— 14TH ANNUAL — First Amendment Awards and Scholarship Banquet Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter APRIL 28, 2017 SHERATON HOTEL • ARLINGTON, TEXAS The Society of ProfessionalWelcome Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter, created the First Amendment Awards in 2004 to recognize excellent journalism that highlights press freedoms and upholds the people’s right to know about their government. Geographically, the competition covers SPJ’s Region 8 — Texas and Oklahoma. Contest categories have been expanded over the years to honor journalism that gives a voice to the voiceless and powerless in society, that opens the books of business to public scrutiny, and that reports on environmental issues. The contest is open to students as well as to professional journalists, to online and broadcast news media as well as print, to opinion writers as well as news reporters. The addition in recent years of divisions for Spanish-language media and small community news organizations helps ensure that the contest recognizes journalism that touches almost every aspect of our lives. Although small by comparison to other journalism contests, the First Amendment Awards continue to grow, drawing interest from the region’s most prominent and forward-looking news groups. ABOUT SPJFW The Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional • Our members include professionals and educators from all Chapter, has been supporting media professionals, media areas of the media industry that includes newspaper, online, educators and media students throughout the North Texas broadcast, multimedia, freelance, photojournalism and area since 1946. Our programs provide information relevant public relations. coverage of current issues, which include open government and • We provide free training workshops to assist media First Amendment issues. Join us! professionals, educators and students to learn new skills. • We are an official local chapter of the SPJ national • We celebrate the journalistic achievements of professionals, organization and the only SPJ professional chapter in North students and citizens every April with our First Texas — all official members are eligible for SPJ national Amendment Awards and… member benefits. • We party! During the summer, we celebrate with our • We offer programs (some free) led by experienced members at our Summer Splash Social. In December, we professionals relevant to today’s media climate at celebrate the holidays and raise funds for a good cause at networking dinners our Holiday Spectacular. 2 FORT WORTH SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS PROGRAM SCHEDULE Welcome Kim Pewitt-Jones Vice President for Awards & Recognition SPJ Fort Worth Professional Chapter University of Texas at Arlington Master of Ceremonies Ken Molestina CBS 11 Anchor & Reporter Keynote Address Kelley Shannon Executive Director Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas Austin, Texas Presentations Texas Gridiron and Lina Davis Scholarships First Amendment Awards Open Doors Award FIRST AMENDMENT AWARD HISTORY The First Amendment Awards, the signature competition Twenty-four First Amendment Awards were presented at of the Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth the 13th annual First Amendment Awards and Scholarship Professional Chapter, honor exceptional journalism in Texas Dinner, April 22, 2016, at Cacharel in Arlington, Texas. and Oklahoma — SPJ Region 8 — that defends the freedoms Environmental writer Randy Loftis, long a reporting stalwart guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, at The Dallas Morning News, received the Open Doors Award. furthers the people’s right to know how governments and businesses affect their lives, and champions the powerless Loftis joined previous Open Doors recipients Byron Harris, and disadvantaged. WFAA-TV; Brett Shipp, WFAA-TV; Betty Brink, Fort Worth Weekly; the WFAA-TV team of Mark Smith, Billy Bryant, The chapter’s Open Doors Award complements the First Brett Shipp and Byron Harris; Dan Malone of Tarleton State Amendment Awards and celebrates the record of an University; Craig Flournoy, Southern Methodist University; individual or organization that defends the people’s right to Jennifer Autrey when she was with the Star-Telegram; open government and open records. Hadassah Schloss in the Texas Attorney General’s Office; Ralph Langer with the Freedom of Information Foundation The chapter gave $36,500 last year to 13 students who are of Texas; Diane Wilson, author of An Unreasonable Woman: either from Texas or attending a school in Texas. Providing A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight scholarships has been a focus for the chapter since its early for Seadrift, Texas; and Jennifer Peebles when she was with days in the 1940s. Since 2000 alone, $310,000 in scholarship Texas Watchdog. money has been awarded. 2017 FIRST AMENDMENT AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIP DINNER 3 MASTER OF CEREMONIES Prior to joining CBS 11 News in January 2014 as a anchor/reporter, Ken was a reporter for Ken Molestina WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C. and a news anchor/reporter at KVIA-TV in El Paso, where he REPORTER/ANCHOR, CBS 11 focused on crime and public safety reporting. He won an Emmy Award for his work on exposing underground sewer tunnels in El Paso which were being used by undocumented immigrants and human smugglers to break into the U.S. He was nominated for another Emmy Award for his reporting on the Barrio Azteca gang, a dangerous transnational border gang that primarily operates along both sides of the U.S.-Mex- ico border. Ken is also a recipient of a 1st place award from the Texas Associated Press in the “Breaking News” category. While in Washington D.C., he was one of the first live reporters outside the White House cov- ering the celebrations that broke out following the 2011 assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Ken also reported on President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election and inaugural. He led his station’s coverage of the federal government shutdown in the fall of 2013 from Capitol Hill. —cbs11.com KEYNOTE SPEAKER Kelley has served as executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas since Kelley Shannon May 2013. She has spent three decades as a journalist. Shannon was a correspondent for The EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Associated Press in San Antonio and in Austin, where she covered government and politics. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION FOUNDATION She also worked as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News in Austin, the Savannah (Ga.) News- OF TEXAS • AUSTIN, TEXAS Press and the Palestine Herald-Press. Among her major news stories were the election of George W. Bush as president; the 2003 lawmaker boycott of the Texas Legislature; the fatal standoff at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco and the ensuing federal trial. She has done extensive freelance reporting, including in-depth open government projects for the non-profit Center for Public Integrity, as well as business, health and travel stories for news- papers, magazines and nonprofits. Shannon has also been as an adjunct journalism instructor at the University of Texas at Austin. —foift.org OPEN DOORS AWARD WINNER Bob Ray worked as a journalist for more than four decades for news organizations such as Bob Ray Sanders the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas/Fort Worth PBS and NPR affiliate KERA-TV/ RETIRED FORT WORTH KERA-FM. He served as reporter, columnist, producer, station manager and vice president. STAR-TELEGRAM In 2007, Bob Ray’s columns about Kenneth Foster Jr., who was on Death Row for unwittingly ASSOCIATE EDITOR being an accomplice to a murder committed during a robbery, spotlighted his unjust sentence. Gov. Rick Perry eventually commuted Foster’s sentence — on the day he was slated to be executed. Bob Ray’s columns were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. During his 45-year career, Bob Ray — during two stints at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and his work at KERA television and radio — would become, as Krys Boyd recently described him, “a beacon of hope to those eager to build more just, tolerant and economically stable communities, and sometimes a thorn in the side of those who had benefited from the status quo.” Bob Ray has won five Dallas Press Club Katie Awards, a regional Emmy Award and a National Headliner Award for outstanding investigative reporting. His other honors include the Ethics Award from the Schieffer School of Journalism and induction into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. 4 FORT WORTH SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS 2017 Texas Gridiron Club Scholarships From its founding in 1946, SPJ Fort Worth has assisted young journalists in their pursuit of an education. The chapter administers three college scholarship programs through its Texas Gridiron Endowment Fund — the Gridiron (a general scholarship, plus scholarships named in honor of Texas journalists), the Lina Davis and the Jay Milner. Judges evaluate ability, financial need and career potential. Staley and Beverly McBrayer Scholarship Parastoo Nikravesh Recognizes excellence in college student media or as an intern with a Stephen F. Austin University professional news organization. Think of this as the chapter’s MVP award. Staley McBrayer marketed the offset press, which revolutionized the printing industry. Donna Darovich Scholarship Kristina Valdez Recognizes excellence in writing across all sections — news, arts, lifestyle, Baylor University sports. As a Star-Telegram reporter, Donna Darovich won consecutive feature-writing first places in Texas Associated Press Managing Editors competitions.