Mark Coleman has been a journalist for almost 40 years, working the past two decades for a daily newspaper in Honolulu, and before that for 10 years at a weekly business publication in Hawaii. He also has worked in radio, TV and cable, as a freelancer for trade journals, political magazines and music tabloids, and was Hawaii chapter president of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Before becoming a journalist, he helped form the national Libertarian Party as a delegate from Florida to its founding convention in Denver, in 1972. Later he was chairman of the Libertarian Party of Hawaii.

He has degrees from Florida State University (B.A.) and the University of Hawaii (M.A.), both in communication, and was a Herbert J. Davenport Fellow in Business and Economic Reporting at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He also visited and reported from Japan under a journalist exchange program sponsored by the International Press Institute.

Mark is proprietor of the Web site http://www.nopoliticallabels.com, which he hasn’t updated in years, but which urges journalists not to use political labels in so-called objective news reporting, except under certain circumstances that the site explains.

On Monday evenings, Coleman sings and plays bass with his pau hana blues band at OnStage Drinks & Grinds in beautiful downtown Kapahulu, just outside of Waikiki on Oahu. You can hear performances by the band, updated every week, at: http://www.myspace.com/pauhanabluesband

He used to surf almost every day for decades. Now he doesn’t. A reminisce of his early days as a surfer — and surf photographer — can be seen here: http://archives.starbulletin.com/2002/05/05/features/index3.html

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