FPA Conference in Los Angeles

The Free Press Association, an eight-year-old national media network of First Amendment Absolutists, will hold its third national conference October 14-16 at the Pacifica Hotel in Los Angeles. The conference will focus on civil liberties of special concern to writers, and is co-sponsored by the Reason Foundation. This will be the first FPA conference on the West Coast and the first Mencken Awards ceremony in California since 1985. (Next year, the FPA will be in Washington, D.C.) Since the FPA rotates between the eastern, western and mid U.S., there may not be another event quite like this in Southern California for many years.

More than ten speakers have been confirmed so far, including John Fund (Wall Street Journal editorial writer), Jeff Riggenbach (syndicated radio commentator), Alan Bock (senior columist, The Register), Marty Zupan (Reason publisher), Mark Coleman (associate editor, Hawaii's Pacific Business News), Paula Brookmire (assistant editor, Milwaukee Journal Sunday magazine), Michael Grossberg (Columbus Dispatch theater critic), Steve Kelley (San Diego Tribune cartoonist), J. Neil Schulman (novelist), and John Dentinger (freelance writer Playboy, L.A. Herald Examiner, etc.) who won last year's Mencken Award for Best Op-Ed Column.

Tentatively confirmed as Mencken banquet speaker is Jonathan Freedman, a San Diego Tribune columist who won a Pulitzer Prize last year for a series on immigration. His speech will focus on the border crisis and U.S. immigration policy.

Other conference highlights include major debates on media coverage of the War on Drugs and the War on Pornography. Among the half-dozen other panel discussion and speech subjects: First Amendment Rights, FCC censorship of Radio “Obscenity,” the Reagan Administration’s “Cold War” on the Bill of Rights, and Reason’s “new breed” of investigative journalism.

Schedule: The conference begins Friday night, Oct. 14, with a cocktail party and major debate. It ends Sunday morning with an FPA meeting. On Saturday, debates, speeches, and panels run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a break for lunch. At 7 p.m. the Mencken finalists’ Cocktail Party begins, followed by the 8 p.m. banquet, the 9 p.m awards ceremony and the 11 p.m party in a hospitality suite.

Hotel Information: The Pacifica Hotel is located at 6161 W. Centinella Ave. in Culver City, CA 90230. That’s about one mile from LAX off the 405 freeway. The hotel has a free airport shuttle. Single or double rooms are $75/night, a 25 percent discount is available if you identify yourself as a FPA conference participant when calling for a room. For reservations call (213) 649-1776.

Conference Registration: Advance discount price is $60 before Oct. 1, and includes both conference and banquet. Conference only: $35. Banquet only: $40. Prices higher at the door. (There will be a $1 discount for students under 21 with proper school ID.)

Checks should be made out to the Free Press Association, and should be sent to FPA, P.O. Bax 15548, Columbus, OH 43215.

Note: As of June 1, there will be no Future of Freedom conference in Southern California this year, leaving the FPA as the only major libertarian conference in the region. However, the FPA has invited the Future of Freedom conference people to stage a “mini-conference” on Sunday, October 16, at the same hotel. No decision has yet been made by the FoFCon committee.