Complaint
Resolved With Puget Sound Business Journal
The WNC in August 2004
dismissed a complaint filed by Joseph de Beauchamp of the World
Financial News Network against the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Subsequently, De Beauchamp and the PSBJ reached a private
resolution of their differences. The Washington News Council
congratulates the parties on their accomplishment.
WNC "toasts" Locke and Dunn at 2004 Gridiron West Dinner
The Washington News Council "toasted" Governor Gary Locke,
Democrat, and U.S. Representative
Jennifer Dunn, Republican, on Friday, Nov. 5, 2004, at our 6th
annual Gridiron West Dinner, at the Washington
State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle.
This gala bipartisan event came just three days after Election
Day. Nearly 550 people attended, from politics, government, media,
business, academia, law, and other sectors. They were treated to a
fun-filled evening of comedy, song, video tributes and
affectionate ìtoastsî of our honorees.
To read
comments on the event, please click
HERE.
Both Locke and Dunn had family tables with their spouses,
children and other relatives and close friends.
(NEWS FLASH: Just a few hours after the dinner ended, Mona Lee
Locke gave birth to their new baby daughter at Swedish Medical
Center. Some speculated that the evening's laughter might have
induced labor.)
Both Locke and Dunn had announced that they would not seek
reelection this year and will be retiring from office in January
2005. The Gridiron West Dinner is modeled after the Gridiron Club
Dinner in Washington, D.C., where political and media leaders poke
fun at each other in good-natured comedy, skits and songs.
Highlights of this year's Gridiron West Dinner included: Emcee
Mike Egan's photographic history of Gary and Jennifer's changing
hairstyles over the past 40-plus years; Pulitzer Prize-winning
cartoonist David Horsey's retrospective of his best cartoons of
Gary and Jennifer over the past 20 years; and a video tribute to
Gary and Jennifer produced by Larry Cali and Ken Jones of KING-TV.
"Toasters," who took the stage in pairs, included Martha Choe &
Slade Gorton; John Carlson & Mary Charles; and Dick Thompson & Patti Payne. Payne did a musical tribute, accompanied on the piano
by John Ellis and joined onstage by Jennifer Dunn's husband, Keith
Thompson, and her two sons, Reagan and Bryant.
After the toasts, Gary and Jennifer each took the stage to
respond to their toasters, and gave as good as they
got.
The audience was entertained by song parodies sung by "The
Beetles" of Cabaret Productions. Another highlight was the entire
Washington News Council singing a song to the tune of "Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" ("Washington News Council's
Watch Dog Board").
To read parody
lyrics, click
HERE.
Past Gridiron West Dinners have "toasted" Jim Ellis and John Ellis
(2003); the five living former Governors of Washington (2002);
television anchors Jean Enersen, Kathi Goertzen and Susan
Hutchison (2001); former Seattle P-I columnist Emmett Watson
(2000); and former political reporters Adele Ferguson, Dick
Larsen,
Mike Layton and Shelby Scates (1999).
Nearly 50 tables of 10 were sponsored by corporations,
foundations, or individuals. "Baby Kissers" ($5,000) table
sponsors included Boeing, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Kemper
Development Company, King County Journal, Microsoft, Pemco
Financial Services, and Starbucks. "Back Slappers" ($2,500) table
sponsors were The Gallatin Group, Premera Blue Cross, Puget Sound
Energy, Safeco, Sandy Schoolfield & Jon Kechejian, and
Weyerhaeuser. "Glad Handers" ($1,000) table sponsors included Apex
Foundation, The Benaroya Company, Evans School of Public Affairs,
Gorton Legacy Group, Merriman Capital Management, Port of Seattle,
Regal Financial Bank, Rockey Hill & Knowlton, Seattle Post
Intelligencer, Wes Uhlman & Associates, Washington Dairy Products
Commission, Weyerhaeuser, and the Wingood Foundation. Many
individuals also sponsored tables, including WNC members Richard
Baxter, Suzie Burke, Carolyn Duncan, Cyrus Krohn, Barry Mitzman,
Chuck Nordhoff, Stephen Silha, and Robert Utter.
The event was filmed by TVW and broadcast statewide. It will be
repeated (see
www.tvw.org for
schedule.)
Videotapes and/or DVDs of the event are available. Please
call 206-262-9793 to order a copy (cost: $20).
WNC Awards Dick Larsen and Herb Robinson Scholarships
The Washington News Council awarded its Dick Larsen and Herb
Robinson Scholarships for 2004 at a reception at the WNC office on
July 9, 2004. This year's winners of the $1,000 scholarships:
Sarah McGuire,
19, a junior at Washington State University in Pullman, won the
WNC's Dick Larsen Scholarship.
Sarah, who is from Spanaway, is a staff writer for the
Daily Evergreen
campus newspaper. She is serving as Leisure editor this summer and
will be Life (Arts and Entertainment) editor in the fall. Her goal
is to become Editor-in-Chief. She was named the newspaper's
"Outstanding Underclassman" as a sophomore. She has a 3.8 GPA and
also plays intramural tennis, softball and volleyball.
In her application essay, Sarah wrote: "I know I have much to
offer the profession of journalism. I cannot even express in words
how determined I am to make this dream of being a world-class
journalist come true. Like Peter Jennings said when he came to
WSU, journalism is meant to be a public service. It is a weapon
meant for battling ignorance, intolerance, and indifference, and I
plan to use my skills in fighting instead of letting my talent go
to waste."
Michelle de Beauchamp,
18, who will be a freshman at Pacific Lutheran University in
Tacoma, won the WNC's Herb
Robinson Scholarship. A 2004 graduate of Bainbridge
High School, Michelle was Editor-in-Chief of
Campus Voice, the
school newspaper. She formerly served as News Section Editor. She
was active in Future Leaders Exchange, vice president of Model
United Nations, president of the Opera Club, and a member of the
Concert Band and Marching Band. She maintained a 3.8 GPA.
In her application essay, Michelle wrote: "From working on the
newspaper for the past two years, I have found my calling, which
is to educate the public on issues. The media has so much power on
the public's view on things, and can cause things to happen, be it
swinging an election or just telling what happened around the
world today. I want to be a part of this great thing that can
change the world, but keep my opinion out of my reports on the
events, because the news media's job is to educate not persuade."
The Dick Larsen Scholarship was established by the WNC in 1999 to
honor the former Seattle Times
political reporter and editor. The Herb Robinson
Scholarship was established by the WNC in 2003 to honor the late
Seattle Times
editorial-page editor. The Larsen and Robinson families help
select the scholarship winners.
Reception Held for Prof. John Irby's New Book, Kill the Editor
WNC Media Member John Irby, associate professor of journalism at
Washington State University, has published a new book,
Kill The Editor -- The Often
Bizarre Relationship With Readers, which reflects on
the often-tumultuous world of a newspaper editor.
At a WNC reception on July 9,
Irby read excerpts from the book and answered
questions. Copies of the book are available for sale by the
author. For more details, visit
http://www.wsu.edu/~jirby/.
In the foreword to Irby's book, Peter Bhatia, executive editor of
The Oregonian and
2003-04 president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
wrote: "Newspaper journalism is a wild, often wonderful, often
frustrating, often amazing career. Newspaper journalism also
brings you into contact with society in all its good and bad, from
the stunningly reasonable to the sadly insane.
Kill the Editor is a
reflection of that. Some of what you read will amuse you, some
will depress you. But it accurately represents a big part of the
wild, wonderful world of editing a newspaper."
WNC Executive Director Speaks at Rotary Clubs, TDA
John Hamer, WNC Executive Director, has been invited to speak to
several groups:
July 22, 2004 - Magnolia Rotary, Palisade Restaurant
Aug. 26 - Redmond Rotary, Marriott Town Center
Sept. 9, 2004 - Spokane Rotary, Ridpath Hotel
Sept. 29, 2004 - Redmond Rousers Rotary, Emerald Heights
Oct. 1, 2004 - Trade Development Alliance, Rainier Tower (group of
visiting Asian journalists)
Oct. 7, 2004 - Burien/White Center Rotary, Angelo's Restaurant, 12
noon
If your organization would like to learn more about the Washington
News Council from John Hamer and/or News Council members, please
call our office at 206-262-9793.
WNC Meets with Public, Students in Eastern Washington
Washington News Council Executive Director John Hamer and Media
Member Chuck
Rehberg spent three days in Spokane and Pullman in April to help
raise the
profile of the WNC. They spoke to Valley Rotary in Spokane Valley,
then
conducted a student mock news council hearing at Eastern
Washington
University's Spokane campus. They also attended the Edward R.
Murrow Symposium at Washington State University in Pullman, where Hamer
was on a
media-ethics panel with Kit Seelye, a political reporter for The
New York
Times, and Beth Hindman, a journalism professor at WSU. John Irby,
a Media
Member of the WNC who also teaches journalism at WSU, conducted a
student
mock news council hearing on campus. Hamer, Irby and Rehberg also
attended a
banquet and speech by Peter Jennings of ABC News, who received the
prestigious Murrow Award.
The next day, Hamer and Rehberg attended
the
Murrow School Advisory Board meeting, and that evening held
another mock
student news council hearing at Gonzaga University in Spokane.
At
all three
of the mock hearings, which used the complaint against KIRO-TV by
the
Washington
Beef and Dairy Products Commissions, the students voted
almost
exactly the same way as did
the actual News Council at its hearing
in June
2003.
WNC
co-presented "Breaking News: The State of Today's Information
Media"
The Washington News Council co-presented a highly successful
six-week long
public forum series titled "Breaking News: The State of Today's
Information
Media" in February, March and April. Lead sponsor of the series
was the
Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council (BIAHC), which asked
the News
Council to help select topics, moderate panels and invite
panelists. Several
hundred people attended the series.
The forum began on Feb. 27, with a keynote speech by James
Fallows, national
correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. Fallows strongly endorsed
the work
of the Washington News Council in his speech, while addressing how
changes
in ownership and structure of news media are changing their role
in public
life.
On March 1, in a panel on "The Media and the Law," Bruce Johnson,
media
attorney with Davis Wright Tremaine, and John Merton Marrs,
journalism
instructor at Everett Community College, gave a fascinating
history of the
First Amendment, libel laws and how the internet is affecting mass
communication.
"The Impact of New Technology on the News Media" - WNC Vice
President Steve
Silha moderated a March 8 panel that included WNC President Cyrus
Krohn,
publisher of Slate.com; Alex Dunne, managing editor of Blue Ear
Daily; Doug
Schuler, Seattle Community Network Association; and Stanley
Farrar, website
editor for The Seattle Times.
"The History of Political Cartoons" - David Horsey, the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer's two-time
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, did a
multimedia presentation of his work on March 15 to a crowd of
about 200
people at Bainbridge High School.
"Television News: If It Bleeds, It Leads?" - John Arthur Wilson of
The
Gallatin Group moderated a March 22 panel that included Enrique
Cerna,
executive producer for KCTS Television; Melanie McFarland,
television critic
for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; and Peter O'Connell, assistant
news
director for KING-TV.
Mock Student News Council Hearing - The WNC sponsored a mock
hearing at
Bainbridge High School on March 26, with students playing the role
of the
News Council to consider an actual case: "Washington Beef
Commission and
Washington Dairy Products Commission vs. KIRO-TV." The students
voted almost
exactly the same way as did the actual News Council, upholding the
complaint
on nearly every count.
"Journalistic Ethics, Objectivity, Accuracy and Fairness" - March
29 panel
moderated by WNC Executive Director John Hamer included Brad
Knickerbocker,
Christian Science Monitor reporter; Larry Johnson, Seattle
Post-Intelligencer foreign desk editor; Rick Jackson, journalism
instructor
at Seattle Pacific University; and Philip Dawdy, media writer for
Seattle
Weekly.
"The News Media and Society" - Final panel on April 2 moderated by
Ross
Reynolds, KUOW radio host, included Margo Gordon, WNC Public
Member and
University of Washington professor of public affairs; Steve Silha,
WNC Vice
President and communications consultant; and Mark Trahant, Seattle
P-I
editorial-page editor.
The forum also featured three other
events:
March 13 - "Dear Editor: A Playreading of Letters to The
Bainbridge Review."
March 20 - "Media Matters: A Conversation with Youth and Adults
about Living
in a Media World." An Open Space forum sponsored by Imagine
Bainbridge.
April 5-8 - "Breaking News Film Festival," Four-evening film
festival of
movies about journalism and the media business, including All the
President's Men; Broadcast News; The China Syndrome; His Girl
Friday/The
Front Page; The Insider; Medium Cool; and Network.
"We were very pleased to co-present this forum with the BIAHC,"
said WNC
Executive Director John Hamer. "This was one of the most
thoughtful and
comprehensive series of panels on the news media that has every
been done
anywhere. And the turnout proved how concerned many citizens are
about the
media."
WNC elects new 2004
officers, adds new public member
The Washington News Council elected new officers for 2004 at its
annual
meeting on Jan. 31. They are:
President - Cyrus Krohn, publisher of Slate magazine
(www.slate.com)
Vice President - Steve Silha, writer and communications
consultant
Treasurer - Carver Gayton, University of Washington lecturer and
consultant
Secretary - Sue Frause, freelance writer
Krohn, who had been acting president of the WNC, said he agreed to
become
president because he strongly supports the mission of the News
Council. "There is more need for news councils today than ever before,"
Krohn said.
"There should be a news council in every state."
The Council also approved Sandy Schoolfield as a new public
member,
replacing John Dimitriou, who stepped down. Schoolfield had
been
special
projects director for the WNC, an unpaid position.
For biographies and a list of all Council members, please
click here.
