- CST Media
- Peter Lisagor
Speaking personally, the Headline Club’s Lisagor Awards dinner has become a big deal in recent years because I get to stand in front of the crowd with my friend Len Aronson, say a few words, and make a presentation. Applause rings in our ears. Last Friday’s dinner marked the fourth time that we’ve given a Chicago journalist the Anne Keegan Award for Distinguished Journalism, which Len founded to honor his late wife, a former Tribune columnist. The award celebrates work that reflects “the dignity and spirit of the common man.”
I always liked the ethics award because of the way it riled me up. Some of Bukro’s choices were beyond dispute—for example, Carol Marin, honored in 1997 for resigning from Channel Five after it hired Jerry Springer as a commentator. But other times I felt Bukro was straining; one of those times was 1999, when the editor of the Sun-Times, Nigel Wade, won the award simply for running the story of a school shooting on an inside page. I thought Bukro’s thinking about ethics in journalism missed the point: ethical journalism isn’t so rare it has to be singled out and garlanded to keep it alive. Journalists make ethical choices as a matter of routine, and the ethical behavior that most impresses me didn’t register on Bukro’s radar at all. This behavior is simply sticking with a story.
Recently, Bukro began discussing AdviceLine topics in his blog. His most recent post gets into the question of newspaper publishers and editors who join the boards of local civic groups, a situation that’s come up in queries more than once. Bukro categoricially disapproves; he thinks journalists need to draw clean, clear lines that the public can’t misinterpret. To me he described a tricky situation presented to the AdviceLine several years ago.
