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On Friday, November 12, a constellation of legendary reporters from the Bay Area and beyond gathered at the Metreon’s City View auditorium to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Pacific News Service/New America Media. Since it’s founding in 1968 by Franz Schurmann and Orville Schell, two UC Berkeley professors, PNS has distinguished itself by reporting from the world’s forgotten neighborhoods — from distant battlefronts to local barrios. Many of journalism’s brightest stars were on hand to honor Sandy Close, PNS’ guiding light and Franz Shurmann’s partner in life and work. 

Many of the speakers who shared memories recalled how Sandy would come up with startling ideas that challenged their perceptions, tested their imaginations and changed their lives — like convincing a local writer to travel to Nebraska to provide missing perspective on a national story or convincing a young reporter named Mary Jo McConahay that there were stories to be told in the countries of South America. And there was the notorious PNS stringer Richard Boyle, celebrated as “the last reporter out of Cambodia,” whose reporting on the war in El Salvador became an award-winning Oliver Stone film by the same name and won an Oscar nomination for actor James Woods. 

Emil Guillermo anchored the event, honoring each of the past four decades by introducing veterans from the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s. The speakers’ list included PNS veterans Louis Freedberg, Charles Jones, Don Maynard, Rubin Martinez, Mary Jo McConaughy, NPR’s Renee Montagne, Frank Viviano, Thuy Vu, Joan Walsh, keynote speaker Richard Rodriguez and a host of younger reporters from the ranks of New America Media. NAM’s current work has expanded beyond ethnic media (drawing on the resources of 2,500 ethnic news organizations) to encompass the world of youth, both through regular reporting and through the support of several specialized publications including YO! Youth Outlook Magazine, The Know (“Youth Voice of the Central Valley”) and The Beat Within (a weekly collection of poems and articles written by America’s incarcerated youth). 

State Senator Mark Leno arrived carrying a shining State Proclamation mounted on a large slab of polished wood. “The State is busted,” he said, “but we can still afford a nice plaque.” By comparison, Gavin Newsome’s letter-sized City Proclamation, mounted inside a paper folder, looked shabby in comparison. “I am a huge Sandy Close fan,” Leno declared. “Not a groupie,” he quickly qualified, “but a fan.”  

While Schurmann had a prescient gift for analysis, Close had a knack for seeking out the unconventional and seizing opportunities that were not even apparent to most people. When Sandy recently heard that PNS and NRP regular Sandip Roy was preparing to spend some time in India she immediately suggested: “You could be our Calcutta Bureau.” At a time when corporate media has been closing down foreign bureaus, PNS continues to “expand.” The secret? As one PNS veterans put it: “Every writer is a bureau.” 

Through the evening, PNS and its current consciously multicultural avatar, New America Media (NAM, founded in 1996), were praised for “empowering voices of dissent” for “giving voice to the voiceless” and acting as “a convenor of communities.”  

The stories from the “old-timers” were filled with mirth, with more than one veteran recalling the Friday afternoon deadlines when all the manually typed stories had to be assembled, stapled and placed in envelopes to be licked and sealed by wine-soaked tongues before being boxed and hauled off to be mailed. It was a time before fax machines, let alone the Internet. 

The latest generation of young writers brought some emotional moments, recalling what New America Media meant in their lives. One speaker had been rapping and dealing drugs on the street at the age of 13 when a friend confided: “You’re really good with words. You should come down to this office where I work.” 

“You have a job? You work in an office?!” the young rapper blurted in amazement. “I didn’t know anyone my age with a job.” The office turned out to be Sandy’s NAM office and the former drug-dealer is now a thriving journalist. Another graduate of NAM nearly broke into tears remembering “the first time the Oakland Tribune printed one of my clips!” 

A closing slideshow prompted bittersweet memories of Sandy’s husband, a redoubtable scholar and professor of history who traveled widely, wrote extensively and spoke 12 languages. Franz Schurmann passed away this August but the parade of black and white photos of Franz making friends in far-off villages in Afghanistan, India, and Vietnam provided a perfect ending for an event that also served as a fundraiser for the Franz Schurman Memorial Travel Fund. 

The ceremonies ended with former Taiwan singing star (and NAM’s current marketing director) Kay Wang Leventhal’s moving performance of a Chinese love song cherished by Franz and Sandy and a parting promise that PNS/NAM would “continue the mission of trespassing borders into the 20^th century.”