Last night, April 28th, Ithaca College's Park Center for Independent Media hosted its sixth annual Izzy Awards. The Izzy Awards recognizes amazing journalists who chose to involve themselves whole-heartedly in independent media outlets for the greater good of mankind.
The two receivers of the award this year were John Carlos Frey and Nick Turse. John Carlos Frey is a fellow with the The Nation institute. His beat is focusing on the violence occurring on the U.S.-Mexico border, a place he calls home. One of the most important things about independent media for Frey is the ability to take the time necessary for a story. Mainstream media must report to make a deadline. Frey told the audience about taking a whole year to find a vital piece of one of his investigative pieces. It was a video (that was merely rumored about existing) an eye witness took of a brutality of a Latino man being accused of note having a green card. It took him a full two years to put together this story with all of the needed evidence, something that would not have been permitted in mainstream media.
However, once Frey had the completed story in a package ready for TV news, all of the mainstream outlets he pitched it too wouldn't take it. Frey's struggle with network news was a platform for him to talk about the censorship of important stories in network television, the censorship of the stories that do not fit the politics of the corporations that fund the networks (wait aren't they suppose to be objective?! ha ha).
Nick Turse is currently a managing editor on TomDispatch.com and published a book in 2013 titled, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. The book featured classified Pentagon documents as a lead towards systematic violence against Vietnamese civilians, and was put into context through personal interviews. When asked about the difficulty of both exhibiting the emotion and also remaining somewhat distant from the emotion in stories (such as those described in his book) Turse commented that although there were days when his mental state was in the worst shape of his life, he found journalism to be very "therapeutic." He said that there were times he felt guilty, asking the interviewees to relive the most tragic experiences of their life, but his purpose was to retell these stories in the most dignified way, so as to create change.
Something special about this years Izzy Awards was the first induction of journalists to the I.F. Stone Hall of Fame, for journalists who continue year after year to produce content to win the Izzy Award again. It was of no surprise to anyone that those journalists were Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill.
Glenn Greenwald was one of the first recipients of the Izzy Award, but deserved to be recognized again this year for his work to expose NSA surveillance with Edward Snowden. Although Greenwald couldn't make it to the ceremony on IC's campus, he filmed an amazing speech that touched on the function of independent media, and what kind of leaked information makes journalists be considered criminals.
Jeremy Scahill produced a film after his book, Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield and it was nominated for an Oscar this year. Scahill's passion and wit makes him a very enjoyable public speaker, and he spoke about the corruptions in the government and mainstream media that try to suppress important stories.
Notable quotes from the evening:
Jeremy Scahill: "Nobody in their right mind would hire me. So I had to find someone in their left mind."
John Carlos Frey: "TV news can make you hate your friends, and love your enemies."
John Carlos Frey: "Journalism really isn't a career- it's a burning in your heart, it's a way of life. It's the most incredible tool for justice."
John Carlos Frey: "Remain open and vulnerable to the emotion of the story."
John Carlos Frey: "Journalism is NOT always two-sided… Someone is getting shit on and someone is doing the shitting."
Nick Turse: "The most important question to end an interview with: who should I talk to next?"
Jeremy Scahill: "You can tell a lot about a country by looking at who's in prison and who's on a book tour."
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