Freelancers and bloggers don't have the mighty PR machine of a big media employer to trumpet their pathetic triumphs.
Tout-wise, we're on our own.
That's why we're proud to announce we brought home the first place Lucite this year from the Society of Professional Journalists' annual awards dinner Saturday night. We also got a third place for magazine humor writing. (unfortunately, we did not attend- having blown our rubber chicken budget two months ago at a potluck bloggers' awards banquet in Raymond, WA, at which we bupkused in the awards dep't).
It was in the magazine Social Issues Reporting category for our piece A Long Way from Home, on Seattle homelessness in the November 2006 Seattle magazine. (which is, sadly, not on-line, so you'll have to go to the library...).
The judges made it a tie; giving the talented Carol Tice her own First Place slab of plexiglass for her Seattle piece on foster children.
(These are our 11 & 12th SPJ awards, but only our second First Place. (the first one was a shared one for humor and was collaborative with Steve Andersen).
Congratulations Bla'M! The whole damn Bla'm family is proud of ya!
Posted by: sparky | June 05, 2007 at 07:10 PM
sparky says it right: congrats Bla'M...you da man!
Posted by: Duffman | June 05, 2007 at 07:15 PM
Congratulations! Did you get a Leg Lamp? (It's a major award!)
Posted by: cowpotpi3 | June 05, 2007 at 07:37 PM
This is such bullshit. You can buy these "honors" on the internet. Michael Hood is not a journalist, he is a scam.
Posted by: SARS | June 05, 2007 at 07:47 PM
That article on homelessness kept us talking for quite some time . . . wonder what old ExDem is doing these days. It was wonderful, and I wonder what's going on with all that. Might deserve a follow up, Michael.
Leg lamp? Do they still make those, cowpot? I thought Ralphie's mom might have demolished the last one . . . :)
Congratulations to a great writer! and one who is never allowed to go on vacation again.
Posted by: joanie | June 05, 2007 at 08:18 PM
stay away from SARS and the Hantavirus! ya know?
Posted by: coiler | June 05, 2007 at 08:47 PM
Wow, Bla"M, that will look fabulous on your shelf next to your "Best Jello Salad" award! Congrats!
Posted by: Fremont | June 06, 2007 at 12:06 PM
Much ado about who the best bullshit artist is - could it be, oh no it is...blatherwatch abound with flatulence !
Posted by: KS | June 06, 2007 at 08:53 PM
Note there is a vast great difference between being a bullshit artist and being full of shit (hi there right wingers!).
Posted by: cowpotpi3 | June 06, 2007 at 09:15 PM
King Shit!
Posted by: coiler | June 06, 2007 at 09:28 PM
Proving yourself to be KluelesS again. You are dependable at least.:)
Posted by: joanie | June 06, 2007 at 09:53 PM
Pho(Joa)nie - your pseudo - intellectual discourse underwhelms me. your'e out.
Collier is Mr. Scatology.
Posted by: KS | June 08, 2007 at 10:49 AM
That should be coiler is Mr. Scatology..
Being full of hate and of yourself - hi there leftwing and rightwing extremists.
Posted by: KS | June 08, 2007 at 10:51 AM
...don't ever recall joanie claiming to be an excrement expert? :)
Posted by: Duffman | June 08, 2007 at 11:48 AM
OMG! Even Dave Ross was talking about the Paris Hilton fiasco today! It's like dominos - they all fall in line together? So how many died in Iraq today...guess that's not as important as good 'ol Paris...eh
UNfrigginREAL!!!
Posted by: Duffman | June 08, 2007 at 12:47 PM
Note how "news" has the word "new" in it.
Posted by: Andrew | June 08, 2007 at 01:10 PM
I think what's most interesting is her emotional outburst over having to serve a short time in jail. It display for all the world to see 1) that the contrast in life styles between the rich and the incarcerated is so extreme is prompts a grown woman to cry for her mommy and 2) that money can't buy emotional strength and 3) even though O.J. bought freedom, this girl can't and Martha Stewart couldn't either, and that re-affirms my faith in the justice arm and reminds everybody that money doesn't but the kind of happiness that lasts.
Posted by: Andrew | June 08, 2007 at 01:20 PM
..by implication 'news' should be RELEVANT !!! P.H. should not be RELEVANT..in my mind; but what do I know I'm just a non-Jew here in Edmonds. :)
Posted by: Duffman | June 08, 2007 at 01:23 PM
...at least 'Martha' took it like a 'woman'!
Posted by: Duffman | June 08, 2007 at 01:25 PM
Martha seemingly enhanced not only herself by the 'experience' but apparently others around her as well. Now that's 'TRUE' beauty.
Posted by: Duffman | June 08, 2007 at 01:54 PM
Martha Stewart earned her riches. Strength of character was a pre-requisite on her path.
Inheritance and nepotism is the sad result of humanity merging with the concept of capitalism. We get embarrasments like George Bush and Donald Trump who turn their father's legacies to salt. They are asked to maintain that which they couldn't have possibly created themselves. The talented fathers who know how to play capitalism aproach their biological conclusion and feel compelled to leave their riches in the incapable hands of their spoiled children.
Rupert Murdoch is trying his hardest to give his empire to his kids but it's not working out.
Part of what makes The Apprentice wildly grotesque is the fact that an old man with realy bad taste who is made up of found wealth criticizes and looms over young people smart enough to earn it for themselves, and they are smart enough to realize it, they are groveling at the feet of the king, begging for his favor.
Posted by: Andrew | June 08, 2007 at 01:56 PM
I thought King Shit was going away from an earlier good bye?
Posted by: coiler | June 08, 2007 at 01:57 PM
CNN is trying to do the relevant news thing and getting it's ass handed to them by Fox News with their hate speach and journalists-I'd-like-to-fuck.
Posted by: Andrew | June 08, 2007 at 02:00 PM
Well spoken Andrew, I think you nailed it pretty well. That's one reason why I'm fond of Warren Buffett. [and I think Bill Gates is in the same mold].
Posted by: Duffman | June 08, 2007 at 02:00 PM
GREAT objective analysis of journalists there Andrew! ;)
Posted by: Duffman | June 08, 2007 at 02:04 PM
Duffman - read more carefully.
I was speaking of his pseudo-highness of lowlife - coiler
Posted by: KS | June 08, 2007 at 03:27 PM