Annual TNG-CWA Awards Recognize Investigative Reporting

This year's CWA Freedom Fund awards honored reporters for investigative reporting that made a difference, all in the tradition and spirit of Newspaper Guild founder Heywood Broun.

Winners of the Broun award were David Jackson and Gary Marx, reporters at the Chicago Tribune. Their "Compromised Care" series uncovered new concerns for Illinois families who have an elderly parent receiving nursing home care: not only must they worry about the quality of staff, but about the possibility that their elderly parents are sharing space with violent patients who have criminal records or suffer from mental illness. As a result of their reporting, state officials began investigating and legislation has been introduced to correct the problems.

The Broun Award for substantial distinction in print went to reporters Gina Barton and Crocker Stephenson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for their series, "Fatal Care," that uncovered 22 preventable deaths of children under the jurisdiction of social services. The award for broadcast distinction went to NPR's Chris Arnold for an investigation of the home foreclosure crisis.

Two exceptional student journalists received TNG-CWA's annual Barr Awards. The high school winner was Isaac Mendel Stanley-Becker, who wrote about the harassment and bullying of a gay African-American student in Chicago. Sydney Grace Houston-Goudge, of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, won the college award for "Slippery Slopes, Ignorance and Fear: Moral Issues Surrounding the Criminalization of HIV."

The Herbert Block Freedom Award was given to John Nichols and Robert McChesney, co-founders of the advocacy group Free Press and co-authors of numerous books, including this year's "The Death and Life of American Journalism."