A veteran Virginia journalist who has been called “the oppressed people’s correspondent” has been named the 2014 recipient of the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award. Michael Paul Williams, metro columnist and reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, will be honored at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol on Friday, June 27, during the annual conference of the…
you, the columnist This column was originally published in the January 2014 edition of The Columnist, the members’ newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. By Dave Lieber Columnist, The Dallas Morning News You, the columnist, are your own marketing department. If you don’t market yourself, no one else will. But how? Facebook, Twitter,…
HARTFORD, Conn. — The National Society of Newspaper Columnists on Sunday gave its annual Sitting Duck Award to “privacy,” but, thanks to the National Security Agency and government data mining, America almost certainly already knows that. The award goes each year to a person or subject that provides columnists with an easy topic to write…
Members of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists felt the shock, anger and sadness from the attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013. Two bombs exploded within seconds of each other at 2:50 p.m. EDT near the Boylston Street finish line, killing three people and injuring at least 170, The Boston…
April 18, Thursday this year, is National Columnists’ Day. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists created this holiday both for members but mainly as a flag to the world, reminding everyone of the journalistic and democratic importance of columns. We chose the date that Scripps Howard columnist Ernie Pyle was shot down in 1945, covering…
President’s Message By Larry Cohen President National Society of Newspaper Columnists Decades ago, the Hartford (Conn.) Courant shipped me off to the national conclave of the Episcopal Church, in Louisville. The Anglican natives were restless. There was news to be reported. Sure enough, the assembled faithful slapped around the sort-of-liberal church leadership at the time…
MACON, Ga. — Georgia-based entertainer Durwood “Mr. Doubletalk” Fincher punk’d participants at the 36th annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists on the event’s first day, Friday, May 4, 2012. Posing as his character Dr. Robert Payne, a vaguely credentialed academic/Washington consultant, Fincher stationed himself and a videographer in a room near the…
The second day of the NSNC conference opened with breakfast in the beautiful Magnolia Room of the Macon Marriott where columnists heard from humorist speaker, author, and columnist Lauretta Hannon, the Cracker Queen, who told about her childhood and how she has overcome adversity and poverty with a sense of humor and a memoir about…
Dave Barry. Photo by daniel portnoy www.danielportnoy.com MACON, Ga. — Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist Dave Barry will be honored with the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The announcement was made Thursday night, May 3, in Macon, Ga., at the top of the society’s 2012 national conference, where New York…
As seen in Stars and Stripes, 4/17/12 By Terri Barnes NSNC Member and Military Wife His was the first biography I ever read — at least the first one that had real chapters and more words than pictures. I was in the fifth grade, and I have not forgotten the story of his…
By Dave Lieber Fort Worth Star-Telegram No matter what crevice of Ernie Pyle’s life you look into, you find something interesting, honest and authentically American. His real name was Ernest, after all. April 18 marks the 18th annual celebration of the NSNC’s National Columnists Day, a project former NSNC President Bill Tammeus and I…
In an unexpected announcement, humor columnist and author W. Bruce Cameron announced that he has decided to discontinue his newspaper column on Jan 7th. Cameron made the announcement with his usual sense of humor: “So, after starting my column in 1995 as an email only thing, going to the Rocky Mountain News in 1998 and…
By Cynthia Borris NSNC Member Draped across the storefront the oversized banner beacons – Store Closing. One more time around, I circle the parking lot. Resigned to a long walk, I pull into a stall and reconsider. Do I really want to go to Borders today? Is there anything there that I need?Silent, I study…
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The following is an open letter to President Obama about World Press Freedom Day. It’s from the Student Press Law Center. A list of its signatories follows. On May 3, the United States will, for the first time, play host to World Press Freedom Day, an event that will focus an international spotlight on the…
You, the Columnist By Dave Lieber Fort Worth Star-Telegram Columnist www.YankeeCowboy.com Years ago, in this space, I wrote a piece wondering what the 21st century columnist would be like. Of course, I got it wrong. I didn’t understand how social media, not yet invented, would change what we do. I didn’t realize that the 21st…
A historic picture of the original grave site of Ernie Pyle, famous World War II columnist and news journalist, surfaced recently on Facebook. It shows a long trench-like grave site where Pyle was originally laid to rest among other fallen soldiers. An unidentified soldier pays final respects in a place as simple and honest as Pyle’s writing and as bleak as…
