Photo: Birgit Pauli-Haack
She needs no introduction to the Naples community, but she is new at the helm of the Naples Press Club.
Donna Fiala and I have something in common. We were both born on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio! However, she has lived in Naples since 1974 and is much respected as our County Commissioner since 2000.
I’ve been checking out that huge, new, odd looking building on Immokalee Road for a year now, and finally had a chance to peek inside at a recent open house. Some information from a hand-out and personal observation:
Pick up local newspapers almost any day lately and you will see NPC members in the news.
Dorothy Jane Mills was featured in the banner spot on the front page of a recent Saturday edition, which included an inside feature story about the first female historian in the Society for American Baseball Research.
by Connie Kindsvater
Nicole, a life-long Yankees fan who grew up in New Jersey before moving to Naples with her parents and two younger brothers, was chosen as one of NPC’s 2008 Scholarship Students. A graduate of Palmetto Ridge H. S. in the top 10% of her class, Nicole enrolled in the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa as a Journalism major.
The ET Brisson Detachment, Marine Corps League of Naples, requests your attendance at the sixth Annual “Honor the Free Press Day”, Wednesday, March 17, 2010.
This year’s honoree is Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of Newshour, Public Broadcast System.
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But the NPC luncheon last Wednesday was quite festive and typical of a stadium experience.
Peanuts, Cracker Jacks, hot dogs, bratwurst, waitresses in T-shirts saying “Naples Wants the Cubs", and even audience members wearing Cubs baseball caps provided a fun atmosphere.
The picture of Immokalee painted by Brynn Bruijn and Phil Beuth at the last luncheon was both powerful, startling and unsettling. Hard to imagine the disparity of this poverty ridden town just 30 miles from what is said to be the richest county in the state.
Through the lens of Bruijn and with the banter of Beuth we learned that there is hope for change here, especially with the philanthropic efforts of the Collier Foundation which has granted millions of dollars to nonprofits over the past 20 years.
Information about the number of journalist murdered and imprisoned continues to startle. However, the most disturbing news story lately involved the blogs following the obit of Deborah Howell in “Politics Daily”.
Bloggers wrote a shocking number of angry, vile comments accusing Howell of being “a lefty”- since she was in the news business and noting “how fabulous that she was killed…one less of those anti-US types to deal with.”
When did journalists become so hated? Or is it that bloggers enjoy taking out their angst on the media—even someone they had never heard of until the day before yesterday?
Howell was a well-respected, former Washington Post omsbudsman and one of the first women to lead a major daily (St. Paul Pioneer Press) breaking the glass ceiling for women in journalism. She was a powerful presence in American journalism and doesn’t deserve this kind of vituperation.
Click here to read more via 'Politics Daily'.
New York, December 17, 2009 - At least 68 journalists worldwide were killed for their work in 2009, the highest yearly tally ever documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the organization said in its year-end analysis. The record toll was driven in large part by the election-related slaughter of more than 30 media workers in the Philippine province of Maguindanao, the deadliest event for the press in CPJ history.
Click here to learn more about the Commitee to Protect Journalists.
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