Dean Baquet to receive Distinguished Journalist Award from DePaul University

CHICAGO — Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, and WGN-TV news anchor Lourdes Duarte will receive awards from DePaul University’s Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence. DePaul will honor Baquet with the Distinguished Journalist Award and Duarte with the Distinguished Alumna Award for work that embodies the highest principles of journalism, including truth, accuracy, fairness and context.

Baquet’s long career as a journalist has included several years with the Chicago Tribune, where he led a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for documenting corruption in the Chicago City Council.

Duarte, who graduated from DePaul with a bachelor’s degree in communication, is one of WGN’s top investigative reporters.

Center co-directors Carol Marin and Don Moseley will present the awards at an invitation-only event April 25. Previous recipients of the Distinguished Journalist Award are Lester Holt of “NBC Nightly News” and Jane Pauley of “CBS Sunday Morning.” Ben Welsh of the Los Angeles Times and Ann Pistone of ABC7 Chicago received Distinguished Alumni Awards from the center.  

Baquet ‘skillfully guides journalists’
“Chicagoans know full well the impactful reporting of Dean Baquet from his Pulitzer Prize-winning days at the Tribune,” said Marin. “He carried that legacy to New York where he skillfully guides journalists at the Times in a period where journalism is under attack.”

Baquet became executive editor of The New York Times in May 2014. In this role, he serves in the highest ranked position in The Times’s newsroom and oversees news gathering in all its various forms. Baquet is the first African American to serve in this role.

He got his start at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where he worked for nearly seven years. Baquet then reported for the Chicago Tribune from 1984 to 1990. While at the Tribune, he served as associate metro editor for investigations and was chief investigative reporter, covering corruption in politics and the garbage-hauling industry. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in March 1988 when he led a team of three in documenting corruption in the Chicago City Council, and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 in the investigative reporting category.

Baquet has also served as managing editor and editor of the Los Angeles Times. He has held several positions at The New York Times, including Washington bureau chief, metro editor and national editor. Baquet has received numerous local and regional awards.

Duarte brings ‘breadth and depth’ to reporting
Duarte is a four-time Emmy Award winner and co-anchors the “WGN Evening News at 4 p.m.” Prior to her role on the evening news, Duarte co-anchored the top-rated “WGN Morning News.” She also hosts WGN’s public affairs program “Adelante Chicago.”

“Through her investigating reporting and her work at the anchor desk, Lourdes Duarte has demonstrated both depth and breadth in her journalistic career,” said Moseley.

Duarte started her journalism career as a reporter for Telemundo Chicago. She then went on to work in news markets throughout the country including Miami, Indianapolis and Detroit. While in Indianapolis she launched, produced and hosted the public affairs show “Hoy en Dia,” which won an Emmy for its impact on the Latino community.

Duarte has been recognized for her volunteer work and engagement with Chicago’s minority communities. DePaul’s College of Communication students awarded Duarte the Shining Star Award, and she was named one of the university’s 14 under 40. She now serves on the dean’s advisory council for the college.

The Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence
A longtime investigative reporting and producing team, Marin and Moseley have mentored more than 50 DePaul interns since 2003, showing them the ropes of investigative journalism. In 2016, DePaul launched the Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence in the College of Communication with Marin and Moseley as co-directors to provide students with more opportunities to gain real-world experience. For more information about the center, visit http://bit.ly/CJIEDPU.

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Sources:
Carol Marin
cmarin@depaul.edu

Don Moseley
dmoseley@depaul.edu  

Media contact:
Kristin Mathews
kristin.mathews@depaul.edu
312-241-9856

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