Missouri School of Journalism Presents 2004 Honor Medals
Columbia, Mo. (Sept. 20, 2004) — The Missouri School of Journalism will present the 2004 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism to six individuals and one news magazine.
The Missouri School of Journalism has awarded the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism annually since 1930. More than 425 distinguished journalists, advertising and public relations practitioners, business people, institutions and media organizations have been recipients of this prestigious award.
The format for awarding the medals has changed this year. In past years, many high-profile nominees could not accommodate a single banquet in their schedules. In response, individual events will be scheduled throughout the year to recognize the medalists.
Following are the 2004 medalists:
Dr. Leo Bogart is a sociologist specializing in mass media and communication; a columnist for Presstime, the magazine of the Newspaper Association of America; and a director and senior consultant of the Innovation International Media consulting group. For many years Dr. Bogart was the executive vice president and general manager of theNewspaper Advertising Bureau. The author of 11 books and numerous articles and monographs, he has taught at major universities and was a senior fellow at Columbia University and a Fulbright research fellow. He holds a doctorate from the University of Chicago. Dr. Bogart has served in top leadership positions for major research associations. His distinguished achievements have been recognized with awards and citations from marketing, newspaper and other industry associations. He and George Gallup were the first people elected to the Market Research Council Hall of Fame.
Anne Garrels is a roving foreign correspondent for NPR’s foreign desk. Her reports can be heard on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition Saturday and Weekend Edition Sunday. Garrels earned international recognition in 2003 by being one of 16 U.S. journalists to remain in Baghdad during the initial invasion of Iraq. Her vivid, around-the-clock reports from the city under siege gave listeners remarkable insight into the impact of the war on Baghdad and those left in the city. Since September 11, 2001, Garrels has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East. Over the course of her career with NPR, Garrels has reported on a wide range of international issues with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. She has received some of the industry’s highest awards and is the author of Naked in Baghdad.
James Nachtwey is one of today’s most influential and respected photojournalists. He hasput his own life on the line in order to document the shocking human costs of war, famine and racial conflict in the Middle East, Africa, Russia, Latin America and other countries. “I have been a witness,” he notes, “and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.” Mr. Nachtwey has been a contract photographer with Time magazine since 1984. He is one of the seven founding members of VII, a group of photographers committed to documenting contemporary history. Mr. Nachtwey has received numerous international prizes, awards and recognitions, including a 2002 Academy Award nomination on his work called “War Photographer” by Swiss director Christian Frei.
Gloria Steinem is one of the most prominent writers, editors and activists of our time. She co-founded Ms. Magazine in 1972 and was one of its editors for 15 years. Ms. Steinem continues to serve as a consulting editor and was instrumental in the magazine’s move to join forces with the nonprofit Feminist Majority Foundation. Her interests in gender roles and non-violent conflict resolution have served as the motivation in her creating and leading numerous grassroots organizations, including the Women’s Action Alliance, the National Women’s Political Caucus, Voters for Choice and the Ms. Foundation for Women. Ms. Steinem is the author of many bestsellers, including Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions and Marilyn: Norma Jean.
Dr. William H. Taft influenced generations of prospective journalists during his 25-yeartenure at the Missouri School of Journalism. He taught more than 10,000 students in the History and Principles of Journalism class and directed 100 master’s theses and 25 doctoral dissertations. Dr. Taft earned his bachelor’s degree in 1938 and his master’s degree in 1939, both in journalism from the University of Missouri. His lifelong interest in newspapering began in his teens as a reporter at the Mexico (Mo.) Ledger. Dr. Taft has written eight books, including five on Missouri newspaper history, and he serves as the official historian of the Missouri Press Association. The MPA inducted him into its Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2001.
TEMPO magazine has survived despite persistent attempts by the authoritarian Indonesian regime to eradicate it. TEMPO was founded in 1971, a truly independent, non-government organization outside the control of the state. The publication exemplified the best of a free democratic press, providing a venue for an open expression of ideas and opportunities to discuss economic reform and political stability. In time, TEMPO’s opposition to the intellectual repression and sloganeering of an authoritarian regime would prove too influential for the bureaucrats to ignore. Its journalists would be arrested and imprisoned, and the publication was ultimately banned. Today TEMPO is a magazine that the government could not kill, a magazine with a voice that could not be silenced. The spirit of the publication is one that has been kept alive by journalists and citizens who demand the truth.
Ernest C. Withers has been a practicing photographer for more than 60 years and still maintains a Beale Street studio in his hometown of Memphis. He documented the Civil Rights movement as well as the southern entertainment and social scenes during the 1950’s and 60’s. Mr. Withers often traveled with and photographed leading Civil Rights activists Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers and James Meredith. Because of his intimate familiarity with the people and geography, he was often the first or only photographer to capture momentous events as they unfolded, long before the national press became interested. Mr. Withers’ self-published booklet on the infamous Emmet Till murder trial mobilized national interest. Of his photographs he says, “I look for things of time and value. None of my images deal in violence – they deal in time.
Updated: April 28, 2020