los Angeles; and Andrea Bernstein and Amy Eddings for their radio series, "Handshake Hotels," which explored the cost - in dollars and in lives - of New York City's homeless hotels.
The Broun Award, created in 1941, recognizes "individual journalistic achievement by members of the working media, particularly if it helps right a wrong or correct an injustice."
Two younger journalists took home David S. Barr scholarships, named for the Guild's long-term attorney and trusted advisor. The awards in his name annually recognize one high school and one college student for exceptional journalism promoting issues of importance to working people.
Annalyn Rose Censky, 17, a student at Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, Ariz., won a $500 scholarship for her story on the injustices suffered by teenagers crossing the border illegally. Olivia Cobiskey, a student at Columbia College in Chicago, won a $1,500 scholarship for her story about a non-profit center that helps Muslim families cope with the pressures of Western-style freedom.
The Broun award judges were Boston Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis, journalism professor Chris Hansom of the University of Maryland, New York Times reporter Stephen Labaton, Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent-at-large Andrew Maykuth, television news anchor Tracey Neale, and television reporter Julie Wright. The panel's chair was Susan Watson, a former reporter, city editor and columnist for the Detroit Free Press who was a prominent Guild leader during the Detroit newspaper strike. Watson, who won the Broun Award in 1978, currently is editor of The Detroit Teacher, newsletter for the Detroit Federation of Teachers.