By Staff
I always look forward to perusing Scripps Howard Foundation's National Journalism Awards as a re-energizing reminder that quality journalism is not on the verge of extinction and that world-changing, community-improving stories are still being told fearlessly and without favor.
McClatchy's Washington bureau's 2007 watchdog Washington reporting was recognized for unraveling the scandal behind the Justice Department firing nine U.S. attorneys, including former Cass County prosecutor Margaret Chiara, and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, White House political adviser Karl Rove and 11 other White House and Justice Department officials.
Contrary to claims that the ousters were performance-related, their replacements were conservatives with ties to the Bush administration's inner circle.
The Chicago Tribune won consumer reporting for "Hidden Hazards," a series detailing problems with magnets and lead in toys, unsafe cribs and the Chinese factories that made them.
It originated with investigative reporter Patricia Callahan shopping for a stroller for a friend. The newspaper went beyond simply reporting the story to testing 800 toys and products for lead paint.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel took local government to task for blatant back-room cronyism. Editor Jack McElroy did not cave in even to intimidating threats to strip his paper of legal advertising, putting standards ahead of his bottom line.
Tennessee's Sunshine Law (Open Meetings Act) requires public decision-making, but it can only be enforced by a citizen bringing suit.
On Feb. 5, 2007, McElroy became that citizen.
One piece, headlined "Keeping it in the Family," showed a family tree of mug shots with the text, "13 of 19 Knox County commissioners work for the county or have relatives who do, taking home more than $900,000 a year in taxpayer-funded paychecks."
Or, Arlington, Va.'s, WJLA-TV invested five months in proving that the nation's largest chain of Medicaid-funded dental clinics shamelessly cashed in on needless care for children.
New York Times investigative reporter Walt Bogdanich – whom I saw speak years ago when he was with the Cleveland Plain Dealer – broke the story about drugs and toothpaste tainted in Chinese factories with a cheap, toxic chemical intended for anti-freeze.
The piece took him across four continents.
I also enjoyed reading about Matt McClain, a Denver Rocky Mountain News photographer spending weeks in the canyons of western Colorado to reveal the impact of the exploitation of natural gas, an Anchorage, Alaska, Daily News writer and the dogged Associated Press reporter who received key documents at 2:30 a.m. in a Paris park.
The 2007 commentary winner, Kansas City Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock, aspires to be the "black Mike Royko."
Anchorage's Julia O'Malley wrote about Crystal Becker, a woman whose husband died in Iraq. Her article deftly took scenes from Becker's life, from the day the couple met to a Web cam conversation she and her two daughters, Cierra, 7, and Cheyanna, 5 weeks, had with him the day before small arms fire killed Shane. O'Malley said she didn't really comprehend the tragedy of the war until she experienced it on this micro-level.
Likewise for the Post Web team of a dozen people which created what the judges called "deep interactive content."