There’s something you don’t see every day
Wait, what?
That might be the reaction from many people reading the news about the winners of Nevada Press Association’s annual awards. One of the very minor post-scripts in that contest: Yours truly won a first-place award.
For editorial writing!
How in the world, some might ask, did the liberal political columnist of the Review-Journal win a plaque for writing editorials for one of the most conservative newspaper editorial pages in the country? Was there a coup?
Fear not: All is well. But more than a few readers probably want an explanation, so here goes:
After the purchase of newspaper in December, then-Senior Editorial Writer Glenn Cook took over as interim editor. His new duties left him little time to breathe, let alone write editorials.
I offered to help editorial writer Patrick Everson, by contributing a few editorials here and there. I’d done that before on rare occasions, to fill in when somebody took a vacation, for example.
The topics were interesting: The winning package included an editorial urging the Judicial Discipline Commission to permanently bar former Family Court Judge Steven Jones from the bench for his misdeeds; a critique of Boulder City’s bumbling in the case of an animal control supervisor who allegedly killed an inordinate number of pets; and my personal favorite, a response to the Legislative Counsel Bureau’s ridiculous claim that the state Legislature must operate in near-total secrecy. By happy coincidence, my own views lined up precisely with those of the newspaper on those subjects.
Since my friend John Kerr returned to the paper in his former position as editorial page editor this year, I’ve concentrated exclusively on political coverage and the 2016 election. My budding side career as a junior deputy apprentice editorial writer is at an end. But I’m glad I could help some valued colleagues in a pinch, and help the R-J keep an award that we’ve traditionally won in the annual NPA contest. I’m grateful to Glenn and Patrick for giving me the opportunity and to the judges of the Nevada Press Association for their selection and kind words.
And, as ever, thanks to the many readers of the Review-Journal.
