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APC Announces 2011 Hall of Fame inductees

May 20, 2011 – Atlanta, GA, The Atlanta Press Club is pleased to announce the inductees into its 2011 Hall of Fame program:    

 Furman Bisher* - the noted sportswriter, editor, and author who began his career in 1938 and joined the Atlanta Constitution in 1950 

Henry Grady (1850-1889) - the legendary editor of the Atlanta Constitution

Tom Johnson - president of CNN in the 1990s and former publisher of the Los Angeles Times

John Pruitt - long-time anchor of Channel 2 Action News on WSB-TV and 11Alive News on WXIA-TV, who retired at the end of 2010

Alexis Scott and the Scott Family - publishers of the Atlanta Daily World, the city’s respected and pioneering African American newspaper founded in 1928

Ted Turner*, the media titan who is best known as the founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting Company

* Turner and Bisher are past recipients of the Atlanta Press Club Lifetime of Achievement award. 

 “The Atlanta Press Club is honored to include these prestigious and influential trailblazers, who helped set the standard for journalism in Georgia and across the nation, in our 2011 Hall of Fame class,” said Jon Shirek of WXIA-TV and chair of the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame committee.  “We will use proceeds from the event to provide scholarships for college and university students studying journalism to guarantee that a new generation will keep alive the high standards of our profession.”

The honorees will be inducted at a dinner on September 22, 2011 at the InterContinental Buckhead.  Tickets are $75 for Atlanta Press Club members and $100 for non-members.  Event sponsors include the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Cox Media Group, Georgia State University, Iconologic and Wells Fargo.  Please contact 404.57.PRESS for information on tickets and other sponsorship opportunities.

  The Atlanta Press Club is one of the largest and most dynamic professional journalism associations in the country. The membership encompasses Atlanta’s burgeoning media community - print, broadcast and online, large and small, national and local media outlets. More than half the Club’s 600 members are working journalists, the balance consist of public relations professionals, educators, retirees and students. The APC’s mission is to serve the professional and social needs of Atlanta’s journalism community, foster journalistic excellence and advance the public’s interest in and understanding of a free press. Please visit www.atlantapressclub.org for more information.

Cantor: President’s stance on Israel ‘unworkable’

ATLANTA (AP) - House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says President Barack Obama’s support of a return to Israel’s 1967 borders to make way for an adjacent Palestinian state is “unworkable.”

Cantor says he is “very concerned” with what he described as the president’s assertion that “any discussion or talks between the parties has to start with the 1967 lines.” He says the U.S. should “stand up for our ally in the war to stop the spread of radical Islam.”

The Virginia Republican on Friday addressed The Atlanta Press Club as part of a two-day visit to Georgia, where he campaigned for GOP colleagues and visited businesses like Atlanta-based Home Depot. Regarding the so-called “Arab Spring” movement in the Middle East, Cantor says the U.S. “should be about protecting and enhancing the institutions that do promote the values we stand for.”

“They are not in the same state of existence in the Middle East as they are in this country,” Cantor said. “Though all of us would like to see Jeffersonian democracy in Cairo, that’s not happening tomorrow. We should be … promoting and helping individuals and parties that want to see a free society in these countries.”

Obama on Thursday backed Palestinian demands for the borders of its future state based on 1967 borders - the boundaries as they were drawn before the Six Day War in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

The president’s Republican critics seized on the remarks, saying Obama was undermining the sensitive and delicate peace negotiations in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel would not withdraw to 1967 borders.

GA State Wire
ERRIN HAINES
Published: May 20, 2011

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott contributed to this article.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15980/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=ptyLCZZX

Letter to Governor Deal following exclusion of journalist at press conference

To The Honorable Nathan Deal:

We want to express our concern that your office used the Georgia State Troopers and police to keep a member of the media out of a news conference on Friday, May 13th.  

We consider this action a disregard of the constitutional right of freedom of the press.  Selective exclusion from a public press event, and enforcing that exclusion using taxpayer-funded state law enforcement, sets a dangerous precedent.  It is unacceptable in a free and open society.  And it is contrary to the rights granted by the First Amendment and the values endorsed by the Georgia Open Records Act.

We would like your assurance that this was an unfortunate, unprofessional and isolated incident and that journalists don’t have to fear access restriction by state troopers or police under your administration.

Sincerely,

 The Atlanta Press Club

U.S. Justice Will Decide Whether to Challenge Georgia Immigration Law

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano side-stepped whether the White House will challenge Georgia’s new immigration law in federal court when she spoke to an Atlanta Press Club luncheon on Saturday, but the secretary left no doubt President Barack Obama has no interest in state-by-state immigration reform.

“Those legal determinations will be made in consultation with the Department of Justice, but I think these efforts at the state-by-state level, first of all, they are predicated on a falsity,” Napolitano said at The Commerce Club.  “The falsity is that there has been nothing done and the border somehow is out of control.  That is incorrect,” she said in response to a question.

Napolitano listed several homeland security improvements during prepared remarks, among them, doubling the number of border patrol agents to 21,000, an increase in analysts who focus on Mexican cartel violence, a fivefold increase in the agents who work directly with Mexican enforcement, and screening all southbound trains for guns and cash.

Visit http://mikekleinonline.com/  to read the entire article.

Written by Mike Klein for http://mikekleinonline.com/  

(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)

Nicholas Kristof to speak at Kennesaw State

Reservations are still available for two speeches by New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof at Kennesaw State University this Thursday, March 17.
Slated to speak on campus last month, Kristof was unable to leave Egypt, where he was covering the country’s pro-democracy protests. He will be speaking at 3:30 p.m. and at 7 p.m.
Kristof has been with the NYT since 1984 as a correspondent in Los Angeles and Asia, and as associate managing editor of the paper’s Sunday edition. He writes op-ed columns twice a week, and has won two Pulitzer Prizes. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, a former Times journalist, are authors of three books.

R.I.P., Ludlow Porch

Unfortunately, it seems too many recent posts are about local media legends leaving us too soon.
“Folksy” radio talk show host Ludlow Porch died today at age 76, after having suffered a stroke. According to Atlanta Press Club board member Rodney Ho’s media blog on AJC.com, Porch — whose real name was Bobby C. Hanson, spent years on 680 WRNG-AM Ring Radio and worked at WSB-AM from 1988 to 1991. New Years Day 1991, Porch and his longtime producer, Denny Ainsworth, launched the FunSeekers Radio Network at funseekers.net. Porch was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame in 2007. A memorial service and celebration of Porch’s life will be held on Saturday, February 19 in Big Canoe.
The Atlanta Press Club extends heartfelt condolences to his family, including his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Murdoch Unveils “The Daily”: Will You Read?

So Rupert Murdoch has launched his new digital “newspaper” for the iPad…have you seen it? Read it? What is your take on a product such as this?
Read the article about “The Daily” from Salon.com here.

Hundreds Say Goodbye to Royal Marshall

Royal Marshall’s funeral this past weekend was packed with loved ones and fans, according to the AJC’s Rodney Ho, who also is an Atlanta Press Club board member. Were you in attendance to pay your respects? Please share your memories of Royal and your experience at the funeral with us.
Royal Marshall will be forever missed.

R.I.P., Royal

Atlanta’s media world is stunned and saddened by the death early this morning of WSB Radio producer Raymond Royal Marshall, who was just 43 years old. He collapsed in his home, and paramedics were unable to revive him. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 4 and 2.

He had been producer of the Neal Boortz show since 1996, and was a judge at the APC’s Gorilla Ball this past October.

The Atlanta Press Club mourns his loss, and sends condolences to his family and friends.

New Year, NEW Posts!

Hello, Atlanta Press Club members and friends! Happy New Year to all.

Yes, it’s me, Melanie Lasoff Levs, former Press Club blogger extraordinaire. I took some time off to have my second kid and reestablish my freelance life, and now I am back and ready to post away, at least once a week (but hopefully more often).

This blog is for EVERYONE, so if you would like to post, please contact me at mlasofflevs@yahoo.com and we can discuss.

Many thanks for reading, and I wish you and yours a joyous, healthy and productive 2011!