Washington Post Reporters Win Top Honor in 2007 Broun Awards

Dana Priest and Anne Hull of the Washington Post have been awarded the 2007 Heywood Broun Award for their series exposing abusive conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where active duty military personnel are treated.  The series prompted a major investigation and personnel shakeup at Walter Reed resulting in efforts to correct the conditions.

The Broun Award is named for Heywood Broun, the most prominent founder and first president of the American Newspaper Guild, who believed individual journalists have the power to cause social change. The award includes a plaque and $5,000 cash prize. It is presented annually by The Newspaper Guild?CWA and will be awarded this year on May 21 at the union's Freedom Award Fund dinner in Washington, D.C. The Herbert Block Freedom Award, also with a $5,000 prize, and the David S. Barr awards, which recognize college and high school students for achievements in journalism, also will be presented at that time. 

Two substantial distinction honors were awarded to print reporters Michael Riley of the Denver Post and Charles Duhigg of the New York Times. Riley uncovered massive failure by the federal judicial system to investigate and prosecute serious crime on U.S. Indian reservations and Duhigg reported on the financial exploitation of older Americans. Both will receive a $1,000 cash prize.

Honorable mention was awarded to Ray Ring of the High Country News for his investigation of the rising trend in accidents and deaths among oil and gas workers in six western states. Ring works in a one-person bureau 850 miles from his magazine's headquarters, the judges noted.

TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said that "judges had a difficult time sorting through so many quality submissions. I wish we could recognize and honor all of them."