Stephen A. Smith is honored during the 66th Annual LA Press Club SoCal Journalism Awards Gala

June 23, 2024

LOS ANGELES – Actress Jane Seymour and ESPN sports analyst and commentator Stephen A. Smith will be among the honorees at the Los Angeles Press Club’s 66th SoCal Journalism Awards Gala on Sunday.

Seymour will receive the Bill Rosendahl Public Service Award in recognition of her active support of numerous charitable causes, particularly her Open Heart Foundation, which supports children in need and raises awareness of women’s heart health.

Smith, best known for his work on ESPN’s morning show “First Take” and as a longtime analyst on “NBA Countdown,” will receive the Joseph M. Quinn Award for lifetime achievement, the Press Club’s highest honor. The award is named for Joseph Quinn, a veteran reporter, war correspondent and editor who took over City News Service in the mid-1950s. He was president of the Los Angeles Press Club when its journalism awards were established to recognize outstanding local journalism.

Previous winners of the Quinn Award include Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Otis Chandler, Stan Chambers, Dan Rather, Pat Harvey, Rick Orlov, John Schwada, Willow Bay, Nick Ut, Lester Holt, Jim Hill, Andrea Mitchell and David Ono.

During the event, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia for over a year, will also be presented with the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism.

“We are extremely pleased to present the Daniel Pearl Award to Evan Gershkovich, who, like Danny before him, has become a symbol of press freedom and the importance of truthful reporting,” said Judea Pearl, the father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, in a statement about the honor. “We hope this award gives Evan hope and encouragement as he awaits justice and sends a strong message to the Russian government that, despite attempts to disrupt the world order, the free world still holds the safety of journalists as a sanctuary of civilized society.”

Gershkovich was arrested by the Russian secret service FSB in March 2023 and charged with espionage. This was the first time since the Cold War that a US journalist was charged as a spy in Russia. Both the Wall Street Journal and the US government have strongly denied the allegations against Gershkovich.

The award is given in memory of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a Birmingham High School graduate who was kidnapped and killed by Islamic radicals in Pakistan in 2002.

Also honored during the gala will be Fox11 entertainment reporter Amanda Salas, who will receive the President’s Award for Impact on Media, and Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association and photojournalist, who will receive the Guardian Award for Contributions to Press Freedom.

The gala at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is dedicated to the memory of Ruth Ashton Taylor and Sam Rubin.

Taylor was the first female news anchor in Los Angeles and the only woman in Edward R. Murrow’s postwar radio documentary department. She died in California earlier this year at the age of 101.

Rubin was a longtime entertainment reporter for KTLA5 and a popular personality on local television who died in May at the age of 64.