About Freedom of the Prez

Freedom of the Prez is a blog maintained by national presidents of the Society of Professional Journalists, one of the largest and oldest journalism-advocacy organizations in the United States. This blog is a forum where the Society's commander-in-chief shares information and opinion about various aspects of journalism, the news industry and the Society itself.

The blog currently is maintained by SPJ National President Clint Brewer, executive editor of The City Paper in Nashville, Tenn.

Brewer is a native of Knoxville and a lifelong Tennessee resident. He started his journalism career as a music critic for The Knoxville Journal. In the mid 1990s, he worked as a reporter covering politics, business and economic development for The Lebanon (Tenn.) Democrat -- news coverage that made him a four-time winner of the state's most prestigious reporting award, the Malcolm Law Memorial Award for Investigative Reporting. One winning series of stories included an investigation that resulted in Tennessee's first criminal prosecution related to the state's solid-waste disposal laws. Brewer left the Democrat in 2000 to serve as an editor for Gannett Corp.'s Middle Tennessee newspaper group. Later that year, he formed his own company and purchased the weekly Mt. Juliet (Tenn.) News. In 2002, he sold that paper to Sandusky Newspapers and headed back to the Democrat to become its managing editor. Under his leadership, the Democrat won numerous awards, including the 2004 and 2005 Public Service Awards from the Tennessee Press Association. Also under Brewer's guidance, the Democrat won its first national journalism award in its 118-year history, the American Planning Association's 2005 Journalism Competition. Brewer left the Democrat in 2006 to become executive editor of  The City Paper in Nashville. He lives in the Gladeville community with his wife, Amy, and their children, Emma Grace and Davis Clinton.

Christine Tatum, who served as SPJ's national president in 2006-07, established Freedom of the Prez in September 2006. She is an assistant features editor and online features editor at The Denver Post. Tatum's career stops include the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., and the (Greensboro, N.C.) News & Record. Her reporting has been honored by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Colorado chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists and the North Carolina Associated Press News Council. Tatum contributed to news coverage that made The Denver Post a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist. She is a North Carolina native and graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As far as she's concerned, "barbecue" is always a noun, never an adjective, and all newsrooms should go Mac. She lives in Denver with her husband, Dr. Christian Thurstone; their daughter, Tatum Elizabeth; and their son, Christian Asa.