FWST sports writer Jim Reeves receives Schieffer School ethics award

Fort Worth, TX

9/26/2007

Jim Reeves, a sports columnist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has been named the 2007 recipient of the Schieffer School of Journalism’s Ethics Award.
   The award was presented at the school’s Journalism Exes breakfast Saturday, Sept. 22.    
The Schieffer School Ethics Award, which has been given since 1988, is awarded to individuals in mass communications who show outstanding ethical leadership and commitment to high ethical standards, according to Tommy Thomason, director of the school.  Last year’s recipient was Roy Eaton, editor and publisher of the Wise County Messenger in Decatur.
Reeves has been a sportswriter at the Star-Telegram since 1969, and has been a general sports columnist since 1987.
He has won numerous writing awards, including a sweep of first, second and third place awards for column writing by the Houston Press Club in 2005.  He was nominated by the newspaper for a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the sale of the Texas Rangers from Eddie Chiles to a group headed by George W. Bush in 1987.  Reeves is also an honorary media member of the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame.
Phil Record, professional in residence in media ethics at the Schieffer School, said Reeves “has a heart filled with compassion, a virtue missing in too many journalists today.”
“Because of his compassion he is often able to reveal the essence of another person,” Record said.  “I have never known of him to go out of his way to make a name for himself by harsh treatment of another.  The markers of an ethical person are credibility, integrity and civility. Jim has long exhibited these markers.”
    Thomason said that Reeves was the first sportswriter to receive the award in its 19-year history.
    “The history of sportswriting has been marred with ethical lapses that color too many readers’ perception of sports journalism,” Thomason said.  “We are happy to be able to honor a sports journalist who exemplifies the best ethical traditions of the craft.”
Reeves will cover his 27th World Series in October and has also covered half a dozen Super Bowls, NBA championships and Stanley Cup championships, as well as the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2001.
       He has often been asked to write about non-sports events, including the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, the beginning of the Gulf War, and the shooting at a southwest Fort Worth church in 1999.