Queena Bass is against the Philadelphia media. And she let them know it, standing outside of Mitten Hall to protest the Lew Klein Alumni in the Media Awards.
Bass is running for Philadelphia mayor in the 2007 election, and has previously run in the 1999 and 2003 elections. She, along with her brother and father, also protesting, said that the Philadelphia media has been ignoring her campaign.
“It’s an injustice,” Bass said, handing out fliers to passersby. “It’s not right what they’ve done to me now, and in the past.”
But Bass’s was one of the only negative opinions at the event, which honored alumni from the School of Communications and Theater who have distinguished themselves in their fields.
Ed Bradley, a correspondent on the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes,” was the recipient of the Lew Klein Excellence in the Media Award, which is the highest honor bestowed by the school. Bradley, who was scheduled to appear at the event on Oct. 24, cancelled due to an illness.
Among the recipients of the alumni award were Ray Didinger, a senior producer at NFL films, Vince Hill, an anchor at KYW news radio, Patrice Kozlowski, a senior vice president at The Dreyfus Corporation and Larry Magid, the president of Electric Factory Concerts.
Zachary Stalberg, former editor in chief of the “Philadelphia Daily News” and the president of The Committee of Seventy, and Joseph Terry, a director at the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” also were honored with the alumni award.
Each of the recipients, save for Terry, appeared at the event to accept the award and speak to the crowd that filled the Great Court of Mitten Hall.
A running theme throughout the acceptance speeches was the gratitude that the recipients expressed to Temple, their alma mater.
President Ann Weaver Hart opened the ceremony by thanking the recipients for the contributions that they have made both to the media market and to the university.
“Many of you here today have hosted our students at television stations, newspapers, magazines, advertising agencies, public relations firms and other organizations around Philadelphia and around the world,” Hart said. “Thank you for helping to provide those wonderful opportunities.”
Jeanne McHale Waite, the head of production at Atlas Media Corp and another recipient of the award, spoke about how family support was a major factor to her professional success.
“I was a working-class kid whose parents didn’t go to college,” Waite said. “I was the first person in my family to set foot inside a college, much less graduate from one. And Temple was the place where you could do that. It was the place where you would come and make amazing connections.”
Waite said that along with the internships that she acquired while a student, those connections she made at Temple were invaluable to her career, calling much of Philadelphia media “the Temple mafia.”
Vince Hill, an adjunct professor at Temple, spoke directly to his former students who attended the ceremony, some of whom had traveled across the country to attend the ceremony.
“I know that in a couple of years, I will be sitting there, watching you receive this award,” Hill said.
Emily Catalano can be reached at catalano@temple.edu.
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