Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Garrison, five current journalists earn 2006 Yankee Quill honors
By The Associated Press
Published August 29 2006
BOSTON -- Five New England journalists, including the crusading anti-slavery editor William Lloyd Garrison, are the recipients of the 2006 Yankee Quill Award for their contributions to improving journalism in the region.
The award is presented annually by the Academy of New England Journalists through the auspices of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors and the New England Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. It is considered the highest individual honor awarded by fellow journalists in the region.
This year's honorees include a special posthumous award to Garrison, a native of Newburyport, and editor of the Liberator, a weekly abolitionist newspaper in Boston. Garrison was considered the most impassioned voice in America for ending slavery and was invited by President Lincoln to help raise the nation's flag again at Fort Sumter, S.C., at the close of the
Civil War.
Other recipients include:
- Gary Lapierre, managing editor of WBZ Radio in Boston;
- David Offer, executive editor of Central Maine Newspapers in Augusta;
- Chris Powell, managing editor and vice president for news of the Journal Inquirer, of Manchester, Conn.;
- Walter Robinson, assistant managing editor/Spotlight Team, The Boston Globe.
They will receive the Yankee Quill award on Thursday, Nov. 16, at the 51th anniversary convention of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors at
the Omni Parker House in Boston.
Lapierre, who is retiring this December after a 46-year career in New England broadcasting, will be honored for his "intelligent and thoughtful delivery of the news" and practice of "service journalism."
Offer will be recognized for a 41-year career that includes serving as the top editor at the Newport Daily News in Rhode Island and the Central Maine Newspapers' Kennebec Journal in Augusta and Morning Sentinel in Waterville. He is also a former investigative reporter at the Hartford Courant, and played a key role in the development of the national Investigative Reporters and Editors organization.
Powell, whose entire journalism career has been at the Journal Inquirer, has been one of the state's leading advocates for access to government. He has spent hours testifying at legislative hearings, writes numerous columns on the issue and files more freedom of information requests on behalf of the public than anyone in the state. His paper is known for breaking investigative stories and was the first to report on the scandal involving Gov. John Rowland.
Robinson has held 15 assignments during 34 years with The Boston Globe - from reporter, chief of bureaus at Boston City Hall, Massachusetts State House and the Middle East to city editor and assistant managing editor for local news. His latest assignment was directing the investigative Spotlight Team, whose work on the clergy sexual abuse scandal earned the Globe the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003. Robinson, who is retiring this summer, will teach journalism at Northeastern University, his alma mater.
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