Bruce Brugmann, founding editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and First Amendment Coalition board member, has been named as a 2011 Alumni Award winner by Columbia J-School.
Brugmann, who graduated from Columbia in 1958, will be honored at ceremonies in April alongside three other recipients of the 2011 Alumni Award: HRH Rym Ali; NBC News correspondent Rehema Ellis; and Orlando Sentinel government/politics editor Robert Shaw.
In announcing the winners, Columbia-J School described Brugmann’s 40-years at the Guardian as a demonstration that with “personal resolve and courage…there is still room, and a role, for the little guy.”
Bruce Brugmann ’58
Since Bruce Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble, founded the San Francisco Bay Guardian more than 40 years ago, the feisty weekly with a slogan of “raising hell and printing the news” has never let up on championing the public interest and challenging the existing power structure in government, business, and the media itself. One of the very first alternative papers in the country, the Bay Guardian recently won its antitrust case against SF Weekly when the California State Supreme Court refused to review lower court rulings ordering the Weekly to pay $21 million in damages over predatory pricing. The outcome of the case could still be determined by the ongoing settlement negotiations. The Bay Guardian’s battles with the local electric utility are almost legend. Brugmann has championed a free and responsible press as a founder and longtime member of the California First amendment Coalition, and is an honored fellow of the International Press Institute and an active member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Press Association. He has demonstrated that with professional and personal resolve and courage, that there is still room, and a role, for the little guy.Columbia j-school announces 2011 Alumni Award winners | Poynter.
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