Sunday, April 03, 2011

Coverage of convicted embezzler/MSSU instructor earns Journalist of the Year honors for Brennan Stebbins



The Missouri College Media Center named Chart Editor-in-Chief Brennan Stebbins Journalist of the Year Saturday.

From the news release:

“This is a great honor,” Stebbins said. “The Chart has a long history of Journalists of the Year, and it is nice to add my name to the list.”

In presenting the award, Dr. Charles Fair, adviser to The Muleskinner at the University of Central Missouri, cited Stebbins’ coverage of Missouri Southern’s hiring of convicted embezzler Norman Katz to teach accounting.

“The story was well-written, well-sourced and fair,” he said.

Fair also said Stebbins exhibited a “passion for the profession” and represented journalism’s best ideals.

“Dr. Fair was very kind,” Stebbins said. “I just went into the interview and told them what I do and how I go about it.”

This is the second year in a row that the Chart has earned a major MCMA award. Last year, adviser T. R.Hanrahan,was named adviser of the year. Hanrahan, who was MCMA Journalist of the Year in 1995, praised Stebbins.

“Brennan and I have a unique relationship,” he said. “We don’t pull punches with each other. I am close friends with two other Chart editors who won this award and I can say without a doubt that Brennan might be the most deserving.

“Frankly, I was surprised he didn’t win last year.”

Stebbins also took first place in investigative reporting and regular column; second place in editorial writing and in-depth reporting; and honorable mention in news writing.

The Chart captured 20 MCMA awards, including the Sweepstakes award in its class.

Stebbins and the Chart were the ones who discovered what university officials somehow overlooked during their vetting of Norman Katz for an accounting instructor position- that he had pleaded guilty to embezzling $129,000 from the William McKinley Museum in Canton, Ohio. Katz later resigned his teaching post.

(Photo: Brennan Stebbins, center, with Chart staff last year after earning top MCMA honors. From left, Alexandra Nicolas, Luke Taylor, Stebbins,T. R. Hanrahan, Nathan Carter)

5 comments:

Christopher Clark said...

Randy, thanks for posting this, and a huge congrats to Brennan, his dad, and T.R. Have The Chart's glory days returned?

T.R. Hanrahan said...

I don't know about all that, Chris. But I want to publicly say that Brennan, when he is on his game, is the best. And I watched you hound Mike Long.
What I loved was when Dr. Fair said that his embezzler story was "fair" to all parties. He told Brennan in the interview that he could have been sarcastic or snarky (and that many college students would have been), but he played it straight.
Brennan does it right and he does it well.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Neosho will have a replacement for Rogers ... trade one ego for another.

MSSU is a joke said...

Chart Twitter feed says Hanrahan doesn't appear in the fall 2011 schedule book. All his classes - including the Chart practicum - read "staff." He hasn't been told why.
Apparently they don't like glory days there.

Anonymous said...

Ich weib nicht,das ende.