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TNG-CWA Announces 2003 Broun, Block Award Winners: Seattle Times Reporters, TomPaine.com to be honor
Washington, D.C. -- Two Seattle Times reporters and the online public interest journal TomPaine.com have been named the 2003 winners of The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America's highest awards.
The Heywood Broun Award, named for the famed newspaper columnist and Guild founder, will be presented to reporters Christine Willmsen and Maureen O'Hagan for their series, "Coaches Who Prey." The four-part December series explored the largely unreported trend of male coaches preying on female athletes and the coaches' success in escaping accountability.
TomPaine.com has won the third-annual Herbert Block Freedom Award for being "a consistent voice of reason and democratic discourse at a time of increased political attacks on civil liberties and a flattening of discourse in the mainstream media," TNG-CWA said.
The Broun and Block awards, which each come with a $5,000 prize, will be presented May 19 at the union's Freedom Award Fund Banquet in Washington, D.C.
The Broun Award, created in 1941, recognizes "individual journalistic achievement by members of the working media, particularly if it helps right a wrong or correct an injustice." The 2003 Broun judges said the Seattle reporters' work clearly met that goal.
"Overcoming significant reporting barriers to gain access to school records and get teenage accounts on the record, Willmsen and O'Hagan documented how it is not uncommon for coaches who have been found to have engaged in sexual misconduct to easily transfer to a new school and resume victimizing students," the judges wrote. "Willmsen and O'Hagan went beyond the alarming numbers--that 159 coaches in Washington over the last decade had been dismissed, suspended or reprimanded for sexual misconduct--and found that far too often, school administrators failed to investigate complaints or report them to authorities."
The judges cited the series for its depth and detail in exploring a subject that previously had been examined only episodically, raising public awareness of the problem, providing important advice for parents and prompting school authorities to conduct background checks of coaches.
The Broun judges also gave two awards of "substantial distinction," each with a $1,000 prize. The winners are Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy for "Mortal Wounds," her compelling series about black-on-black homicides in South Central Los Angeles, and Andrea Bernstein and Amy Eddings for their radio series, "Handshake Hotels," which explored the cost--in dollars and in lives--of New York City's homeless hotels.
The Herbert Block Award, named after the legendary Washington Post cartoonist known as Herblock, is given annually to a person or organization that best exemplifies Block's devotion to free speech and assembly, his compassion for the weak and disadvantaged, his distrust of unbridled power and his defense of a vigorous free press. The $5,000 prize is funded by Block's bequest to The Newspaper Guild. Block, who died in 2001, was a Guild member for 67 years.
In naming TomPaine.com this year's Block Award winner, TNG-CWA praised the site for challenging conventional news-think about a wide variety of contemporary issues, including the war in Iraq, the economy, partisan politics and the culture wars. The site is funded entirely by foundations and private donors.
"Like its historical namesake, TomPaine.com promotes informed public discourse, which is essential in a democratic society," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said. "The group's continuing efforts to promote anti-establishment viewpoints on issues of the day are exactly what Herb Block's cartoons did for readers of the Washington Post."
The Freedom Award Fund Banquet will also honor David S. Barr scholarship winners. The awards, named for the Guild's long-term attorney and trusted advisor, recognize one high school and one college student for exceptional journalism promoting issues of importance to working people.
This year's high school winner of a $500 scholarship is Annalyn Rose Censky, 17, a student at Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, Ariz., for her story on the injustices suffered by teenagers crossing the border illegally. The winner of the $1,500 college scholarship is Olivia Cobiskey, a student at Columbia College in Chicago, who wrote about a non-profit center that helps Muslim families cope with the pressures of Western-style freedom.
The Broun award judges were Boston Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis, journalism professor Chris Hanson of the University of Maryland, New York Times reporter Stephen Labaton, Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent-at-large Andrew Maykuth, television news anchor Tracey Neale, and television reporter Julie Wright. The panel's chair was Susan Watson, a former reporter, city editor and columnist for the Detroit Free Press who was a prominent Guild leader during the Detroit newspaper strike. Watson, who won the Broun Award in 1978, currently is editor of The Detroit Teacher, newsletter for the Detroit Federation of Teachers.
The Freedom Award Fund Banquet will be held May 19 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
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The Heywood Broun Award, named for the famed newspaper columnist and Guild founder, will be presented to reporters Christine Willmsen and Maureen O'Hagan for their series, "Coaches Who Prey." The four-part December series explored the largely unreported trend of male coaches preying on female athletes and the coaches' success in escaping accountability.
TomPaine.com has won the third-annual Herbert Block Freedom Award for being "a consistent voice of reason and democratic discourse at a time of increased political attacks on civil liberties and a flattening of discourse in the mainstream media," TNG-CWA said.
The Broun and Block awards, which each come with a $5,000 prize, will be presented May 19 at the union's Freedom Award Fund Banquet in Washington, D.C.
The Broun Award, created in 1941, recognizes "individual journalistic achievement by members of the working media, particularly if it helps right a wrong or correct an injustice." The 2003 Broun judges said the Seattle reporters' work clearly met that goal.
"Overcoming significant reporting barriers to gain access to school records and get teenage accounts on the record, Willmsen and O'Hagan documented how it is not uncommon for coaches who have been found to have engaged in sexual misconduct to easily transfer to a new school and resume victimizing students," the judges wrote. "Willmsen and O'Hagan went beyond the alarming numbers--that 159 coaches in Washington over the last decade had been dismissed, suspended or reprimanded for sexual misconduct--and found that far too often, school administrators failed to investigate complaints or report them to authorities."
The judges cited the series for its depth and detail in exploring a subject that previously had been examined only episodically, raising public awareness of the problem, providing important advice for parents and prompting school authorities to conduct background checks of coaches.
The Broun judges also gave two awards of "substantial distinction," each with a $1,000 prize. The winners are Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy for "Mortal Wounds," her compelling series about black-on-black homicides in South Central Los Angeles, and Andrea Bernstein and Amy Eddings for their radio series, "Handshake Hotels," which explored the cost--in dollars and in lives--of New York City's homeless hotels.
The Herbert Block Award, named after the legendary Washington Post cartoonist known as Herblock, is given annually to a person or organization that best exemplifies Block's devotion to free speech and assembly, his compassion for the weak and disadvantaged, his distrust of unbridled power and his defense of a vigorous free press. The $5,000 prize is funded by Block's bequest to The Newspaper Guild. Block, who died in 2001, was a Guild member for 67 years.
In naming TomPaine.com this year's Block Award winner, TNG-CWA praised the site for challenging conventional news-think about a wide variety of contemporary issues, including the war in Iraq, the economy, partisan politics and the culture wars. The site is funded entirely by foundations and private donors.
"Like its historical namesake, TomPaine.com promotes informed public discourse, which is essential in a democratic society," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said. "The group's continuing efforts to promote anti-establishment viewpoints on issues of the day are exactly what Herb Block's cartoons did for readers of the Washington Post."
The Freedom Award Fund Banquet will also honor David S. Barr scholarship winners. The awards, named for the Guild's long-term attorney and trusted advisor, recognize one high school and one college student for exceptional journalism promoting issues of importance to working people.
This year's high school winner of a $500 scholarship is Annalyn Rose Censky, 17, a student at Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, Ariz., for her story on the injustices suffered by teenagers crossing the border illegally. The winner of the $1,500 college scholarship is Olivia Cobiskey, a student at Columbia College in Chicago, who wrote about a non-profit center that helps Muslim families cope with the pressures of Western-style freedom.
The Broun award judges were Boston Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis, journalism professor Chris Hanson of the University of Maryland, New York Times reporter Stephen Labaton, Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent-at-large Andrew Maykuth, television news anchor Tracey Neale, and television reporter Julie Wright. The panel's chair was Susan Watson, a former reporter, city editor and columnist for the Detroit Free Press who was a prominent Guild leader during the Detroit newspaper strike. Watson, who won the Broun Award in 1978, currently is editor of The Detroit Teacher, newsletter for the Detroit Federation of Teachers.
The Freedom Award Fund Banquet will be held May 19 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
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