May 2017 Issue
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Society of the Silurians ANNUAL JOURNALISM AWARDS DINNER The National Arts Club 15 Gramercy Park South Wednesday, May 17, 2017 Published by The Society of The Silurians, Inc., an organization Drinks: 6 P.M. • Dinner: 7:15 P.M. Meet old friends and award winners of veteran New York City journalists founded in 1924 [email protected] MAY 2017 Silurians Celebrate The Best BY MICHAEL SERRILL relationship. The Record wins three Medal- t’s hardly surprising that Donald lions and three Merit certificates. Trump finds his way into some The paper provided its readers with Icompelling winners of the Soci- exemplary coverage of the Sept. 29 ety of Silurians Excellence in Journal- Hoboken Terminal train crash, of ism awards. But more stunning is the patient abuses at the Bergen County broad sweep of vivid, moving stories Medical Center, and of issues sur- and photography that illuminates rounding transgender youth. coverage of a Hoboken train crash Other big winners include Vanity and Chelsea bombing, the harrow- Fair, which wins in three of the mag- ing years in a Riker’s solitary cell azine categories, and The New York for a mentally challenged girl, the Daily News and Associated Press, worlds of transgender youths, and which each take home two Medal- how the children of 9/11 cope with lions, with the News also winning their losses. two Merit awards and the AP one. Long Island’s Newsday and The But the biggest winner of all—in Record of northern New Jersey dom- terms of his impact on journalism—is inated the contest for news coverage Anthony Mancini, honored this year in 2016. Medallions and Merit Cer- with the Peter Kihss Award for his tificates will be awarded in 21 print, career mentoring younger journal- broadcast and online categories at the ists, first as a reporter for the old New Silurians’ annual awards dinner May York Post, and for many years now as 17 at the National Arts Club. a professor in the Brooklyn College The Silurians are not novices at journalism program. this awards business. The first honors This year’s Dennis Duggan Me- were handed out in 1945, 72 years morial Scholarship Award, given ago. The club was founded in 1924. Ryan McGowan, the child of a 9/11 victim, wants no one to forget. annually to a student at the CUNY At the dinner, Newsday will take Graduate School of Journalism for away five Medallions and 2 Merit outstanding coverage of New York, certificates. Two Medallions are for The Children of 9/11, Now Adults goes to Will Mathis, whose journal- its coverage of the Tardif twins— BY JENNIFER PELTZ for them. ism career started in Paraguay, and one for Feature Photography, the ASSOCIATED PRESS More than 3,000 children and young who in addition to writing stellar other for Multimedia Presentation. September 8, 2016 adults lost a parent in the deadliest terror pieces for his school, strings for the Each tells the story in uniquely attack on American soil, instantly becom- Associated Press. different fashions of two brothers, EW YORK (AP) — They were ing known as the children of 9/11. The award winners, citations and one a star athlete, the other afflicted kids, or not even born yet, As the 15th anniversary of the attacks some samples of their work begin with cerebral palsy, and their special Nwhen America’s heart broke Continued on Page 2 on Page 4. Dennis Duggan Award: Peter Kihss Award: Will Mathis—Winner Winner — Tony Mancini BY DEBORAH STEAD BY CLYDE HABERMAN ill Mathis is the recipient of n his two decades as a reporter this year’s Dennis Duggan at The New York Post, there was Wprize, awarded annually to Ilittle of the human comedy that a student at the CUNY Graduate School eluded Anthony Mancini. He covered of Journalism who excels at covering the United Nations and presidential ordinary New Yorkers. campaigns, Off-Broadway plays and the The 28-year-old Mathis – who is a circus, Senate hearings and national po- stringer for AP – drew a Bronx beat litical conventions. Sports was the only during his first semester at the J-School. department at The Post not graced with He wrote about borough residents like his talents. And naturally, working for a Leonardo Barrera, a recent immigrant tabloid, he wrote about crime and grime from the Dominican Republic who was and courts, which meant he chronicled taking his first bus ride (on the BX12) almost every nook and cranny of the to his first job in the United States. On city, including a few crooks and nannies. Election Day, he reported from a polling In time, Tony’s interests turned else- site in Parkchester, where voters waited where, including fiction writing. He has in long lines to cast their ballots. City written seven novels and two historical Limits published both pieces. Photo by Marco Poggio novels. He came to that craft well-pre- ANTHONY MANCINI His stories for AP included a January WILL MATHIS pared. “I never could have written any 2017 article filed from JFK airport, he was the most active student volun- fiction,” he said, “without having had works, which you learn as a reporter.” where he interviewed the families of teer for the Hate Index, the project at the experience of general assignment re- Tony is this year’s recipient of the Si- people detained after arriving from the J-School’s NYCity News Service porter. That really gave me the empirical lurians’ Peter Kihss Award, named for a nations targeted by President Donald that tracks post-election incidents of underpinnings for writing verisimilitude titan of New York journalism. From one Trump’s travel ban. The story was picked intolerance. and setting scenes – all the ins and outs angle, he is an unusual winner, having up all over the world. At the same time, Continued on Page 2 of how things work, how the world Continued on Page 2 PAGE 2 SILURIAN NEWS MAY 2017 Peter Kihss Award: Winner — Tony Mancini President’s Report Continued from Page 1 renewal every semester,” he said. “I Guignol stories, the stories that have been away from daily newspapering for have another crop of souls to corrupt.” sex and blood and gore. There’s nothing BY BERNARD KIRSCH nearly four full decades. But in more im- The basics of journalism do not wrong with that as long as you don’t portant respects, he is an ideal selection. change, even as it is jolted by fast-paced mess with the facts.” And, he said, “we his has been a stellar year Winners of the Kihss award are honored technology, he said. “You still have to did stick with the facts.” for our Silurians organi- in good measure for nurturing young make sure you get the story right, and Life at The Post wore thin for him zation. All seven of our talent. Few can claim to have done that get it quickly. That kind of thing never after Rupert Murdoch took over at the T longer, and with more lasting results, goes away. In fact, it gets more and more start of 1977. He and others from the luncheons, along with our lifetime achievement award dinner, filled than Tony, who is director of Brooklyn important as the technology forces peo- old regime found their copy being rou- the room at the National Arts Club, College’s journalism program and has ple into making rash decisions.” There tinely spiked by the new arrivals from taught there since 1980. is, however, one notable shift from his Australia and Britain. “It wasn’t the which next season will again be Take it from former students. early years at Brooklyn: “When I started Fleet Street style they wanted,” Tony our home. And now we have our “Without Tony I wouldn’t be in the teaching, my class was three-fourths said. He hung on for about a year and very special event, our Society of business—it’s just that simple,” said male and one-fourth female. Now it’s finally asked for a buyout, as others in Silurians Excellence in Journalism Glenn Thrush, who covers the Trump flipped.” the newsroom would soon rush to do as awards. And next, our final lun- White House for The New York Times. Bronx-born, Tony graduated in 1961 well. The money was enough for a down cheon of the season, on June 21. Among the many lessons he learned from Fordham University, where he payment on an apartment in Tribeca, What made this such a special from Professor Mancini was that “ev- majored in communications arts – “a where he lives with his wife, the actress year for me was the quality of our erything you write, even a 300-word smorgasbord of playwriting, journal- Maria Cellario. They have a daughter, cop brief, should be accurate, acute and ism, news writing and radio reporting.” Romy, and a son, Nicholas. speakers—all delighted to be our alive.” Jennifer Steinhauer, who covers Even before graduation, he had begun By the time he left The Post, Tony guest. As our April speaker, Errol Congress for The Times, took Tony’s working at The Post as a copy boy on had begun writing novels, starting with Louis of NY1, wrote when i got in class when he worked for awhile at the the 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. lobster shift. He mysteries centered on a housewife in touch with him: “I’d be honored to School of Visual Arts. “He taught the shared the job with his identical twin, Little Italy named Minnie Santangelo, join you, of course.