LA Times Reporters Win Top Broun Honors

Matt Lait and Scott Glover won the 2005 Heywood Broun Award for their extensive reporting on a 20-year-old murder case that resulted in even the prosecutor testifying as to his doubts about the defendant's guilt, reported TNG-CWA President Linda Foley.

The two Los Angeles Times reporters wrote "A Case of Doubt" about a wrongly incarcerated man. Their work involved nine months of research, dozens of interviews, a review of thousands of pages of police and court records, and even a reenactment of the murder scene that disproved key prosecution claims.

The Broun award, named for TNG-CWA's founder and first president, includes a plaque and $5,000 cash prize. This year's awards will be presented on May 3 at the union's Freedom Award Fund dinner in Washington, D.C. May 3 also marks World Press Freedom Day, and the Herbert Block Freedom Award, also with a $5,000 prize, will be presented to the International Federation of Journalists Safety Fund for its work to safeguard journalists around the globe.

Two reporters at Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau, Chris Adams and Alison Young, won the Broun award of distinction — which carries a $1,000 prize — for their examination of how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has neglected American soldiers returning home from the war in Iraq.

In the broadcast division, Sasha Aslanian and Mike Edgerly of American Radio Works and Minnesota Public Radio won the award of distinction for their reporting on an environmental hazard in Minnesota resulting from the widespread presence of 3M's former Scotchgard chemicals.

TNG-CWA also recognizes achievement in journalism by a high school and college student with the David S. Barr award. Shahar Smooha, a student journalist at Columbia University, and Sarah A. Halper, a student at the A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, West Palm Beach, Fla., are the winners of a $1,500 and $500 scholarship, respectively.

Heywood Broun was the most prominent founder of the American Newspaper Guild in 1934, a crusading columnist who believed individual journalists have the power to cause social change. The award was first presented for work done in 1941 and is given annually in recognition of "individual journalistic achievement by members of the working media, particularly if it helps right a wrong or correct an injustice."