2002 Alaska Press Club Winners
ALL MEDIA
77-Humor
Judge: Art Buchwald
Nationally syndicated columnist
Our judge decided it was impossible to judge the assorted media together and thus presents awards in specific media.
Print Winner: The Penis Dialogues
Entrant: Lionel Biloxi
Org: Anchorage Press
Comments: I chose this because it was very imaginative and also well written. I also selected it because I thought to myself, “How are the Alaska editors going to explain to their readers that the winner of the award got it for an article about an organ they would have difficulty mentioning in a family newspaper.
Print 2nd: Quoth the Senate: Nevermore
Entrant: Bill McAllister
Org: Juneau Empire
Television Winner: The World According to Carp: According to Meg
Entrants: Meghan Waller, Rich Jordan
Org: KTUU
Radio Winner: Platitudes
Entrant: Geoff Kennedy
Org: APRN
78-Investigative Reporting
Judge: Bob Drogin
National security reporter for the LA Times, former IRE board member and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy award and the Polk award.
Winner: Godfrey Shooting
Entrants: Sheila Toomey, Katie Pesznecker, Zaz Hollander, Richard Mauer, Lisa Demer, Sean Cockerham
Org: Anchorage Daily News
Comments: After the high-profile slaying of Alaska's top cop, the Anchorage Daily News aggressively pursued a matter of intense importance - the utter failure of the city's 911 emergence response system. The paper battled uncooperative city officials and police dispatchers to untangle precisely why it took police 48 minutes to find the victim's home, even though his badly injured wife was talking to the 911 dispatcher nearly the entire time. The Alaska Office of Victim's Rights later confirmed the paper's reporting. As a result, the city has moved to update and reform the 911 dispatch system. The Anchorage Daily News effort is in the finest tradition of investigative reporting.
79-Media Web site
Judge: Gary Duchane
Online Editor
The Hartford Courant
1st: Alaska.com
Entrants: Leon Unruh, Tom Twigg, Roger Price
Org: Anchorage Daily News
Comments: Blends news, features, information, and utility/user interaction in a clean, fairly well-organized site.
2nd: ktoo.org
Entrant: KTOO-FM
Org: KTOO-FM
Comments: Good use of content throughout site. Internal pages are clean, with spare but useful navigation. Plenty of solid public service elements throughout – the "Gavel to Gavel" page is a good example.
3rd: alaskastar.com
Entrant: Sam Douglas
Org: Alaskan Publications
Comments: Has the unapologetic feel of a hometown newspaper, which sets it apart from the ubiquitous cookie-cutter "portals."
80-Public Service Award
Judge: Gary Cohn of the University of Alaska Anchorage
Winner: "Fiscal Plan," by the Anchorage Daily News Opinion/Editorial Department
Comments: There were several excellent print and broadcast entries this year. But the fiscal plan editorials, particularly the eight-part editorial series, "Alaska Ways & Means," was truly an extraordinary effort, clearly explaining Alaska's fiscal crisis and proposing common sense and fair long-term solutions. The editorials came at a time when the crisis was worsening and many of the state's politicians were reluctant to even talk about the problem. The Daily News editorial and opinion department deserves credit for their extraordinary efforts in tackling this difficult and important statewide issue, for the clarity of the writing and analysis, and for proposing ways to help Alaska get out of the fiscal crisis and plan for its future.
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