Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald Columnist Receives 2006 McGruder Award for Media Diversity
The McGruder Award is part of the fourth annual “Celebration of Diversity in the Media” on Tuesday, Oct. 24, sponsored by Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Office of Diversity and Academic Initiatives. The day will include the Robert G. McGruder Lecture, awards program and luncheon. The awards program and lecture are free and open to the public, and will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Kiva of the Kent Student Center. Members of the news media from across Northeast Ohio will attend the luncheon prior to the awards program. Kent State President Lester Lefton and Provost Paul Gaston will address the group at lunch and talk about the university’s commitment to diversity. Also at the luncheon, Vice Provost Steve O. Michael will present Wayne Dawson, a 1979 Kent State graduate and co-anchor of “Fox 8 News in the Morning” on WJW-TV in Cleveland, with the Diversity in Media and Leadership Award. Dawson is being recognized for his unprecedented participation in the McGruder lecture for the past two years. This is the first year for the award. Past recipients of the McGruder award are Greg Moore, editor of the Denver Post, in 2003; David Lawrence Jr., retired Knight Ridder executive and The Miami Herald publisher, in 2004; and Albert Fitzpatrick, retired Knight Ridder executive and Akron Beacon Journal editor, in 2005. About Pitts:
Pitts was a former writer for Casey Kasem’s radio program “American Top 40.” He joined The Miami Herald in 1991 as a pop music critic, but his passion and concern about social issues drove him to start what is now a nationally syndicated commentary column. Pitts is well known for his column on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, “We’ll Go Forward From This Moment.” This angry and defiant open letter to the unnamed terrorists was widely circulated on the Internet and frequently quoted in the press: “You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.” About McGruder: The late Robert G. McGruder, a 1963 Kent State graduate, was a pioneer in both diversity and in the field of journalism. He was the first black editor of the Daily Kent Stater and the first black reporter for The Plain Dealer. In 1995 he was the first black to become president of the Associated Press Managing Editors group and in 1996 became the first black editor at the Detroit Free Press. “Please know that I stand for diversity,” McGruder once said. “I represent the African-Americans, Latinos, Arab-American, Asians, Native Americans, gays and lesbian, women and all the others we must see represented in our business offices, newsrooms and our newspapers.” For more information visit the School of Journalism and Mass Communication Web site.
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Dana Rader  |
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