Washington Post Reporters Win Top Honors in 2007 TNG-CWA Broun Awards

For more information: Jeff Miller or Candice Johnson, CWA Communications, 202-434-1168, jmiller@cwa-union.org and cjohnson@cwa-union.org

Washington, D.C. – 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 Medical Center, where active duty military personnel are treated.  

In this major investigatory series, Priest and Hull uncovered the abysmal conditions and bureaucratic failure that surrounded Walter Reed Medical Center. 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 bi-partisan commission headed by former Senator 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.

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 the number of entries was higher than in recent years and that "judges had a difficult time sorting through so many quality submissions. I wish we could recognize and honor all of them."

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 bring about social change. The award includes a plaque and $5,000 cash prize. It is presented annually by The Newspaper Guild?CWA and will be presented 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.     

This year's award winners were selected from among 117 print entries from across the United States and Canada.

This year's Broun 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. Chairing the judging panel was Percy Hatfield, a retired TNG leader who now serves as a city councilor in Windsor, Ontario.

The Broun 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."

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The Newspaper Guild-CWA represents 35,000 journalists and newspaper workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.  The Communications Workers of America represents more than 700,000 workers in media and information technology, telecommunications, printing and publishing, public employment, health care, higher education, airlines and manufacturing.