Fall 2000 Newsletter (Convention Special)
Editor: Marjorie Pritchard, Boston Globe

 

 

 For the 13th AOPE annual meeting, thirty-eight people blew into Sacramento and brought with them cooler temperatures to break what had been a weeklong high-90s heat wave in River City. Editors with a disposition for running shoes didn't even have to break stride as they checked in at the Holiday Inn on the downtown mall near the Sacramento River.

 

The conference began at a reception in the State Capitol Thursday evening, with a welcoming speech by Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of The McClatchy Co. Pruitt assured us that despite on-line competition, there will always be newspapers and people who want to read them, and buy them. Several of us joined a tour of the Capitol, visiting the Assembly chambers and other historically correct rooms. An expressionistic portrait of former Gov. (and now Oakland Mayor) Jerry Brown, placed between more traditional renderings of other former governors, produced a lot of commentary. 

 

Thursday morning, Kevin Starr, California state librarian, started the conference with an overview of California history that touched, finally, on the initiative process, a topic continued in a panel discussion of whether the proliferation of initiatives has helped or hurt the political process.

 

Next, cartoonist Pat Oliphant went to the drawing board, and with a minimum of strokes got a maximum of laughs for his witty caricatures. He charmed us all with his wicked drawings of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and George W. Bush, to name a few (he said faces with regular features are difficult to caricature). He told us that the small figure in his cartoons is a penguin, prompting a question about his "inner penguin."

 

Our luncheon speaker, Jerry Brown, took us on a meander through his many thoughts on the political process and his list of "Things I Wish I'd Never Signed As Governor That Are Coming Back To Bite Me As Mayor." He finds life in City Hall a lot more "real" than being in the Capitol as governor, when he signed a conflict-of-interest law that now has kept him from acting, or even speaking to associates, on any issue affecting property within 2,500 feet of any real estate he owns in Oakland. The law (since overturned) prevented Brown from participating in any redevelopment effort in downtown Oakland, where he lives.

 

After lunch, what better topic than biotechnology? If we are what we eat, then Marc Lappe of the Center for Ethics and Toxics fears for us, arguing against agricultural bio-technology. Dr. Larry Fox, who works at the University of California, Davis, is a proponent of genetically engineered food. The day they spoke, Kraft recalled its taco shells containing unapproved, genetically altered corn. While Lappe felt there was only a slight danger, he blamed federal regulators for letting the corn slip into the food supply. Fox feared the reaction to Kraft's action would be disproportionately negative.

 

Then on to other new technology: on-line publications. Noel Rubinton gathered a panel comprising Lea Donosky of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Vlae Kershner of the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle and Anthony York, associate news editor of Salon.

 

This year AOPE accommodated a longer period of Nuts and Bolts, hashing out libel, orchestrated commentary-writing campaigns, letter-writer conundrums, free-lance contracts and writers who plagiarize. On Friday, Eric Ringham of the Minneapolis Star Tribune led the session, and onÊSaturday, Richard Burr of the Detroit News moderated. Of the 38 people who registered for the convention, nine represented themselves or a syndicate with an interest in doing some PR for themselves. They added an interesting perspective during the Nuts and Bolts sessions, representing the writer's or the artist's view of free-lancing and the frustrations they face.

 

The AOPE awards were announced, honoring terrific work by op-ed page editors and writers. The Phil Joyce Award recognizing contributions to AOPE went to former president Mary Heffron Arno of the Los Angeles Times. And new officers were elected: Noel Rubinton, John Timpane, John Allison, Jewel Reilly.

 

Before adjourning on Saturday, Sept. 23, Phil Joyce and Jim Vesely of the Seattle Times spoke movingly of their friend Tom Wellman, who died of cancer. He was a spark plug in the AOPE. Phil announced the creation of a new AOPE award, the Tom Wellman Award for Community Service, and aÊ committee will develop guidelines for the criteria.

 

Next year's convention will be held at Penn State, where AOPE was born.