Chicago Journalists Association announces winners of its Special Awards
CHICAGO--Our Chicago Journalists Association has set the table for its 72nd annual dinner Friday evening, Oct. 14, selecting
five outstanding journalists for its Special Awards. They are: Sun-Times columnist Stella Foster,
Chicago Tribune arts and jazz critic Howard Reich, CBS News' chief correspondent Lara Logan, Tribune columnist Mary Schmich and artist
June Brigman.
(Oct. 14 - Editor's note:
Four hundred people gathered to honor this year's awardees.
Click
for evening's program, stay tuned for pictures and details to come!)
Read Stella's column in the Sun-Times on the night
Read Sun-Times coverage of the event
Read Candice Jordan's event coverage on chicagonow.com!
Right: Stella Foster with Gov. Quinn, Photo
Richard Chapman - Sun-Times
Foster is the recipient of CJA's Lifetime Achievement Award. She is not new to the media scene and her "Stella's Column" runs every Tuesday and Thursday, reflecting her personality and high-energy. Born in Chicago and raised in the Englewood community, her journalism career was officially launched in the mid-'80s when she began writing for Sister 2 Sister, a national entertainment magazine founded by her sister, Jamie Foster Brown, and husband. In 1969, Brown told Stella that the legendary Irv Kupcinet was looking for a new secretary. She interviewed for the position and was hired. For the next 34 years, Stella was Kup's assistant , confidant, organizer, and glue that kept the column alive and vibrant.
Reich, Chicago Journalist of the Year, has been a Tribune arts critic and writer since 1983, although his articles on music began appearing in the newspaper six years earlier. He wrote, produced an narrated his documentary film, Prisoner of her Past, inspired by his book on his mother's hidden Holocaust past. It is currently touring the world and can be seen nationally on PBS through 2011. In addition to covering news for the Tribune, he has authored several investigative reports, including articles on the systematic theft of royalties from jazz composer Jelly Roll Morton; the private-diary recordings of Louis Armstrong; and the illicit trade in musical instruments during World War II. He is a longtime correspondent for Downbeat magazine and is married to Pam Becker, an editor at the Tribune.
Logan was presented the prestigious Daniel Pearl Award. Born in Durban, South Africa,
she began working as a news reporter for the Sunday Times in 1988 and moved to the city's Daily News
in 1990. Two years later she joined Reuters Television in Africa, primarily as a senior producer and later branched out into freelance journalism, obtaining
assignments as a reporter and editor/producer with ITN and Fox/SKY, CBS and ABC News, among other networks.
CBS News offered her a job in 2002, spending the next four years reporting from war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, often embedded with American Armed Forces. Many of her reports were for 60 Minutes II, CBS Evening News, The Early Show and Face the Nation.
Logan and her CBS crew were arrested and detained for a night by the Egyptian Army on Feb. 3, while covering the revolution there. She said the crew was blindfolded and handcuffed at gunpoint, and their driver beaten.
They were advised to leave the country, but later released. On Feb. 15, CBS News released a statement that Logan had been beaten and sexually assaulted four days earlier while covering the celebration in Tahir Square.
She was rescued by a group of Egyptian women and men and flown back to the
United States the next day.
Schmich and Brigman win a newly-created honor, the CJA Dale Messick Brenda Starr Award. Brenda Starr, the redheaded comic heroine created by Dale Messick in 1940, was put to rest by the Tribune Media Services Jan. 2, 2011. Schmich and Brigman decided it was time to end their work on the seven-day-a week comic strip which appeared in about three dozen newspapers. Schmich had written the soap opera cartoon for 25 years, inheriting the strip from Ramona Fradon. Brigman was the illustrator since 1985, taking over from Linda Sutter.
The Chicago Journalists Association 2011 Charitable Fund
Oct,
2011. CJA Charitable Fund Awardees at 72nd Annual Awards Dinner: $1,000 scholarships
to Lauren Stark and Sarah Maslar-Donar (Read
more)
The Chicago Journalists Association annually awards scholarships to high
school seniors accepted to college programs or to students enrolled in
undergraduate college courses. Awards are intended to support
individuals who want to work in the field of journalism and
communications.