LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Editors for the Long Beach Press-Telegram and Los Angeles Times, a KFI radio news editor, a Univision anchor/reporter and a freelance writer/author were named today recipients of Distinguished Journalist awards by the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The organization also announced it will present its Freedom of Information Award to attorney Scott Sanders, whose work for the Orange County Public Defender's Office shed light on the long-term questionable use of jailhouse informants by the sheriff's department and prosecutors.
The Distinguished Journalist honorees are Rich Archbold, public editor of the Long Beach Press-Telegram; Steve Padilla, the Column One editor and Metpro director of the Los Angeles Times; KFI news editor Nicole M. Campbell; KMEX Univision 34 anchor/reporter and host Gabriela Teissier; and David Dayen, freelance journalist and author.
The awards honor journalists who demonstrate good news judgment, a strong sense of ethics and a passion for getting the story right, as well as career accomplishments. The chapter has recognized reporters, editors and photographers in print and broadcast journalism for nearly four decades. The Freedom of Information award honors a non-journalist who has helped promote First Amendment issues.
Archbold became managing editor of the Press-Telegram in 1978 after more than a decade at The Miami (Florida) Herald. He oversaw the Long Beach paper's coverage of the Queen Mary being wooed to the harbor and of the closure of the region's mammoth Naval base. He became the public editor, overseeing the local Opinion pages, in 2013.
Padilla joined The Times in 1987 as a police reporter, but soon moved on to editing, most recently serving as enterprise editor on the foreign- national desk. He oversees not only the Column One front-page feature, but the Metpro two-year fellowship program aimed at promoting newsroom diversity.
Campbell's journalism resume includes stints with KNX Newsradio the Signal newspaper in Santa Clarita. She also worked at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and, after a temporary move to the Midwest, returned to Los Angeles and joined KFI. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Teissier hosts the Univision Los Angeles morning show “A Primera Hora (At First Hour)," and is a six-time Emmy awardee. She is also a recipient of the Othli Award, the highest honor the Mexican government gives outside Mexico's territory, honoring individuals who have positively affected the lives of Mexican nationals in other countries.
David Dayen is the Leonard Goodman investigative fellow at In These Times magazine, and previously had stints as a television editor and political blogger. He contributes to The Intercept, The New Republic, The American Prospect and the Los Angeles Times. He authored the book “Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud,” winning the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize for a debut work of non-fiction that serves the public interest.
Sanders, the Freedom of Information winner, has been an attorney with the Orange County Public Defender's Office for 26 years. Through his representation of Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in the county's history, Sanders filed repeated motions shedding light on years of questionable law- enforcement use of jailhouse informants. His work led to the District Attorney's Office being removed from the Dekraai case, and has led to reviews of more than a dozen cases due to the involvement of snitches behind bars.
The awards will be presented during SPJ-LA's 43rd annual Distinguished Journalist banquet March 20 at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.