Video commentary courtesy of Deeson Media.
OPINION
By Mike Deeson, Guest Contributor
“If I were king, there would be a minimum knowledge test for reporters before they could call themselves journalists.”
See an earlier Mike Deeson commentary at If I Were King — Country over Party
Mike Deeson/Photo courtesy of Deeson Media.
Mike Deeson worked for WTSP TV, the CBS affiliate in Tampa Bay, for 35 years. He retired as the Senior Investigative Reporter for 10 News in March of 2017.
Mike is a 12-time-Emmy Award Winning reporter who has been awarded the Silver Circle Life-Time Achievement Award from the Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Science (NATAS), the Emmy parent organization. He was the first journalist in the Tampa Bay area to win this prestigious award. Mike has been nominated for an Emmy 40 times.
In 2015 the Society of Professional Journalists chose Mike as the Florida Journalist of the Year, the first time a broadcast journalist was given this honor.
Mike is also an eight-time winner of the Green Eyeshade Awards, the nation’s largest and oldest regional journalism contest.
He is a two-time Edward R. Murrow winner. Mike has won more than 50 awards from the Associated Press, United Press International and the Society of Professional Journalists, including being honored as the outstanding reporter in Florida four times and outstanding reporter in the Southeast
In 2015 Influence Magazine named Mike one of Florida’s top 100 Influencers. The Tampa Bay Times has described Mike as one of the last of the “bare-knuckle style” reporters in the Tampa Bay area.
