Anthony Lewis and Molly Ivins Receive Aronson Lifetime Achievement Awards for Social Justice Journalism from Hunter College

Date: March 27, 2006
Contact: Meredith Halpern (meredith.halpern@hunter.cuny.edu)
Phone: (212) 772-4068

NEW YORK -- Former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, syndicated writer Molly Ivins and other winners of Hunter College’s 2005 James Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism will be honored during a ceremony open to the public 6 PM, Tuesday, April 11, in the Faculty Dining Room, located on the Eighth Floor, Hunter College West Building, 68th Street and Lexington Avenue.

The event will feature a keynote introduction by Wayne Barrett, longtime Village Voice investigative reporter and the first Jack Newfield Visiting Professor of Journalism at Hunter College.

Lewis and Ivins will both receive lifetime achievement awards and talk about their work.

Lewis – a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner – retired from the Times in 2001, but continues to write incisively in the New York Review of Books, the Nation and other publications. His remarkable career of journalistic commentary, informed by a profound understanding of American history and constitutional law, has consistently espoused values of reason and rights, decency and law.

Ivins, the longtime syndicated columnist based in Texas, has demonstrated brilliantly for years that there is no contradiction between passionate social commitment and a rollicking sense of humor. She gives the world an invaluable gift - political journalism that is fair and good, but at the same time helps us to laugh at the hypocritical blundering of our leaders.

Other 2005 James Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism go to:
Gary Fields of the Wall Street Journal – for exposing problems in the prison system arising from 20 years of “get-tough” sentencing.

Kevin Fagan of the San Francisco Chronicle – for his ongoing coverage of the homeless issue.

Tracie McMillan of City Limits magazine – for consistent, rigorous reporting on public affairs affecting low-income and working class people in New York City.

The first Aronson Award for blogging went to University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole for his Iraq War web log, “Informed Comment.”

Freelance cartoonist and illustrator Kirk Anderson won the 2005 “Cartooning with a Conscience” award.

The awards have been administered since 1990 by the Hunter College Department of Film & Media Studies and a committee of journalists, media professionals, scholars and activists. James Aronson was a longtime distinguished Hunter College professor of journalism - and a founder and editor of the crusading news weekly, The National Guardian.

About Hunter
With a highly diverse student population of more than 20,000, Hunter is the largest college in the City University of New York (CUNY) system and the first choice among all CUNY applicants. Founded in 1870, the College offers more than 170 undergraduate and graduate programs. Hunter is noted for its professional schools in education, health sciences, nursing and social work, as well as its excellence in the liberal arts. Heralded as the "Crown Jewel of CUNY" by The Princeton Review, Hunter College has a distinguished reputation for nurturing talented minority scientists and meeting the challenge of providing high-quality science education in the 21st century. The College also oversees the Hunter College Campus Schools serving gifted and talented students, preschool through grade 12. For more information about Hunter College, please visit our Web site at http://www.hunter.cuny.edu.

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