October 2006 Spot News

8/6/2019 October 2006 Spot News

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Ed Hooper, presidentJean Ash, vice president for Front Page Follies,communications coordinator

Mia Rhodarmer, vice president for Golden PressCard awards (co-chair)

Ann Lloyd, secretaryDan Foley, treasurerDorothy Bowles, immediate past president, Spot

News editor, Golden Press Card awards co-chairElenora Edwards, program chairJohn Huotari, membership chair

Christine JesselAdina ChumleyLisa Hood SkinnerRandy TedfordGeorgiana VinesLetters to the Editor Policy: The board encourageletters to the editor of Spot News. Like letters policiat most newspapers, we ask that letters be limited t200 words or less. Letters will be subject to editing space and content. Send e-mail [email protected]

ETSPJ Officers and Board of Directors

National Convention 2006

Its called theBrehon Pub now,but 25 years ago itwas the MirageTavern, scene of a

journalistic sting operation that almost won a Pulitzer Prize until jurors questioned the ethics of journalists working undercover.

Reporters for the Chicago Sun-Times, the Better GovernmentAssociation and CBS 60 Minutes leased a Chicago bar and wait-ed for crooked city inspectors to come in with their hands out, look-ing for bribes to overlook code violations. Did they ever! Leaky pipes,unclean floors nothing stopped the Mirage Tavern from getting theinspectors OK as long as the bribes kept flowing. Was it entrap-ment? Did it go too far? Twenty-five years after the Mirage, the ques-tions are still debated. All the originals were on-hand to discuss theirwork in the very building where the shady deals went down.(Photoby Jean Ash)

Excerpts from The Working Press, the convention

newspaper produced by student SPJ members

Brewer bounds into SPJ presidencySPJs new president-elect, Clint Brewer, said after his election

Saturday that he plans to use the office to help make the organiza-

tion a better advocate and resource for the average journalist.

We need to explain the relevancy of our organization to their

working lives, said Brewer, who edged out Bruce Cadwallader 74-

60 Saturday in the first contested race for president-elect in recent

memory.

Brewer, the executive editor of The City Paper in Nashville,

Tenn., and a member of SPJ for 15 years, said he hopes to focus

more attention on issues of concern to local chapters, improve online

services, and strengthen communication between members and their

national representatives on the board. (By Drew University of Iowa)

After 40 years in the business, theresslowing down keynote speaker Bill Kur

A deadly tornado in Topeka, Kan., and a si

warning for Gods sake,

cover propelled Bill Kurtis in

career in journalism. The Wash

University School of Law grad studying to pass the bar when a fr

asked Kurtis to fill in at a local

station that day. After staying on

for 24 hours, Kurtis knew it w

defining moment in his life.

career since, is history, the 65-y

old said. (By Michael Malik, Indiana University)

From Kurtis speech: We have lots of info

mation presented by highly talented reporter

producers, and editors. But when we examinenewscast it often looks like our over-processe

food supply. Sugars are celebrity gossip storie

Salts are crime stories producing a lot of hea

The fats are tabloidesque stories, packaged ver

attractively mindless and easy to consume.

Board approves $30,000 grant

Continuing its tradition of support for

Amendment rights, SPJ on Wednesday awarde

jailed independent journalist a $30,000 grant

largest ever given by SPJ.

Freelancer Joshua Wolf was sent to a California

eral prison Aug. 1 after refusing to turn over to gov

ment officials his unpublished footage of a vio

protest. The SPJ grant, approved by the Nati

Board, will help pay Wolfs legal expenses, which

lawyers have agreed to cap at $60,000. (By K

Longley, Michigan State University)

Bill Kurtis


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SPOT NEWS -- 3

By Jean Ash

The vote was close: 70-65, and judg-ng from comments made from the

microphone during the discussion peri-d, most delegates were undecidedefore casting a majority of votesgainst the proposed bylaws change that

would have altered the way SPJ mem-ership elects its top officers in Chicagoast month.

The proposal, sponsored and heavilyromoted by outgoing SPJ President

Dave Carlson, would have allowed eachmember to cast his or her own ballot viahe Internet or phone from home in the

ame 24-hour period during the annualonvention. Candidates presentationst the convention would be web cast livend they could set up interactive chatooms, etc., to allow members to askuestions and get to know them.

Currently, the president, president-lect, VP for campus chapter affairs andecretary-treasurer are selected by aote of chapter delegates who are phys-cally at the conventionand physicallyt the business session. Chapters have

otes based on number of official mem-ers in blocks of one vote per 50 mem-ers or fraction thereof. (The Eastennessee Chapter had one vote for our

membership of about 45 at the deadline.We have gained a few new members

nce then and may be over 50 now.)

Those in favor of the measure saidPJ should be the bastion of free expres-on by allowing each member to have a

say in the election process. A particular-ly moving comment was made by ayoung woman originally from HongKong but now a member of an Iowa

chapter.

She asked the delegates to considerhow Hong Kong is now governed in thewake of its handover to China in 1997:the representatives who make lawsthere are mostly hand-picked by thecommunist government in Beijing anddo not really have any responsibility tothe people they govern.

Someone compared the current pro-cedure to the Electoral College. Another

argument was that not all members areaffiliated with a chapter and thus aredisenfranchised as things stand now.

Opponents noted that theres neverbeen an outpouring of dissatisfactionwith the way the voting is done now andthat most members who dont attend theconvention have little interest in theleadership. Some said National shouldmake sure all members are affiliatedwith the nearest chapter in their statewhich would solve the disenfranchise-

ment objection.

Others were concerned with the pro-posed process of web casting and usingInternet setups that could easily fail andleave non-attendees out of the loop afterall.

Going into the convention, I wasleaning toward voting for the bylawschange but at our Board Retreat in July,

two board members expressed doubtabout it. One was concerned that chap-ters with hundreds of members might beable to force a candidate to victory with

little opposition.

Another continued that line of think-ing saying it might be harder for candi-dates from small chapters like ours tohave a chance at election to nationaloffice. Nobody at that meeting of theETSPJ board spoke strongly in favor ofthe measure but empowered me to voteaccording to the discussion.

For me, as your delegate with a sin-gle vote, it came down to direct democ-

racy vs. representative democracy.Many governing bodies, like city coun-cils and state legislatures, are examplesof the latter

I voted to leave the system alone fornow even though all the reasons forchanging it have merit. I agree thatthere should be some organizationalchanges like those proposed to makesure all members are associated with achapter and another that would raise thetotal number of votes, say, threefold, so

that small chapters like ours could splitthree votes according to the member-ships wishes instead of having to voteeither A or B.

I also feel that the issue had a thor-ough airing and hope that chapter mem-bers everywhere will make it known totheir boards how they want leadershipselected. I look forward to the issuecoming up again.

One-member one-vote measure fails, but may come up again

Ashley Yeager, UT studentchapter president and con-vention delegate, and JeanAsh, ETSPJ delegate, poseoutside the Chicago TribuneBuilding. The quotation fromJohn Milton emblazoned onthe building facade readsGive me Liberty to know, toutter and to argue freelyaccording to my conscience,above all other liberties.(photo by Bonnie Hufford)


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1802 Pinoak CourtKnoxville, Tennessee 37923

4 -- SPOT NEWS

Elenora Easterly Edwards grew upin a newspaper family, as her par-ents owned The LaFollette Press and theJellico Advance-Sentinel. She saysshe worked on thepapers all my life

until we sold themAfter graduatingwith degree inEnglish fromMaryville College,she studied sixsemesters at theUniversity of Missouri School ofJournalism, Columbia, and thereworked for Missouri Press Associationand the Freedom of Information Center.

From there she worked for 24 years atthe Clinton Courier-News as a reporter,then news editor, then worked as substi-tute for other staffers and the publisherand on special projects.

She has been managing editor of TheTennessee Press for the past 15 years.She and her son live near Clinton.Elenora has been a member of SPJ most

of the time since 1971.

John Huotari is the city hall reporterfor The Oak Ridger. John, who livesin Oak Ridge, has been at the paper full-time since Oct. 2005. Prior to that, hehad completed two internships at theNews Sentinel in Knoxville and had

worked for The Oak Ridger as a RoaneCounty correspondent.

John is completing a bachelors degreein music at the University of Tennesseein Knoxville, where he took several journalism courses and worked for thestudent newspaper, The Daily Beacon.

Besides East Tennessee, he has lived inDenver, Seattle, and Minneapolis.

A

nn Lloyd is the local host of NPRsAll Things Considered on WUOT.

Shes been with the station for three anda half years. Since joining WUOT, sheswon a number of awards for featurereports from SPJ and AP. She can occa-sionally be heard on NPR covering anEast Tennessee story. Just recently, Annhad the pleasure of fulfilling a profes-sional dream: producing a feature

for Voice of America.

Anns broadcast background stretback to 1970 when she started outrock and roll DJ. After a few yearabusing her hearing, she madeswitch to news. Shes worked at a ety of stations in Michigan, Las Ve

Kansas and Tennessee.

Three area members elected to 2006-07 Board of Directors

Elenora Edwards

Please help by volunteering to chair theAuction Committee for the FronPage Follies. Michael Holtz,communications director of locaAmerican Cancer Society, andother members will help, but weneed a co-ordinator. by nominating the person youwould like to honor at Follies.

The board will make a decisionat the October meeting, so actnow.

Mark your calendar Sunday, Oct. 8, 5:30 boardmeets at Mandarin House West. Wednesday, Dec. 7, 6 p.m. ten-tative date for Christmas Party aMaplehurst Inn.

Documents

October 2006 Spot News