AAJA/LA Offers Scholarships for the 2010-2011 School Year

The Los Angeles chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association is offering scholarships for the 2010-2011 school year.

AAJA/LA is offering up to $10,000 in awards for students who demonstrate journalistic excellence in television, radio, print, photography, news design and multimedia.

Applications and supporting materials must be received by Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010. The scholarship form and further information is available at http://aaja-la.org/2010/09/scholarship/.  Winners will be notified by Nov. 15 during a special reception with industry professionals.

Please mail materials to KTLA-TV c/o Frank Buckley, AAJA Scholarship Chair, 5800 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90028.

The Asian American Journalists Association is a nonprofit professional and educational organization serving Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders by encouraging journalism as a career, developing managers in the media industry, and promoting fair and accurate news coverage. AAJA is an alliance partner in UNITY Journalists of Color.

The future of arts criticism

The Museum of Contemporary Art and the Society of Professional Journalists a panel on the future of arts criticism.

The panel discussion will be moderated by USC’s Sasha Anawalt and features criticsAndrew Berardini and Sharon Mizota and MOCA Associate Curator Bennett Simpson.

Thursday, March 25– 6:30 to 8 pm

FREE

MOCA Grand Avenue, Ahmanson Auditorium
250 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Come early (5 pm or later) for free access to the exhibition: Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years

Info: 213-621-1745 or education@moca.org

SAG President Ken Howard at SPJ Mixer March 16

JOIN SAG PRESIDENT KEN HOWARD AT SPJ/LA MIXER TUESDAY, MARCH 16

What’s it like to work with both sets of “Charlie’s Angels?” To be blogged about by Nikke Finke? To lecture at Harvard? To repair relations between and possibly merge two unions?

Emmy-winning actor and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) President Ken Howard will be on hand to answer these and other questions at the Society of Professional Journalists’ mixer on March 16 in downtown Los Angeles. With actors’ contract negotiations starting this fall, you’ll want to hear to hear Howard’s thoughts in a candid forum.

The mixer is free and open to all! Please let us know you’re coming by sending an e-mail RSVP to the Greater Los Angeles professional chapter of SPJ at: spjlosangeles@gmail.com

WHAT: SPJ/LA’s March Mixer

WHO: Our guest will be SAG President Ken Howard

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16

WHERE: We’ll meet in the upstairs lounge at J Restaurant and Lounge, 1119 South Olive St., Los Angeles; (213) 746-7746.

PARKING: There is a parking lot across the street. You can also find street parking in the area.

COST: It’s free fun for all! (You’ll have to buy your own drinks. Happy hour ends at 7 p.m. so get your drinks early!)

Contact: Soo Youn, 310-720-9686

Thinking about now in Los Angeles

The Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists presents a panel discussion on where our city is, where we’re going and how we’ll remember ‘this’ moment in L.A. history.

The moderator will be Hector Tobar, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and author of “The Tattooed Soldier” and “Translation Nation.”

WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.

WHERE: Eso Won Bookstore,4331 Degnan Blvd., Leimert Park

Panelists Include:

• Larry Frank, Los Angeles deputy mayor
• Dowell Myers, demographer and author of “Immigrants and Boomers”
• Arielle Rosen, director of senior services, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
• George J. Sanchez, historian and author of “Becoming Mexican American”
• Carol Sobel, civil rights attorney

Free and open to the public.

Light refreshments and rugelach will be provided.

SPJ-LA Halloween Mixer will Feature Chief Coroner’s Investigator

JOIN US TUESDAY, OCT. 20th @6:30 p.m.

You’ve seen him at crime scenes. Here’s your chance to hang out with Craig Harvey outside the yellow tape!

The Greater LA Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists invites you to join us for a Halloween mixer – featuring the chief investigator for the LA County Department of Coroner - on Tuesday, Oct. 20 in downtown LA.

The mixer is free and open to all! Please let us know you’re coming by sending an e-mail to: spjlosangeles@gmail.com

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. To learn more about SPJ-LA, please click here: http://spjla.wordpress.com/about/

WHAT: SPJ-LA’s Halloween Mixer
WHO: Our guest will be Craig Harvey, chief investigator, LA County Department of Coroner
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20
WHERE: We’ll meet in the back room at the Redwood Bar and Grill, 316 W. 2nd Street in downtown L.A.; 213-680-2600. Street and lot parking is available in the area. The bar is close to the Civic Center Red Line Metro stop.
COST: It’s free fun for all! (You’ll have to buy your own drinks. Happy hour ends at 7 p.m. so get your drinks early!)

Making or Breaking News: The State of the News Business 2009

The Radio and Television News Association of Southern California invites you to attend the news networking event of the year! Mark your calendars, and see attached flyer.

“Making or Breaking News: The State of the News Business 2009″

Our networking reception and discussion will be held at UCLA on Monday, October 19th, 2009.

Here are the highlights:

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Harvey Levin – Founder of TMZ

PANEL MEMBERS:

Andy Ludlum – Program Director, KNX 1070 Newsradio and KFWB News/Talk 980

Jose Rios – VP and News Director, KTTV-TV and KCOP-TV

Kris Knutsen - Managing Editor, Local News Service

MODERATOR: Frank Mottek

WHEN: Monday, October 19th, 2009

Hors d’Oeuvres Reception: 6:00 – 7:00 PM

Program: 7:00 – 8:30 PM

Dessert Reception: 8:30 – 9:15 PM

WHERE: Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA

PARKING: Convenient parking in Lot 4 on the UCLA campus.

Enter UCLA from Sunset Blvd. at Westwood Plaza. Drive ahead to the Parking Information Booth in Lot 4.

PARKING COST: $10.-

ADMISSION COST: General Admission -$20 Students w/ID - $10

UCLA Students and Faculty - Free

Reserve your place NOW by calling RTNA: 562-987-4545 or e-mailing rtnasc@rtna.org

SPONSORS:

Western States Petroleum Association

UCLA

City News Service

Legislative Alert: Shield Law in Danger

SPJ leaders are outraged that the Obama administration has reversed course and is now proposing changes that essentially render useless S. 448, more commonly known as the Free Flow of Information Act. If implemented, the administration’s changes would weaken the proposed shield law and offer little to no protection to reporters who refuse to disclose confidential sources.

Click here for the SPJ news release.

Most frustrating to SPJ is that the administration’s latest stance is an about face to the support the administration gave early in the process. The revisions are in direct opposition to the promises President Obama made regarding a federal shield law during his campaign and his previous actions as a senator.

It is up to us now to hold President Obama to his promise and to encourage the administration to reconsider its position and focus on the importance of a federal shield law and how vital it is to the existence of a free press and an informed citizenry.

Voice your support!

One way we encourage you – and all journalists – to support S. 448 is by writing editorials or asking your news outlet to write editorials about the federal shield law. Let’s use our tools to help the Obama administration get back on track.

Another more direct option is to contact the White House directly. Use this online contact form to express your disappointment for the revisions the administration made to the federal shield law bill. SPJ provides the following letter, which you can copy and paste into the White House’s online contact form, as an option for your correspondence to President Obama. We also encourage you to write your own letter to show the varying opinions from our members:

Dear President Obama,

I am writing to voice my concern with your administration’s attempts to weaken S. 448 – the Free Flow of Information Act, otherwise known as the federal shield law. As a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, I support a strong and vibrant federal law that protects journalists, their confidential sources, and the public’s right to know crucial information about its government.

You supported this bill as a senator while campaigning and even signed on as a cosponsor in April 2008. Were you serious about supporting a free press and upholding the public’s right to know, or was that merely a passing and forgotten campaign promise?

Unfortunately, the bill has been the victim of misinformation attacks and derailment from naysayers who don’t think journalists should have such federal protections. I urge you not to believe those who say the proposed law would threaten national security or hinder the ability of law enforcement officers to do their jobs. That is not true. What’s true is that journalists are hindered from doing their jobs when the possibility of subpoena and federal prosecution is present. This has a devastating ripple effect – keeping essential whistleblowers silent and putting more distance between the American people and their government.

This bill, as passed by the House in March 2009, is important to a free press and a vibrant democracy. I urge you to keep your campaign promise to support this bill. When you were a senator, you supported the bill in its previous form and signed on as a cosponsor. It would be an absolute disappointment for your administration to further advocate weakening its needed protections.

To learn more about the Obama administration’s revisions, read the New York Times article published yesterday and visit spj.org for more information on shield law efforts and S. 448. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Additionally, to help you craft your own personal statement, SPJ’s legal counsel from Baker and Hostetler provided myths about the bill that have circulated through Congress. Each myth is countered by a fact. Please feel free to use these points when developing your argument.

Myth: A federal shield law is unnecessary because the Justice Department has subpoenaed reporters in only 19 cases from 1992 to 2006.

The reality: This statistic, offered by a Bush administration lawyer in 2007, is irrelevant and inaccurate. First, it ignores hundreds of subpoenas from criminal defendants, civil litigants, and special prosecutors, all of which would be covered by S. 448.. A recent academic study concluded that in 2006 alone, news outlets received 774 federal subpoenas from a wide range of sources. Second, the statistic you note also underestimates the number of subpoenas that came from the Department of Justice. For instance, according to the same recent study, reporters received 175 subpoenas from the DOJ Criminal Division in 2006 alone – and that was only among the news organizations that responded to the survey used to tabulate the data. Study aside, public records alone indicate that far more than 19 reporters were subpoenaed for confidential source information during this period. Indeed, four reporters spent significant amounts of time in jail.

Myth: The DOJ already has stringent rules for subpoenaing journalists.

The reality: The DOJ rules are helpful, but they could be changed at any time and they do not create binding obligations that can be enforced by a reporter who receives a subpoena. And again, they do not apply to the thousands of subpoenas from criminal defendants, civil litigants, or special prosecutors. Finally, even as to DOJ subpoenas, neutral judicial review is necessary to ensure that the subpoena power is not abused; for instance, to ensure that DOJ is not seeking to identify a confidential source who informed the public about, say, misconduct at DOJ itself. To have the same department that issues subpoenas to journalists and has a vested interest in obtaining the information sought review them to ensure that the journalists’ role in society is protected is an inherent conflict of interest.

Myth: S. 448 makes it extremely difficult to subpoena source material from reporters. Among other things, a federal court must generally weigh the need for the information versus the need for a “free flow of information,” a new and undefined term susceptible to different interpretations by different judges.

The reality: The decisions of all trial-level judges are subject to review by appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. To the extent that there are modest differences in application of the Act by courts in different regions, the Supreme Court can and will resolve them – this is no different from the way all other case law interpreting federal statutes develops every day.

Myth: S. 448 would impede national security investigations because the Act requires the government to show that information would “materially assist” in preventing, mitigating or identifying the perpetrator of an act of terrorism.

The reality: The Act imposes a minimal burden on the government – to demonstrate that its assertion of harm to “national security” has some basis in fact. Without this protection, the government could require reporters to identify their confidential sources merely by uttering the words “national security” – even when the information provided by the confidential source informed the public about government wrongdoing and even when the information did not actually relate to national security. Moreover, as the precedent from post-September 11 litigation has demonstrated, courts routinely defer to the government in national security cases.

Finally, thank you for your support of this critically important shield law effort. It is because of dedicated members like you that SPJ continues to improve and protect journalism – just as we have for the past 100 years.

Resources

SPJ/LA Resources

Scholarship Application [PDF]
Chapter Bylaws [PDF]
Membership Form [PDF]
SPJ/LA Past Awardees

Other SPJ Resources

SPJ National
CSU Northridge SPJ Chapter
CSU Fullerton SPJ Chapter

Photo credit: erix! via Flicker

SPJ Award Winners 1976-2009

1976
Gene Blake, Los Angeles Times
Bill Stout, KNXT-TV
U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston, FoI

1977
Linda Deutsch, Associated Press
Jess Marlow, KNBC-TV
Ben Bagkikian, media critic FoI

1978
Saul Halpert, KNBC-TV
Charles Hillinger, Los Angeles Times
Hon. William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

1979
Stan Chambers, KTLA-TV
Joyce Peterson, Los Angeles Daily News

1980
Mary Neiswender, Long Beach Press-Telegram
Beverly Reynolds, KNX-radio
Rep. Jerry Lewis, FoI

1981
Jack Smith, Los Angeles Times
Ruth Ashton-Taylor, KNXT-TV
Hon. Bernard Jefferson, Calif. Court of Appeals

1982
Miriam Bjerre-Persoff, KNX-radio
Frank del Olmo, Los Angeles Times
Jonathan Kotler, esquire, FoI

1983
John Marshall, KNBC-TV
Jim Murray, Jim Los Angeles Times
Zev Yaroslavsky, LA City Council member, FoI

1984
Richard Bergholz, Los Angeles Times
Jack Foisie, Los Angeles Times
George Martin, KNX-radio
Clete Roberts, in memoriam, KCET-TV

1985
Bill Boyarsky, Los Angeles Times
Warren Olney, KABC-TV
Bill Farr, Los Angeles Times, FoI

1986
Gladwin Hill, New York Times
Pete Noyes, KNBC-TV
Howard Williams, FoI

1987
Alex Sullivan, KNX-radio
William Thomas, Los Angeles Times

1988
Stephanie Rank Brady, KHJ-TV
Jack Jones, Los Angeles Times
Bill Stout, KCBS-TV FoI

1989
Linda Douglass, KNBC-TV
John Schwada, Herald-Examiner
Mel Opotowsky, Riverside Press-Enterprise, FoI

1990
Rick Orlov, Los Angeles Daily News
Charles Sergis, KFWB-radio
Prof. Charles Jenson, Sonoma State University, FoI

1991
Paul Conrad, Los Angeles Times
Jon Goodman, KNX-radio
Prof. Ben Cunningham, Cal State Long Beach, FoI

1992
Chris Harris, KTTV-TV
Richard Serrano, Los Angeles Times
Terry Francke, Calif. First Amendment Coalition, FoI

1993
Dan Fisher, Los Angeles Times
Hal Fishman, KTLA-TV
Hon. Irwin Nebron, Los Angeles County Superior Court, FoI

1994
David Dow, CBS-radio
Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times
William Rosendahl, Century Cable, FoI

1995
Jim Giggans, KNBC-TV
Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times
State Sen. Quentin L. Kopp, FoI

1996
Al Martinez, Los Angeles Times
Jose Rios, KTTV-TV
Kelli Sager, esquire, Davis Wright Tremaine, FoI

1997
John Bogert, Daily Breeze
Dennis McCarthy, Los Angeles Daily News
John North, KABC-TV
Jack Popejoy, KFWB-radio
Douglas Mirell, esquire, Loeb & Loeb, FoI

1998
Martin Berg, Los Angeles Daily Journal
Joel Grover, KCBS-TV
Warren Olney, KCRW-radio
Leo Wolinsky, Los Angeles Times
Rex Heinke, esquire, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, FoI

1999
Mark Coogan, KABC-TV
Pete Demetriou, KFWB-radio
Greg Krikorian and Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times
Cheryl Romo, Los Angeles Daily Journal
State Sen. Byron Scher, FoI

2000
Bob Sims, KNX-radio
Bob Tarlau, KTTV-TV
Pat Teague, City News Service
Tracy Wood, Orange County Register
Hon. Terry Friedman, Los Angeles Superior Court, Juvenile Division, FoI

2001
Ronnie Bradford, KNX Newsradio
Warren Wilson, KTLA-TV
Wendy Thomas Russell, Long Beach Press-Telegram
Howard Blume, L.A. Weekly
former Assemblyman William T. Bagley, FoI

2002

Kitty Felde, KPCC-FM
Judy Muller, ABC News
Jean Adelsman, Daily Breeze
Sue Manning, Associated Press
Erwin Chemerinsky, University of Southern California, FoI

2003

Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times
George Nicholaw, KNX Newsradio
Lori Streifler, City News Service
Jeff Wald, KTLA-TV
Eugene Volokh, University of California, Los Angeles, FoI

2004

Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times
Jim Hattendorf, KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV
Ed Pyle, KNX-AM
Mark Lacter, Los Angeles Business Journal
Susan Seager, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, FoI

2005

John Antczak, Associated Press
David Zahniser, Copley News Service
Steve Kindred, KFWB-AM Radio
Julia Seifer, ABC7 Eyewitness News
Karlene W. Goller, Los Angeles Times, FoI
Frank Wilkinson, First Amendment Foundation (in memoriam, FoI)

2006

Larry Altman, Daily Breeze
Dave Bryan, KCBS2/KCAL9
Eric Leonard, KFI-AM
George Skelton, Los Angeles Times

2007

Beth Barrett, Los Angeles Daily News
John Rabe, KPCC
Bob Banfield, KABC-TV
Tom Tugend, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
Scott Glover & Matt Lait, Los Angeles Times, FoI

2008 (presented May 2009)

Terri Vermeulen Keith, City News Service
Frank Stoltze, KPCC
Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times
John Schwada, KTTV Fox 11
Kevin Roderick, LAObserved.com, (Distinguished Work in New Media)
Nick Ut, Associated Press (Lifetime Achievement Award)
Thomas Newton & James Ewert, California Newspaper Publishers Association, FoI Award

2009 (presented April 2010)

Denise Nix, Daily Breeze
Dave Lopez, CBS2/KCAL
Claudia Peschiutta, KNX 1070
Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times
Celeste Fremon, WitnessLA.com (Distinguished Work in New Media)