Hazel Trice Edney Receives ‘Career Achievement Award’; Encourages Ethnic Media to ‘Raise the Bar’
Hazel Trice Edney receives Career Achievement Award from New America Media's Alexandra Moe, NAM Washington, D.C. director, and Sandy Close, NAM executive director.
WASHINGTON (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Hazel Trice Edney, editor-in-chief of the Trice Edney News Wire and president and CEO of Trice Edney Communications, was the recipient of the “Career Achievement Award” during the New America Media’s (NAM) Ethnic Media Awards last week.
The awards, held Feb. 15, at the University of California’s Washington, D.C. campus recognizes “the best in ethnic print, broadcast, and online journalism from 2010 in the Washington, Virginia and Maryland areas.”
“For years, New America Media has recognized people whose leadership of their particular ethnic news organization has helped sustain and inspire the entire sector. The better term for this award might be exceptional communicator. But it also recognizes an individual's dedication and expertise spanning many years,” says Sandy Close, executive director, New America Media.
Edney, a 25-year veteran of the Black Press, served as Washington correspondent for the news service of the National Newspaper Publishers Association for seven years and then as NNPA’s editor-in-chief for three years until she resigned last September. On November 19, she launched Trice Edney News Wire at the National Press Club.
Winners of the Career Achievement Award embodies what the late Oakland Post editor, Chauncey Bailey, NAM’s co-founder, described as being “like the fingers on a hand: when they work together they make a fist. Hazel has been the glue that held NNPA together as a fist during what may have been its most challenging decade,” Close said.
Edney, who was also keynote speaker at the event, challenged the audience of multiple ethnicities to “raise the bar” in their quest to “plead our own cause” even as White-owned media attempt to create Black news sections.
“What is so incredible is that the same main stream media companies that have done such an embarrassingly poor job of accurately portraying people of color on their pages and broadcast outlets are now seeking to create sites to report our news - Black news – colored sections - if you will, for economic gain,” Edney said. “I send a message to them now that you would never have to create a separate section for us if you integrated us and our issues onto your front pages in the first place,” she said to applause.
Edney, who started her newspaper career with the Richmond Afro-American Newspaper in 1985, was subsequently staff writer for the Richmond Free Press for eight years. After a master’s degree program at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and a one-year congressional fellowship, she was recruited to NNPA by then NNPA executive director, Ben Jealous, now NAACP president & CEO. Jealous received a similar NAM award in 2000.
The Trice Edney News Wire logos describes the news service as “provocative, empowering, unapologetically Black”.
Edney was also recognized this month in a “Living Legends” profile on Tom Joyner’s Black America Web. The profile was part of BlackAmericaWeb.com's Black History Month coverage, exploring “the lives of notable black Americans across the spectrums of politics, media, activism, business and entertainment throughout February,” the story states. The writer, Jackie Jones, calls Edney an “unapologetic race woman.”
Other NAM winners are as follows:
BEST LOCAL NEWS:
First Place (Tie): “Hardy Students Demand Principal’s Return,” Norma
Porter Anthony, The Washington Informer
First Place (Tie): “Shedding Light on the Neglected Muslim Consumer
Market,” Minhaj Hasan, The Muslim Link
Runner Up: “Asian Americans Desperately Needed to Join ‘Be the Match
Marrow Registry’,” Cathy Crenshaw Doheny, Asian Fortune
BEST IMMIGRATION COVERAGE:
First Place: “Immigration Status Not a Factor in Receiving WIC
Benefits,” Seng Lim Yu, The Korea Daily
Runner Up: “Mustafa Center Rises from Humble Beginnings,” Sufia Alnoor
and Rashad Mulla, The Muslim Link
BEST INVESTIGATIVE NEWS:
First Place (Tie): “Separate But Not Equal: Israel’s Arab Citizens,”
Dina Kraft, Moment Magazine
First Place (Tie): “The Strange Death of Rubén Salazar: Accident or
Assassination?” Frank O. Sotomayor, Hispanic Link
Runner Up: “Community Health Centers,” Paula Andalo, El Tiempo Latino
BEST ARTS, SPORTS, AND ENTERTAINMENT:
First Place: “Banned Practice – Music Censorship,” Amina Elahi, Divanee.com
Runner Up: “The Curious Case of Walter Mosley,” Johanna Neuman, Moment Magazine
BEST COMMENTARY:
First Place: “Prioritizing Politics Over Unity Hurt the Community,”
Minhaj Hasan, The Muslim Link
Runner Up: “Fatty, Fatty, Two By Four,” Jose de la Isla, Hispanic Link
BEST PHOTOJOURNALISM:
First Place: “Woman Struggling to Read,” Carlos Andres Vargas, ML
News, Metrolatinousa.com
Runner Up: “Neda Pro-Democracy Demonstration,” Ali Khaligh, Iranians Weekly
BEST FEATURE WRITING:
First Place (Tie): “Soledad O’Brien Talks Race with The Washington
Informer,” Shantella Sherman, The Washington Informer
Denise Barnes, “CNN’s partnership with The Washington Informer on
Black in America special”
First Place (Tie): “In the Lord’s Time,” Neil Rubin, Baltimore Jewish Times
Runner Up: “Hurdling Campaign Brickbats May Offer Bully Pulpit
Against Racism,” Rita Gerona Adkins, Asian Fortune
BEST BROADCAST:
First Place: “Mexican Immigrants Returning to their Homeland,” Anne L.
Wakefield, Grupo Radio Central
Runner Up: “Workers’ Protection,” Armando Guzman, Azteca America
BEST INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS:
First Place: “Blogging Suicides: The Death of Foreign Migrant Domestic
Workers in Lebanon,” Dereje Desta, ZeEthiopia
Runner Up: “Local Students of Farhar Hashmi Defend Movement Against
Accusations,” Zunara Naeem, The Muslim Link
SPECIAL MENTION
Special Mention for 2010 Census Coverage: Pho Nho Newspaper
Special Mention for Coverage on Aging: Pakistan Post
Special Mention for Community Coverage: Nepali Post