Preven Brothers Win Best Online Political Commentary

Joshua Preven and his brother Eric won a first-place award at the Greater L.A. Press Club’s 59th Annual Awards Ceremony at the Biltmore Millennium Hotel on June 27.

Their article for citywatchla.com, “It’s Time to End L.A.’s Secret Meetings: What Do City Council Members and L.A.’s County Supervisors Have to Hide?” received the top prize in the Online Political Commentary category.

“It’s a question journalists across the country ask,” wrote the judges in awarding the Preven brothers first place. “Why do public officials frequently enter into closed door meetings? Eric and Joshua were not afraid to call out these public officials in an attempt to hold them accountable.”

Conan O’Brien introduced CNN’s Jake Tapper, who won the Impact Media award.

Tapper credited an early New Republic article written by the Preven brothers with sending him into journalism.

Tapper told the crowd of more than 500 journalists and media executives that he had been on a ski trip with Josh. “I didn’t know what to do with my life. And I read the Preven brothers’ article, and I was like, wow, real people actually submit stories and get printed as freelance journalists, and that, hand to God, was like the lightbulb going off for me that lead me to journalism,” Tapper said.

The Greater L.A. Press Club and its membership of journalists and feature writers throughout Los Angeles annually honors those among their colleagues and members of the media who have made a difference in their reporting during the year.

Joshua and his wife have lived in Pacific Palisades since 2001. Their daughter will enter Paul Revere this fall and their nine-year-old son attends The Help Group.

Preven attended public schools in Larchmont, New York, before enrolling at Harvard University, where he majored in English literature. He attended Cambridge on a Fulbright scholarship, where he completed a master’s degree in English Renaissance literature.