DETROIT, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 300 of the Detroit area's working
journalists are expected to gather June 21 to honor three media veterans with
Lifetime Achievement Awards for their contributions to the Journalism
profession.
    The meeting also will recognize the best news-gathering efforts of local
radio and TV broadcast staffs, and the area's daily and weekly newspapers,
tabloids and magazines.
    The Board of Directors of the Detroit Metro Chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists made its selections official at its May meeting.  The
group will present the awards at the group's annual Excellence in Journalism
Awards Banquet at 6 p.m. June 21 at the Glen Oaks Banquet Center on 13 Mile
Road in Farmington Hills.
    Selected to receive Lifetime Achievement honors were:
    *  Detroit attorney Herschel P. Fink - a former Flint Journal and Detroit
News staff reporter who earned a law degree and became one of the nation's top
legal advisors to the media industry and a champion of First Amendment and
Freedom of Information rights.
    *  Mary Lou Butcher, a Detroit newswoman, who cracked the "glass ceiling"
to give female journalists a meaningful shot at top executive positions in the
news industry.
    *  Gloria G. Olman, a retired Utica High School journalism teacher who
left an indelible stamp of the high professional standards of ethics and
journalistic responsibilities on class after class of award-winning journalism
students during her career.

    "In this information explosion age, media responsibilities and ethics are
under constant scrutiny," said Detroit/SPJ Chapter President Sandra Combs
Birdiett.  "These three individuals reflect the highest ideals of our
profession, and they have spent their careers trying to better the standards
for all of us."
    Selected as finalists for "Journalist of the Year" honors for work done in
2004 were Gary Gosselin, Business Editor, The Oakland Press; Bill Vlasic,
Staff Writer, The Detroit News; and David Zemin, Staff Writer, Detroit Free
Press.  The three finalists were selected from nominations made by area news
editors and SPJ members and the Journalist of the Year will be announced at
the June 21 banquet.
    Gosselin was nominated for his coverage of Michigan's fiscal crisis and
his reports on initial responses by Governor Jennifer Granholm and the
Legislature to revamp taxes.  Vlasic was named for his investigative reporting
on weak and potentially dangerous Federal vehicle roof-test standards.
Zemin's investigative work resulted in a series of stories about WWII veterans
who were unknowingly exposed to possibly toxic chemical tests.
    Three relative newcomers to the profession also were named as finalists
for Young Journalist of the Year honors.  They are: David Birkett, Staff
Writer, The Oakland Press; Brett Clanton, Staff Writer, The Detroit News; and
Andrea Nobile, Staff Writer, Macomb Daily.
    Detroit/SPJ's annual Awards Night banquet is open to the public.  Banquet
tickets are $50 ($45 for SPJ member and guest, and journalism students) or
$360 for a table of eight, and can be ordered at 586/739-7808.

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