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.

Priest and Hull uncovered the abysmal conditions and bureaucratic failure that surrounded Walter Reed. Their reporting resulted in national outrage over the treatment of veterans and led to the resignation of the Secretary of the Army and senior hospital officials. As a result of the series, a bipartisan commission headed by former Sen. Bob Dole and former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala undertook a thorough review and called for a new national commitment to improve the quality of care given to active-duty soldiers.

The award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize, will be presented at The Newspaper Guild-CWA's annual Freedom Fund Award banquet on May 21 in Washington, D.C. The award is named for Heywood Broun, the most prominent founder and first president of the American Newspaper Guild, who believed journalists have the power to cause social change

The Broun judges gave two substantial distinction honors 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.

An 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."

This year's award winners were selected from among 117 print entries from across the United States and Canada. Judges were Karen Heller, Philadelphia Inquirer; Sacha Pfeiffer, Boston Globe; Robert E. Pierre, Washington Post; Martin Tolchin, formerly of the New York Times and founder of Politico.com, and Donald L. Barlett, part of one of the nation's best investigative reporting teams with James Steele. Percy Hatfield, a retired TNG leader chaired the judging panel.