Name John Schwada | Role Journalist | |
John Schwada is a political-government and investigative reporter. Los Angeles City Council declared August 12, 2011 as John Schwada Day in the City of Los Angeles, although in July 2011, Schwada's contract with KTTV expired and was not renewed. Prior to joining KTTV in 1996, Schwada worked as a political and City Hall reporter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. After the Herald-Examiner folded in November 1989, Schwada was hired by The Los Angeles Times where he helped develop a weekly political column for the paper's Valley Edition, covered politics and City Hall. Schwada was a reporter for The Riverside Press-Enterprise, The Arizona Republic and The San Diego Union before moving to Los Angeles. He freelanced for The San Francisco Bay Guardian and The Economist in the 1970s;
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Education
Schwada earned a master's degree in American history from the University of California, Berkeley,where he also graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1970 with dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in history (honors program) and journalism.
Honors
Schwada was awarded an Los Angeles-area Emmy award in 2002 and 2003 and two Golden Mikes in 2003 and 2010 for investigative reports. The LA Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists named Schwada its distinguished TV journalist for 2008; the same organization named him as its 1989 newspaper journalist of the year.
In the spring of 2009, Schwada and producer Pete Noyes were honored by The Sidney Hillman Foundation for their investigative reporting that led to the arrest of a con-man who was preying on victims of the 2008 Mortgage Crisis. Schwada was awarded the Associated Press TV and Radio Artists award for the best "light" blog of the year on a TV station website.
In the 1980s, Schwada won LA Press Club awards for his series investigating Councilman Richard Alatorre's illegal use of campaign money in his 1985 council race and for his investigation of Mayor Tom Bradley's questionable ties to Far East National Bank.
Schwada's investigation of the San Francisco office of the Central Intelligence Agency resulted in a first-place San Francisco press club award.
In 2011, he was honored with the LA Press Club's Lifetime Achievement award. Schwada moved to Fox 11 in 1996. Even in the glossy, twiddle-twaddle world of local TV news, he sustained a measure of no-nonsense truth-telling — up to and including his reports on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's free-ticket indulgences. However, just days before he received his Lifetime Achievement Award, Fox 11 news director Jose Rios told Schwada his contract would not be renewed. Station General manager Kevin Hale declined to comment, but a source familiar with management's position said it wanted someone more "versatile," capable of anchoring and adept at the innumerable "live shots" that fill the news, particularly with the addition of a 5 p.m. show.