The L.A. Press Club Awards gig last night brought out some big guns - figuratively and literally.
Mayor-to-be Antonio Villaraigosa worked the crowd beforehand and opened the show. The AP's Linda Deutsch finally won the recognition she deserves for covering L.A.'s most infamous trials from Manson to O.J. And Jesus Blancornelas, crusading editor of Tijuana's Zeta magazine accepted the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism - while surrounded by six burly bodyguards hired by the Press Club because of recent assassinations of public figures by the Mexican drug cartels.
Snappy, bust-a-gut emceeing by two of the comics from Culture Clash (and, occasionally, KTlA's Sam Rubin) kept the evening from bogging down in acceptance speeches, and the whole thing was propelled by a crisp Powerpoint framework that included video clips and the voices of actors reading the work of winning journalists.
Among the online standouts ...
Welch, Cavanaugh, plaque, plaque
Matt Welch and Tim Blair of Reason, took home the new, coveted (around here at least) "Best Weblog" award for their sharp, common-sense commentary.
Reason's Tim Cavanaugh was honored for "Best Online Column/Commentary Criticism".
And a sextet of USC students beat LATimes.com to win the "Best Online News/Feature/Series" award for a nifty package on support systems, social services, labor unions and daily survival called "Making it in L.A.."
A complete list of finalists is here, and perhaps the Press Club will update it to list all the winners and runners-up some time tomorrow.
