What's the deal in Dallas?

carrie · Apr 25, 2007

My shop went around collecting Katies trophies to send back to the DPC.

So no, we won't be listing any of them on our collective resumes.

finishthehat · Apr 25, 2007

What's funny is that she (allegedly) gave herself awards for things like "Best Investigative Reporting" in the category of major market newspapers, which meant her work for The Bond Buyer beat out any invstigative pieces by, say, the Dallas Morning News, Startlegram, Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and any of the other big papers in the five-state area.

Danny Noonan · Apr 25, 2007

txsportsscribe said:

from the dallas biz journal followup:

Press Club president no longer believes '06 Katies were judged
Dallas Business Journal - 4:20 PM CDT Friday, April 20, 2007
by Dave Moore
Staff Writer

The new president of the Press Club of Dallas says he no longer believes the 2006 Katie Awards were judged at all. And the 2005 edition of the journalism and mass communications contest also is in question, club President Tom Stewart said Friday.

The club now plans to hire an attorney and seek a sworn statement from its former president, Elizabeth Albanese, Stewart added.

The Dallas Business Journal first reported April 14 that the Press Club of Dallas could not identify who judged the 2006 contest. The Katie program is the marquee event for the Press Club, which uses proceeds from the function to provide journalism scholarships to college students through the Press Club of Dallas Foundation, a nonprofit corporation.

Stewart late last week attempted to reach judges from a list of e-mail addresses provided to him by Albanese, who was chiefly in charge of finding judges to review the 2006 Katies entries.

"I received an e-mail back from one of them today," Stewart said following an executive session of the Press Club board of directors Friday. The e-mail, he added, said: "Yes, I did that. I helped participate in the process. And I'd be happy to do it again. Probably not to the extent that we did it last year."

Stewart said the e-mail contained the phone number of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

"When I asked for the person, they indicated that no one worked in that particular building at St. Jude's by that name," Stewart said.
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Paging the Virginia Press Association ...

lone star scribe · Apr 25, 2007

I read that the Star-Telegram was returning its 2006 Katie awards. Other returns are sure to follow. The investigation may go back earlier and cover 2004 and 2005, too.

SockPuppet · Apr 25, 2007

DMN won't ask its reporters to return Katies. Here's the meno, y'all:

TO: Colleagues
FROM: George Rodrigue and Bob Mong
RE: Katies

We’re writing to discuss the Katie Awards, in light of recent events at the Dallas Press Club.

Some of y’all have asked whether the paper plans to â€œreturnâ€ its awards. We don’t feel that would serve any important purpose. The awards very clearly have little value; just as clearly, returning them would make very little difference. Moreover, these awards generally go to individuals, not to the organization itself. We believe it’s up to each individual to decide what to make of the 2005 and 2006 awards. We will not order anyone to return an individual award, but we’d be leery of making anything of them, either, on mantelpieces or in resumes.

Others have asked whether The News will demand return of its contest-entry money. We have no such plans. The money raised by the Katie competition funds journalism scholarships for local college students. We see no point in depriving those young journalists of support. As for the future, we have every reason to believe that the current leaders of the press club -- and the foundation that funds it -- are dedicated to setting things right. They’ve appointed an investigative panel and retained a very competent lawyer to review administrative and financial issues, and resolve them. Some of our own best people are on this panel. We believe we should support their efforts.

Finally, questions have arisen about whether we will participate in the 2007 awards. That remains unresolved. The Press Club’s new leaders are exploring ways to put the Katies back together again. The Associated Press’ leadership has offered to find experienced, capable judges for this year. So everyone has good intentions, and some progress has been made. Even so, some of us wonder whether it’s just too much to ask the organization to launch the right kind of contest in 2007. We wonder whether a one-year hiatus might be appropriate, or, at the very least, moving the contest back to early 2008. Discussions on that question continue. We’ll let you know how the issue is resolved. We’ll definitely not participate in a contest unless we are convinced that it meets our standards, in terms of excellence and ethics.

Thanks for your interest, and please let us know if you have any questions.

George and Bob
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Perry White · May 1, 2007

UPDATE: Dallas Press Club sues former president
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/050207dnmetpressclubsuit.28c4b0d5.html

The Press Club of Dallas is suing its former president for allegedly faking the judging of the Katie Awards, one of the region’s top prizes for journalists.

The suit, filed Monday in Dallas County District Court, also claims that Elizabeth Albanese was involved in â€œdishonest and fraudulentâ€ activity with the club’s finances during her 19 months as president.
...
The lawsuit - which follows months of internal inquiries and almost deafening buzz in media circles - claims that there was no independent judging in at least some of the years and award categories since 2003.

The suit does not spell out the specifics of the financial claims against Ms. Albanese, but an earlier club inquiry found she had put a number of personal expenses on a club credit card, including shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue and a stay at the W Hotel in New York, club officials said. They have said Ms. Albanese repaid those costs.

beefncheddar · Jun 13, 2007

It's worse than we thought, kids:

President of Dallas Press Club says group’s 2004 journalism awards were rigged

By JEFF CARLTON
Associated Press Writer
DALLAS (AP) — The president of the Press Club of Dallas, who previously determined that the group’s prestigious journalism competition was rigged in 2006 and 2005, said Wednesday that he believes no judges ever viewed entries for the 2004 contest either.
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[asshole]Whew. Looks like 2001, 2002 are safe.[/asshole]

Bob Slydell · Jun 13, 2007

Well, for people that think awards are crap, this definitely gives them some ammunition.

I saw where the Star-Telegram was giving awards back and DMN won't ask their winners to. BUt if you won one, would you give it back? Would you really feel you won it? I'm not sure I would.

Bob Slydell · Jun 13, 2007

Sorry about the previous D_B, Webby can feel free to remove.

JayFarrar · Jun 14, 2007

I know a guy who won a couple, and he gave them away. One is now the trophy for the winner of a fantasy football league.
The other is sitting in my living room and I have yet to decide what to do with it.
I'll say this, it at least feels like a real award. Sumbitch is heavy.

finishthehat · Jun 14, 2007

Long take-out on the situation by the alt-weekly:

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-06-14/news/kiss-me-katie/full

The older Katie statues used to be a lot more anatomically correct than the newer ones, fwiw.

write then drink · Jun 14, 2007

she shoulda given herself a couple firsts and then maybe a third or honorable mention

kind of make it look more authentic

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