Atlantic Journalism Award winners announced

The winners of this year's Atlantic Journalism Awards were announced Saturday at a gala event in Halifax. Congratulations are extended to:

- CBC Newsroom in St. John's, Gold Award winner, Spot News, Radio for coverage of the fire at Aliant.

- Chris O'Neill-Yates of CBC St. John's, Gold Award winner, Enterprise Reporting, Television for her series on the 'Secret Life of Dr. Chandra'.

- Pam Pardy Ghent of The Independent, Gold Award co-winner, Feature Writing for her 'Suck It Up' feature.

- Deanne Fleet of CBC St. John's, Gold Award winner, Sports Reporting, for 'Gushue History'.

You can view the complete list of winners here.

Indifferent about awards until given one

Craig, in his Townie Bastard blog, wonders how I feel about journalism awards. Fact is, I was ambivalent about them for most of my career as a journalist. In my early days as a writer with The Newfoundland Herald, most of my stuff was crap; I learned how to write in public and am eternally grateful that none of that stuff is available online. So I didn’t even think about submitting award entries.

My writing style had evolved and matured by the time I started at The Sunday Express, but even then, neither myself nor my colleagues thought much about awards. Once in a while someone would say to someone else, ‘Hey that was a great piece – you should enter it for an award,’ but I don’t think we ever did. We were too busy chasing down the next week’s story list. There was absolutely no resting on your laurels.

The folks at the Atlantic Journalism Awards actually created an award for the Express during it last year of operation, apparently to correct the fact that we hadn’t been recognized up to that point (through every fault of our own). We were given a plaque-mounted Five-Year Award of Achievement, featuring an artist’s rendition of all staff members. I had been indifferent about awards up to that point but I must confess, it felt great to receive it… though I have no idea where it is now.

In 2003, I actually entered an awards competition for the Media Spotlight column I wrote for The Express newspaper. That submission won an Award of Merit from the International Association of Business Communicators. And it felt very good.

My take on awards? Easy to dismiss until you actually win one. I invite other journalists to comment on this subject…I am sure there are some interesting views to be shared.

Recognizing quality journalism

Did anyone hear CBC Radio Noon today? Much of it was themed around the Zachary Turner murder case, opening with a riveting interview with Elliot Leyton, who was on the committee appointed by the Child and Youth Advocate to investigate how the murder of little Zachary was permitted to happen. Leyton laid it on the line and was not shy about apportioning blame. That was followed by the Crosstalk call-in show, with David Bagby as special guest. Bagby spoke about his new book, "Dance With the Devil" (the devil being Dr. Shirley Turner). You can truly hear Bagby's anger when he talks about this case - anger that simmers close to the surface even now. It was difficut to listen to this program without having your emotions yanked from anger to grief to compassion to outright shock... such as when Bagby said that his only regret is not killing Shirley Turner while he had the chance. You don't hear radio like this every day, and I congratulate Anne Budgell and the crew on putting together such an unforgettable show. (You can hear it by going to the CBC Radio Noon archive.)

While on the the tragic story of Zachary Turner, congratulations are also in order for Chris O'Neill Yates of CBC Here & Now, who is nominated for an Atlantic Journalism Award for her continuing coverage of the Turner case. Chris's coverage of this story was indeed probing and relentless (in a good kind of way) and I congratulate her on the nomination. Incidentally, Chris is also nominated for an award in the Enterprise category for her stories on the Dr. Chandra case.

There are numerous other nominations for local journalists, including Dennis Mulloy, VOCM (spot news); CBC Radio newsroom (spot news); Glenn Payette, Here & Now (spot news); Pam Pardy-Ghent, The Independent (feature writing); Susan Rendell, The Independent (feature writing); Chris Brookes and the rest of Battery Radio (feature writing, radio); David Cochrane, Here & Now (feature writing, television); Rob Antle, Saltscapes (profile writing); Deanne Fleet, Here & Now (sports reporting); Angela Antle, CBC Radio (arts reporting); and Ryan Cleary, The Independent (commentary).

Congratulations to all, and good luck at the awards ceremony, which takes place May 12 in Halifax. To read the full release, click here.