L.A. Times Shines in the Sacramento Press Club Journalism Awards
Times Columnist Erika D. Smith and Reporters Rosanna Xia and Melody Gutierrez were among the winners at the inaugural journalism awards program.
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The Los Angeles Times earned three top awards and several finalist nods in the Sacramento Press Club’s inaugural journalism awards program. The awards, which were presented in a virtual ceremony last Thursday night, honored the best journalism focused on state politics and policy in California.
Columnist Erika D. Smith was the winner in the best commentary category for a range of work, including Should California’s next U.S. senator be Black or Latino? Both if Feinstein quits and California could soon end its dumb policy on inmate firefighters. What took so long?
The competition’s judges lauded Smith’s entries, noting that her columns “all had a clear, compelling, public spirited point of view” and “reflected her own immersion in the subjects she chose to research and write about from a strong personal perspective.”
“It’s been a crazy year to start a column,” Smith said in a brief acceptance speech. “I look forward to spending more years doing this and covering the state of California.”
Environmental Reporter Rosanna Xia earned a first place award for best environmental reporting for A toxic secret lurks in the deep sea, an investigation into the destructive impact of containers holding DDT that were long ago dumped off the Southern California coast.
“Xia does a masterful job of using both history and new scientific research to tell the story of this long-haul poisoning of the ocean,” the judges noted. “She seamlessly charts the politics of risk and denial, and explains the roles of both old and new technologies, to create a remarkable portrait of how past decisions haunt our environmental future.”
Staff Writer Melody Gutierrez won the award for Capitol enterprise for Million-dollar views, cheap rent and allegations of favoritism at California state parks, which explores a policy in which coveted state park properties are rented to California parks department employees at below-market rates.
The judges praised Gutierrez for her “well-executed, ambitious” reporting. “With detailed evidence from state documents, property tax data and exhaustive interviews, Melody Gutierrez revealed rampant abuse of a little-known perk: low-cost housing for favored parks’ employees amid the state’s most spectacular landscapes,” they noted.
Below is a list of The Times’ winners and finalists by category.
Best Commentary
Winner: Erika D. Smith
Finalist: George Skelton
Best Environmental Reporting
Winner: Rosanna Xia
Capitol Enterprise
Winner: Melody Gutierrez
Finalists: Patrick McGreevy, Maria L. La Ganga
Daily Capitol Beat Reporting
Finalists: Taryn Luna, Phil Willon
Best Housing/Homelessness Reporting
Finalist: Liam Dillon, Ben Poston and Julia Barajas
Best Racial Justice Reporting
Finalist: Anita Chabria
Best Newsletter
Finalist: John Myers, Essential Politics
The full list of winners can be found at sacpressclub.org.
