Join the Society of Professional Journalists’ San Diego Pro and San Diego State University chapters for a lively discussion featuring four longtime San Diego journalists who will answer questions, offer advice, share stories and reflect on their careers. Come prepared with questions — this is your chance to ask them anything — and get ready to laugh and learn.
What: Lessons from the Newsroom
When: 6 p.m. Thursday, April 13, 2023, at the Professional Studies and Fine Arts Building, Room 325, at San Diego State University, Campanile Mall.
Tell us what you want to hear: RSVP and submit your questions and topic ideas in advance.
Parking: We recommend parking in SDSU parking structure P12 (levels 3-8), which are visitor parking spots and closest to the Fine Arts Building. You will be instructed to download an app on your smartphone to pay. It should cost around $3 an hour. (Please see below for a campus map.)
Live Streaming: For those who can’t attend in person, we will livestream the event and will send the link around to everyone who submits an RSVP!
Participants:
(Moderator)Jakob McWhinney is a lifelong San Diegan who discovered his passion for journalism during the COVID-19 pandemic. He now serves on the board of SPJ’s San Diego Pro chapter and works as the education reporter at Voice of San Diego.
Dana Littlefield is public safety editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune and an adjunct lecturer in the Journalism and Media Studies Department at San Diego State University. Before becoming an editor, she was a reporter at the U-T for 17 years and covered state courts for most of that time.
Jeff McDonald is a member of the investigative reporting team at The San Diego Union-Tribune and was named Journalist of the Year in 2015 by San Diego SPJ. He writes about government and institutional misconduct and waste in San Diego County and beyond.
Andrew Dyer spent 10 years enlisted in the Navy and served as ship’s company on two aircraft carriers. He covered the military for The San Diego Union-Tribune and is currently the military and veterans reporter at KPBS.
Adam Racusin is an investigative reporter at ABC 10News in San Diego. He set his sights on helping consumers and his reporting has led to people getting their money back, bad actors getting locked up and lawmakers promising new legislation.
Every year, the San Diego Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists honors public officials, individuals and agencies who did the best (and the worst) job of ensuring that government is accessible and transparent. We’re proud to announce this year’s award winners and will celebrate them with a reception at Mujeres Brewing in Logan Heights (1983 Julian Ave.) from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 15. Light refreshments will be served. An RSVP is required. Please note that this is an outdoor venue, so dress appropriately.
Window Award: Paul Parker
SD-SPJ’s annual Window Award goes to a person or public agency that has prioritized transparency and access to information. This year’s recipient is Paul Parker, executive officer of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLERB, which provides oversight of the San Diego Sheriff’s and Probation departments, including investigating deaths in custody and making policy recommendations. Under previous executive officers there was little engagement between CLERB and the community and strict rules about communication with the media. Under Parker’s leadership, CLERB has become a more proactive, responsive organization, which helps bolster the public trust in the review board’s mission. Parker has proactively met with community groups and organizations to discuss how CLERB functions and the role of oversight. He’s also authored more detailed, insightful annual reports. Perhaps most important, though, are the summaries of cases the board’s investigative staff provide for review each month in which they include every morsel of information they’re legally allowed to provide. Parker regularly meets with families of people who’ve died in jail and, last year oversaw virtual town halls about in-custody deaths and the Center for Policing Equity’s report on racial disparities in traffic stops and use of force. Parker is also very responsive to media requests and each month posts to CLERB’s website his communications with board members about important updates and news articles concerning CLERB and law enforcement oversight. We hope other public officials and agencies take note.
Wall Award: San Diego County
The Wall Award goes to the person or public agency that made it difficult for journalists to do their jobs by ignoring information requests or otherwise compromising the public’s right to know. Unfortunately, this award will again go to San Diego County, marking the third time in six years. Reporters from multiple news organizations throughout the region continue to struggle to gather basic information from the county’s communications team in a timely manner. The communications office, led by Michael Workman, typically requires reporters to submit requests through email and often provides terse responses that only raise more questions. Officials leading county agencies and initiatives are rarely made available for interviews, which could provide reporters — and thus the public — with more context and insight on their work. Public records requests can sit unanswered for unreasonable lengths of time. We became hopeful for real change when the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to establish a new transparency advisory committee, and when officials agreed to create an online public request portal to track and manage requests. But we have not seen the shift to a more transparent county government that the committee presented and the request portal is taking longer to roll out than we would have liked. The same problems continue and it’s happening at a detriment to the community. We hope this award will remind San Diego County that the public deserves transparency.
Sunshine Award: Trust SD Coalition
SD-SPJ’s Sunshine Award goes to a journalist or community member who went above and beyond to make the government more transparent and hold elected officials accountable. This year’s recipient is the TRUST SD Coalition, an alliance of 30-plus community organizations that advocates for government transparency in surveillance.
The coalition formed in 2019 to address the city of San Diego’s “smart” street lights, which were being used for surveillance without the public’s knowledge or consent. Since then, TRUST SD has written two city of San Diego ordinances that outline how the city acquires and operates surveillance technology, such as streetlight cameras, noise-detecting microphones, body-worn cameras and license plate readers.
TRUST SD’s first ordinance, adopted by the City Council last April, established a privacy advisory board to provide community oversight on surveillance proposals, with seats reserved for residents who have been historically affected. Its second, called the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology ordinance, was adopted last August. It ensures that any proposed surveillance measures are reviewed by the City Council initially and annually, and guarantees that these meetings allow feedback from the public, with sessions held in districts that will be affected.
These achievements, in addition to the coalition’s ongoing educational and advocacy work, have significantly improved transparency and protected San Diegans’ civil liberties.
Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism: Jeff McDonald, Kelly Davis and Lauryn Schroeder of The San Diego Union-Tribune for their series “Dying Behind Bars”
Diversity Prize: Claire Trageser of KPBS for her piece “DR JS: How a Gang Shooting Changed Southeast San Diego”
Herbert Lockwood “Woody” Award for Humor Writing: Irv Erdos with The San Diego Union-Tribune.
First Amendment Award: Tom Jones, Mari Payton, Bill Feather, Paul Krueger and Jay Yoo with NBC 7 for “Border Agents Created Secret Database of Journalists, Attorneys and Immigration Aid Workers”
Excellence in Journalism prize: Brad Racino and Jill Castellano with iNewsource for “Risky Research”
Neil Morgan Community Impact Award: gWill Huntsberry with Voice of San Diego for “Exposure of Doc Who Helped Families Avoid Vaccination Led to New State Law”
Gloria Penner Award for Political Affairs Reporting: Mary Plummer with inewsource for the story “San Diego Voters Promised Billions in Infrastructure Fixes, But Money Running Dry”
Distinguished Coverage Award: KPBS’ Claire Trageser, Erik Anderson, Steve Walsh, Matt Hoffman and David Washburn for “San Diego’s Climate Crisis”
2020 SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
SPJ Scholarship Winners:
Jack Trent Dorfman, UC San Diego
Victoria Holmes, University of San Diego
Lance Nelson, Mesa College/Columbia University
Bella Ross, San Diego State University
Amber Salas, San Diego State University
Agnes Diggs Scholarship:
Katy Stegall, Southwestern College/San Diego State University
UPDATE: This event has been rescheduled to September 15.
The year 2020 first brought stay-at-home orders and unprecedented closures of the court system due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then sustained protests over police treatment of African-Americans. During this extraordinary year, the Bench has grappled with how to maintain access to the courts. The Bar has confronted COVID-related challenges to the practice of law and its role in ensuring equal access to justice. Finally, media outlets have worked overtime to cover it all while managing unusual new obstacles to newsgathering. Panelists will discuss local efforts to confront these issues from their respective roles as legal community activists, journalists and law enforcement officials.
When: 5:30 – 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15
Who: Hon. Dwayne Moring, Moderator, San Diego Superior Court, South County Supervising Judge
Hon. Lorna Alksne, Presiding Judge, San Diego Superior Court
Dana Littlefield, Public Safety Editor, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Adam Racusin, Investigative Reporter, 10News
Summer Stephan, San Diego County District Attorney
Andrea St. Julian, President, Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association; Co-Chair, San Diegans for Justice
San Diego Society of Professional Journalists 