The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists held its 12th Annual Media Awards ceremony on Nov. 15 at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, 3700 Blue Parkway.

In addition to presenting scholarships to students and media awards to area professionals, KCABJ gave its 2002-2003 Thumbs Down Award to C.J. Janovy of Pitch Weekly, a Kansas City alternative newspaper, for her unprofessional, race-based, inaccurate July 3-9, 2003, column, 'Copy Cat: The Star shows its stripes.'

The column was about Glenn Rice, a reporter for The Kansas City Star, who was disciplined by the newspaper nearly a year earlier. Janovy had pursued the issue in 2002, contacting Rice, but dropped it. She resurrected the issue and wrote the column after Jayson Blair resigned in May as a reporter for The New York Times after that newspaper discovered that Blair not only massively plagiarized many of his articles but also made up information in his articles. The only similarity between Blair and Rice is that both are black. Janovy's assertion that Rice received favorable treatment from The Star because of his race was just one of many inaccuracies in her column. Rice is a member of the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists, but even if he weren't, KCABJ members said, it would not have affected their decision in this year's Thumbs Down Award.

KCABJ President Anita K. Parran made the announcement of the 2003 Thumbs Down Award.

The Janovy column included Rice's photograph and an illustration that appeared to be a caricature of a black burglar, stealing words -- an image KCABJ also found racially offensive.

The KCABJ Thumbs Down Award annually goes to a Kansas City area media personality or company for setting back the image of African Americans or other people of color in Greater Kansas City. This award is balanced against the honors KCABJ annually gives to area journalists and the media for enterprise reporting, photography, art, commentary, advertising and new media about people of color. The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists takes great care in naming the Thumbs Down Award recipient, requiring specific documentation.

KCABJ prefers not to bestow its infamous Thumbs Down Award on any media or persons in the media, and there have been good years when no Thumbs Down Award was given. However, the organization takes the action, hoping that by pointing out significant problems in the profession it can push the press toward positive change. That will benefit the entire Greater Kansas City community.

Scholarship Winners

Scholarship winners are graduates of the Summer 2003 KCABJ Urban Student Journalism Workshop at Rockhurst University. They are among the 10 high school and college students metrowide who completed in the intensive two-week program in print, broadcast and convergence journalism.

The KCABJ membership voted this year to create a new scholarship named after Lucile H. Bluford, the longtime publisher and editor of The Call of Kansas City. Ms. Bluford died June 13 at age of 91. Tracy Allen, a reporter at The Call, and Donna Stewart, publisher and managing editor of The Call, made the presentation of the first KCABJ Lucile H. Bluford Scholarship to Jasmine Taylor. She is a senior at Lincoln Preparatory Academy. Taylor received a $500 savings bond.

KCABJ Vice President/Print Tanyanika Samuels and KCABJ member and former President Glenn E. Rice coordinated the print and broadcast weeks of the workshop. They gave out the KCABJ-Roy Wilkins and KCABJ-Nancy Diuguid scholarships to the recipients.

The KCABJ Roy Wilkins Scholarship has been awarded annually since 1987. It is named after a former editor of The Call, Roy Wilkins, who also served as head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People during the Civil Rights Movement.

The winner of the 2003 KCABJ-Roy Wilkins Scholarship is Tyler N. Yarbrough. She received $2,000 in savings bonds for college. She is a junior at St. Teresa's Academy.

Laura Hockaday, longtime society page editor at The Kansas City Star, joined Samuels and Rice on stage to present the scholarship that carries her name. The Laura R. Hockaday KCABJ Kansas City Star Scholarship went to Ann Langworthy, a junior at St. Teresa's Academy. Hockaday retired in 2000 from The Kansas City Star. Hockaday has received numerous awards for making her work inclusive of the racial, ethnic, gender and other diversity in Greater Kansas City. Langworthy is the recipient of a $1,000 college scholarship from The Kansas City Star.

Rice and Samuels presented the KCABJ-Nancy Diuguid Scholarship. It is annually funded by KCABJ Treasurer Lewis Diuguid and named for his mother, who died in 1994 of Alzheimer's disease. She had longed to be a journalist, but such career options were mostly closed to young black women in the 1950s. The winner of the 10th KCABJ-Nancy Diuguid Scholarship is Courtney E. Brame, a sophomore at Pembroke Hill School. Brame received a $500 savings bond for college.

Each scholarship award was based on the students' performance during the workshop.

President's Award

The KCABJ President's Award goes to the area journalist who has done the most to further the interests of the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists. This also is an individual who selflessly gives of his or her time, talent and resources to benefit other journalists of color in Greater Kansas City. KCABJ President Anita K. Parran has picked Pamela Spencer for the 2003 KCABJ President's Award. Spencer is a copy editor for The Kansas City Star. She did an incredible amount of work editing, writing headlines, sizing photographs and designing the 2003 KCABJ Journal, which is the newspaper containing the students' stories from the workshop that The Kansas City Star annually publishes.

Media Awards

Other 2003 KCABJ Media Awards recipients went to: