Frontline investigative reporter Lowell Bergman returns to San Diego

Bergman, who recently completed the PBS four-part series "News War," will be the keynote speaker at SPJ's annual journalism awards banquet June 28.

Be sure to save June 28 for what promises to be an exciting awards banquet, which will be held at the Bali Hai this year on Shelter Island, 2230 Shelter Island Drive in the tented, waterfront Hawaiian Village. The cocktail hour will start at 6 p.m., followed by a Polynesian-style buffet dinner. Our banquet program will start by 7:30 p.m. The cost is $38.00, which includes an ample selection of hot dishes, a salad bar with a choice of six different salads, and dessert. To reserve a seat or full table, go to our secure site for payment, or you can send us a check. And here's a bonus. For new members, you'll get a sizeable discount on your membership fee if you join the evening of the banquet. Ordinarily, national and local dues are $82. For one night only, you can join for $50. Masters of ceremonies for the awards presentation will be local TV news veterans Ken Kramer, a reporter at NBC 7/39,  and Cathy Clark, an independent producer and former KUSI news anchor.

Dress is business casual or you can opt for a tropical/Hawaiian theme.

We're lucky to have Lowell Bergman as our keynote speaker. He's come a long way since his early days as  a muck-raking journalist in San Diego and a graduate fellow in philosophy at UC San Diego.

Bergman's career spans more than 35 years, beginning in the late 1960 as a freelance investigative reporter. While in San Diego, he joined a group that was publishing an alternative newspaper that became the San Diego Street Journal. The paper focused on who owned and controlled not just the city and county, but also Tijuana. He was a co-founder of the Center for Investigative Reporting and an editor of Rolling Stone. Later he was a producer, reporter and then director of investigative reporting at ABC News. In 1983, he joined CBS News as a producer for "60 Minutes, where he produced more than 50 stories. The story of his investigation into the tobacco industry was the subject of the Academy-Award-nominated feature film "The Insider.

He is also the recipient of numerous Emmys and other honors, including five Alfred I. duPont-Columbian University silver and golden Baton awards, three Peabodys and a Polk Award. Bergman currently is on the faculty of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

His four-part Frontline series, which recently aired on PBS, is a probing, sometimes scary investigation into the future of news.

For any questions on the banquet, contact Lori Weisberg at lori.weisberg@uniontrib.com, 619-293-2251, or Jennifer Croshaw at jennifer.croshaw@uniontrib.com