The University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication granted three prestigious awards Thursday afternoon, all in the name of one man: Ancil Payne.
The Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism ceremony took place at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art with a relatively small but enthusiastic audience present.
Payne Award recipients are journalists who exhibit incomparable ethics in situations where the political, economic or legal environments surrounding them seem a hurdle that is insurmountable.
The awards were presented in two categories this year. Recipients of the Payne Award in the News Organization category were The Phoenix New Times and The Spokesman-Review.
The Phoenix New Times was selected based on its refusal to hand over to a grand jury detailed information regarding its Web site’s viewers, resulting in journalists’ arrests and jail time. The jury ordered the controversial subpoena as part of a long-term investigation regarding a sheriff and an alleged assassination plot.
When asked how he had made the decision to risk arrest for the protection of readers, New Times Executive Editor Michael Lacey said, “It was never a question of whether or not we were going to break the law; we were going to break the law.”
After the arrests, the paper decided to move forward with a story about the grand jury’s attempts to secure the information. Lacey wanted to go public because he believed readers should know about the events.
“If there was going to be a lynching, it was going to be a public lynching,” Lacey said. The public support for the paper was so overwhelming that the charges were dropped immediately.
Also facing intense pressure, in this case economic, was The Spokesman-Review of Spokane. The newspaper had lost reader support due to questionable reporting surrounding a development project that had been in progress for nearly 12 years. The paper’s publisher had major financial interests in the project and as a result, the public did not trust what the paper published about the project.
In order to regain support, The Spokesman-Review initiated an independent audit conducted by the Washington News Council, which investigated the truth of the stories on the development project from as far back as 10 years. The Washington News Council agreed to “let the chips fall where they may.” The council also demanded that the audit be published unedited and complete access be granted to the investigators.
Ashley Gough, editor of The Mount Observer at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, Mass., won the Award in the Collegiate Media category. Gough’s investigation of missing newspapers led her to suspect the president of her school as the key perpetrator of the crime. Gough had written an unflattering editorial on the president and when the newspapers went missing, she followed her instincts.
“I was not worried about my security as a student, but more my position as an un-biased investigator,” Gough said.
Following the awards ceremony, Dean Gleason conducted a panel and the audience asked questions about a range of journalistic topics, ranging from ethical dilemmas to the future of the field.
The award recipients seemed enthusiastic about new trends in the field, such as the expansion of online media, and continued to openly declare the importance of moral journalists in the field who present readers with what they need to know versus what they always want to know.
Lacey put it plainly: “We are not good neighbors, we are important ones.”
The awards ceremony celebrated not only the award winners but also the life of Ancil Payne. Tim Gleason, dean of the journalism school, spoke at the awards about his connection to Payne and his admiration for Payne’s work and his opinion.
“The other night I found myself wishing that I had a moment to ask Ancil what he thought about the presidential race this year,” said Gleason.
Payne’s daughter Ann was in the audience and responded, “My mother claims that he is up above orchestrating the whole thing.”
Payne attended Willamette University and the University of Oregon, and was a University of Washington graduate with a degree in political science. After some time working as an aide to Rep. Hugh B. Mitchell, he began work in journalism, hoping to inform the public about the importance of citizens’ involvement in political decision making.
In 1959 Payne began working for KING Broadcasting, and eventually became CEO and president of the organization. Throughout his life he practiced ethical decision making and was looked to as a guide for many in the industry. He established the Payne Awards in 1999.
Payne died of cancer in 2004, but the annual awards are a reminder of his work.