Sioux City Journal earns GLAAD nomination for 'Outstanding Newspaper Overall Coverage'

Click here to read editorial as printed by the Journal.

On Sunday, April 22, 2012, following the suicide of 14-year-old Kenneth Weishuhn following relentless homophobic bullying, Mitch Pugh, the editor of the Sioux City Journal devoted the entire front page of the daily newspaper serving Iowa's fourth-largest city to an antibullying editorial.
     Some papers might have defensively attempted a boosterism-driven damage control stance along the lines of: We're no worse than other cities. Why is the media picking on us?
     Instead, the Sioux City Journal attacked the problem head-on:

      Sioux City must continue to strengthen its resolve and its policies. Clearly, South O'Brien High School needs to alter its approach. We urge Superintendent Dan Moore to rethink his stance that "we have all the things in place to deal with it." It should be evident that is simply not the case.
     ...Now our community and region must face this stark reality: We are all to blame. We have not done enough. Not nearly enough.

     The paper went on to urge its readers to see the Miramax film, Bully, which included a depiction of the bullying of an East Middle School student in Sioux City. The film had begun showing in Sioux City the previous Friday
     The newspaper's actions attracted wider attention, first from the Des Moines Register, and then nationally, including, apparently, the notice of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which has now nominated the Journal (along with the Portland [Maine] Press Herald, the Baltimore Sun, the Boston Globe and USA Today) for the 2012 prize it will award for Outstanding Newspaper Overall Coverage.
     GLAAD characterizes its awards this way:

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.

     Thanks, Sioux City Journal.