Two Times Writers Win National Journalism Awards

Los Angeles Times media writer David Shaw and Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke were honored this week by the Society of Professional Journalists with 1999 Sigma Delta Chi awards for excellence in journalism.

Shaw won in the category of non-deadline reporting for his analysis of The Times’ decision to share profits of the paper’s Sunday magazine on Oct. 10, 1999, with Staples Center, the subject of that issue.

The profit sharing--considered a troubling break from journalistic principles and a threat to the paper’s credibility--resulted in a firestorm of criticism inside the paper and in scrutiny by national news media.

Shaw, a writer with The Times since 1968, won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1991 for a series on the media coverage of the McMartin Pre-School child molestation trial.

Plaschke won in the sports column category.

His subjects included a USC women’s basketball player with epilepsy, the retirement of quarterback John Elway and a Thanksgiving story about a boy Plaschke met through the Big Brothers program and their lifelong friendship.

Plaschke, a Times sportswriter since 1987, was named California Sportswriter of the Year in 1998 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Assn.

Shaw and Plaschke were among 44 Sigma Delta Chi winners this year at newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations and Internet sites across the country.