The 1985 Champion/Tuck Media Awards

Several hundred journalists, business leaders, and educators gathered last May for lunch at the Plaza in New York to observe the presentation of the Champion Tuck Awards to 81 writers and broadcast journalists from across the country. The prestigious national competition that brought them together is now in its eighth year of recognizing outstanding print and broadcast reporting that improves the public's understanding of business and economic issues.

Administered by Dartmouth's Tuck School and sponsored by Champion International Corporation, the program awarded nearly $100,000 in prize money in 13 categories this year. A panel of distinguished judges representing media, business, labor, and education determined the winners. Among the award recipients was Lucien Rhodes '65, who won a $5,000 first prize for an article on People's Express airline that appeared in Inc. magazine.

"Once again, this year's winning entries were an accurate reflection of the major concerns of the country," said Tuck Dean Colin Blaydon in presenting the awards. "They covered a broad range, from the farm crisis to the high cost of health care to the plight of the homeless. While the subjects were varied, they shared a common thread—eloquence and comprehensibility."

Andrew Sigler '53, chairman and chief executive officer of Champion International, noted, "The economic affairs of this country . . . seem to become more complicated every year. We should all be grateful to the winners of today's awards for their diligence in explaining these complex issues. It seems to me economic reporting in this country is vastly better than it was a decade ago."

This year's guest speaker at the awards program was Charles Osgood of CBS News, who regaled the audience with some wry reflections on the state of broadcasting today. "Any time you report on a subject that is important or controversial and usually important subjects are controversial because people care about them," he told the group, "you'11 find that no matter how many facts and factoids [facts subject to varying interpretation] you may have in there, both sides will accuse you of having left out what they regard as the 'true' facts, unless you state the case exactly as they would state it in a press release. People in politics, in business, in religion, in anything want you to see things their way and any variation is proof, in their view, that you are being biased."