No. 92: Capitol Weekly’s Top 100

92. Melanie Mason

The highest-profile story of the year in Sacramento was the explosion of sexual misconduct scandals that engulfed the Capitol and saw the birth of the #WeSaidEnough movement. Detailed, painful allegations were made public by scores of women who described years of harassment at the hands of lawmakers, legislative employees, lobbyists and others following publication of an open letter signed by about 150 women that contained a litany of misconduct, some of it criminal. L.A. Times reporter Melanie Mason has been the Boswell of the movement, chronicling the episode from the very beginning. Her first report — and numerous follow-ups by the Times and other news outlets — paralleled the intense national coverage of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was accused of criminal sexual misconduct. Mason works out of the LAT’s Sacramento bureau, where she covers state government and politics. Before that, she worked in D.C., where she covered money and politics during the 2012 presidential campaign. She is originally from Los Angeles and is a graduate of Georgetown University and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.