Oklahoma Gazette staff writer Ben Fenwick tied for first place in the Domestic Coverage (newspapers with a circulation less than 100,000) category of the Military Reporters and Editors 2006 Awards Contest, the paper announced today. Fenwick was recognized for two stories on the National Guard's role in the evacuation of New Orleans.
To get a good cover, all you need is an old keyboard from the computer morgue, a Bible under a mechanic's spotlight, or an associate publisher willing to lie down and play dead. That's how Oklahoma Gazette art director Christopher Street and photographer Shannon Cornman came up with their award-winning cover designs. This is the 30th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
During its 25 years, the Oklahoma Gazette has evolved "from a monthly preservation newsletter with a skeleton staff of volunteers to the third-largest newspaper in the state," Preston Jones writes. A timeline highlights some memorable events in the paper's history. Gazette reporters did award-winning coverage of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, then attracted the attention of the national media and FBI after staff writer Phil Bacharach struck up a correspondence with convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh. This year, publisher Bill Bleakley led an effort to get a painting of singer Woody Guthrie hung in the State Capitol. Bleakley says the Gazette will continue its mission of being an independent voice that addresses all the issues of the day.
An editor at the Daily Oklahoman and another at AAN-member Oklahoma Gazette lose their jobs after revealing that the daily's weather writer was lifting material from the Internet without attribution, Jim Romenesko writes in Media News Extra! Gazette media columnist Carol Cole exposed the plagiarism after getting tipped by someone at the Oklahoman. She "says she was fired from the Gazette after an argument with her editor over the editing of her column," Romenesko writes. And at the Oklahoman, "fired editor and reporter, Scott Cooper, denies he gave the item to Cole, but he admits he told others he was the source" to make himself feel important. Meanwhile weather writer Gary England says he'll start crediting NASA and others when he uses their material in his stories.
