Society of the Silurians EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM AWARDS BANQUET The Players Club 16 Gramercy Park South Tuesday, May 19, 2015 Drinks: 6 p.m. Dinner: 7:15 p.m. Meet Old Friends and Award Winners Published by The Society of The Silurians, Inc., an organization (212) 532-0887 of veteran New York City journalists founded in 1924 Members and One Guest $100 each Non-Members $120 MAY 2015 Silurians Honor the Best Journalism of 2014 wo dozen news organizations won Excellence in Journalism Awards Tfor 2014 in the most competitive Silurians contest in recent years. No single subject dominated the winning en- tries, although two breaking news stories – the shooting of two police officers in Brooklyn and a fatal building blast in East Harlem – attracted a lot of coverage. Cor- porate approaches to pursuing profits in health care and the imperious behavior of the governors of New York and New Jer- sey also received well-merited scrutiny. At the awards dinner on Tuesday, May 19, at The Players, Silurians Medallions and Merit Awards will be given to report- ers, editors, producers, columnists, edito- rial writers, photographers and bloggers from the tri-state area in 26 categories. The contest, the first conducted by the Silurians totally online, was overseen by Awards Chair Carol Lawson. The judges devoted hours to reading, listening to and viewing the entries before convening at the CUNY Graduate School of Journal- ism to make the final decisions. Veteran newsman David Gonzalez of The New York Times received the Peter Kihss Award, given annually to the re- CLOSE UP AND PERSONAL Stephanie Keith of The Daily News snapped this picture at a protest rally at Barclays Center following the death of Eric Garner. It was awarded the top prize in the Feature Photography category. porter whose work best reflects the in- tegrity and meticulousness of the late Mr. The winners are: Kim Barker, Ashley Southall, Jeffrey E. Despite minimal metro staffing and the Kihss, in addition to emulating his quali- Singer, Nina Bernstein, Alan Blinder, Ri- looming early Sunday deadline, the Times ties as a mentor to younger colleagues. PRINT JOURNALISM chard Fausset, Sandra E. Garcia, Edna reporters scrambled to reconstruct the The Dennis Duggan Memorial Schol- Breaking News Ishayik, Thomas Kaplan, Sarah Maslin cold-blooded executions of police offic- arship Award, awarded annually to a Medallion Winner The New York Nir, William K. Rashbaum, Kenneth ers Wenjin Liu and Rafael Ramos in their promising student at the CUNY Gradu- Times, for ”Two Officers Ambushed.” Rosen, Marc Santora, Nate Schweber, patrol car in Brooklyn. The Times team ate School of Journalism, was won by Cole The Times team: Ben Mueller, Al Baker, Mosi Secret, Melody Simmons, Vivian also compiled a comprehensive portrait Rosengren of the Class of 2015. J. David Goodman, Matt Flegenheimer, Yee, Jack Begg Continued on Page 2 Kihss and Gonzalez: On the Same Page BY RALPH BLUMENTHAL porter renowned for digging up facts, poring over the t was the 40th anniversary of the 1962 Cuban mis- fine print in city reports and mentoring his juniors, and sile crisis that very nearly plunged the world into the award is given in that spirit. IMutual Assured Destruction, and David Gonzalez, Actually early in Gonzalez’s career, the two crossed Caribbean correspondent of The New York Times, was paths, although Gonzalez didn’t realize it at the time. in Havana as veterans of Camelot huddled with Fidel Fresh out of Yale, where he had disappointed his fa- Castro and other Cuban and Soviet adversaries of the ther by abandoning a pre-med track for psychology, cold war, sharing chilling lessons. he was working at the National Puerto Rican Forum Gonzalez was quizzing Robert S. McNamara in a as the No. 2 publicist (in a two-man office) when hotel room when the former defense secretary rose to Kihss dropped by to pick up a report on the status of leave, ostensibly to consult with JFK adviser Ted Puerto Ricans nationwide. Gonzalez’s boss was in- Sorenson. Gonzalez turned to his buddy, photographer credulous. “He came here, himself? Peter Kihss?” Angel Franco, and whispered in mock panic: “Do you Gonzalez didn’t make as much of it and by the time think he found out that two Puerto Ricans from the Gonzalez reached 43d Street in 1990, Kihss was long South Bronx are doing the interview?” gone. But he relishes the connection. And like Kihss, Leave it to Gonzalez to flaunt his Nuyorican roots Gonzalez would find a way to nurture journalistic pos- every chance he gets (although he’s looking more and terity. more these days like a sleeker Al Pacino). It’s no sur- “I grew up in the Rodney Dangerfield of boroughs,” prise, too, that his down-to-earth street reporting, at- Gonzalez likes to say – specifically Beck Street be- mospheric photographs and journalistic generosity have tween Longwood and Intervale in the South Bronx, won Gonzalez, 57, and currently co-editor of The the third and last child of Pedro and Lillian Gonzalez, Times’s Lens Blog, this year’s Peter Kihss Award from teenage arrivals from Puerto Rico who met at a church the Society of the Silurians. dance in East Harlem. When he was 7 the family Kihss, who died in 1984 at 72 after nearly half a moved to a better neighborhood, 181st Street and century of pounding a typewriter at The AP, The Wash- Mapes Avenue, near the Bronx Zoo. Ralph Blumenthal ington Post, The New York World-Telegram, The New “I grew up playing in the street,” he said. “When David Gonzalez of The New York Times, this year’s York Herald Tribune and The Times, was the quintes- the Bronx started burning, there were basements we Peter Kihss Award winner, with a photo of Kihss. sential master craftsman of the trade, a reporter’s re- Continued on Page 6 PAGE 2 SILURIAN NEWS MAY 2015 President’s Report Silurians Honor the Best Journalism of 2014 BY ALLAN DODDS FRANK s I enter the bell lap of my presi dency, I am thrilled to report that Amy terrific successor and old friend Betsy Ashton will take over the Silurians in June in even better shape than when I was handed the conch two years ago. Thanks to indefatigable former presi- dents Myron Kandel and Mort Sheinman, and many other dedicated Silurians, we now have nearly 310 mem- bers. Sadly, some members have passed away, but in case you have not noticed, we now commemorate each one with a posting on The New York Times obitu- ary page. Our Treasurer, Karen Bedrosian Richardson, has managed our finances expertly and our treasury happily has grown, thanks to the generosity of our members who have donated more than $3,000 in addition to our dues. As many of you now appreciate, Betsy and Karen also have done a fabulous job with han- dling the inflow at our lunches, and making it possible for attendees to pay by credit card, get electronic receipts and even reusable name tags. Secretary Linda Amster has kept marvelous track of the goings on at the lively board meet- ings that precede each lunch. Former Tariq Zehawi of The Record won top prize in the Breaking News, Photography, category with this photo that president Linda Goetz Holmes has pro- shows a SWAT team subduing a mother who had been threatening her children while other officers are whisking vided expert pinch-hitting assistance away the youngsters. with the minutes. Our lunches, which have most re- Continued from Page 1 the firehouse. Moreland Commission and Gov. Andrew cently featured WNET CEO & Presi- of the killer and illuminated the complex Merit The New York Times, “Palm Cuomo’s promise to clean up corruption dent Neal Shapiro, the great gossip Liz tensions of an NYPD then at war with Sunday” by Joe Goldstein in Albany revealed that the governor is a Smith and New York Times Public Edi- the Mayor. tor Margaret Sullivan, have averaged Thirty years after 10 people, including master of the back room whose orders nearly 90 people each month. And, if Merit Award Newsday for “Deadly eight children, were massacred on Palm mandating government transparency you missed them, thanks to Dennis Cieri Blast” Sunday in a Brooklyn railroad flat, might as well have been written in invis- and his company, Cieri Media, we now When an East Harlem gas explosion Goldstein revisited the sole survivor, now ible ink. have a video archive so you can see flattened two buildings, killed four people a 31-year-old woman, and the police- them on a YouTube Channel: https:// and injured dozens more, Newsday’s woman who rescued her and later Sports Reporting www.youtube.com/ team of 10 reporters produced a com- adopted her. Medallion The Daily News for playlist?list=PLnKCsfMNf4CNv6- prehensive look at the tragedy and its “Cooking The Books” by Teri Thomp- 5ur1QFOU3bf1KP3TTQ causes. Investigative Reporting son, Mary Papenfuss, Christian Red, You can also click through to the vid- Medallion The Associated Press, Nathaniel Vinton eos by accessing our website Feature News “Death on Rikers Island” by Jake A classically investigated and reported www.Silurians.org, which Fred Herzog Medallion The New York Times, Pearson look at corruption inside the secret, lu- most graciously administers. “Baptism By Fire” by N.R. (Sonny) In a devastating and chilling 10-part crative world of international soccer at Board members Bill Diehl and Bar- Kleinfield exposé that ran from March to Decem- the highest levels and how a group of te- bara Lovenheim, with the help of Ted Kleinfield crafts the story of a proba- ber, backed up with exhaustive documen- nacious insiders made millions—often by David, also have launched a new tionary fireman’s first fire and his res- tation from internal reports, The Associ- illegal means.