AAN Awards, Second Try
Last year, I entered a couple of stories in the AAN Awards contest. I didn't win anything, but a couple of staffers from the New Haven Advocate were recognized. This year, I've decided to enter again. This time, I'm sending in three entries and I'm spreading out a little in terms of the categories. The two categories I entered last year -- Feature Story and News Story, Long Form -- were the two that got the most entries. So this year, along with a Feature Story, I'm entering a Media Reporting piece and an entry in the Political Columns category. Here they are:
- In the category of Feature Story: Smith's Young Republican
This is a story I wrote about Smith College professor Jim Miller, a poster boy for the right-wing campaign against the "liberal campus." Miller won a tenure fight at Smith College, claiming that his department, Economics, had denied his tenure because he was a conservative.
- In the category of Media Reporting: Poking the White Underbelly
This was the story I wrote about Air America Radio personality Rachel Maddow. Recently, Maddow has actually seen her presence on Air America double as they moved her from a one-hour slot to a two-hour one. This story got picked up by both AltWeeklies.com and Alternet. And then it got linked to from BuzzFlash.com. In fact, I still think Alternet title is better than the original, it went: "Air American Girl: Meet the Air America Radio personality that has Rush Limbaugh asking, 'Has anyone heard of Rachel Maddow?'"
- In the category of Political Column, I entered a slate of three "Between the Lines" columns: Picketing is Not Enough, Shifting Ground and Messing With Massachusetts
Writing columns is something I do only on occasion, but I feel like I've scored a few hits. These columns are about a progressive student group at UMass, civil unions in Connecticut (and what it says about Massachusetts) and Mitt Romney. (An aside, the other day, a blogger at BlueMassGroup rung up this delightful headline for a piece on Romney's final State of the State address: Mitterdämmerung. Brilliant!)