Winners named in 2000 IRE Awards

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, May/Jun 2001

The Nation magazine and WTVF-- Nashville have taken top honors in the 2000 IRE Awards.

Winning the prestigious IRE medals were Jamie Lincoln Kitman of The Nation and Phil Williams and Bryan Staples of WTVE.

The annual awards recognize outstanding investigative work in print, broadcast, online media and for work furthering freedom of information.

The Nation won in the magazine/specialty publication division for "The Secret History of Lead," in which Kitman documents how American businesses produced and marketed leaded gasoline even though they knew there were safer alternatives. The contest judges remarked on how the work read like classic turn-of-the-century muckraking.

"The research manifested here is nothing short of breathtaking," the judges reported.

WTVF won a medal in the television category for below top 20 markets. Williams and photographer Staples investigated the work of off-duty Nashville police officers and soon discovered unethical activities by high-ranking officers that eventually led to resignations and changes in police regulations. The contest judges called it "an outstanding example of dogged local reporting" despite threats to Williams and his family.

"He went after one of the most powerful institutions in any town and broke the blue line by getting police officers to talk about their superiors;' they said.

The Freedom of Information Award went to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for seeking Olympic organizing committee documents and not giving up. The paper was joined in its efforts by the state attorney general and ultimately Congress.

"The paper produced a remarkable series of stories that gave readers an incredible behind-- the-scenes look at the Olympics and its organizers," said the judges. The FOI Award comes with an IRE medal.

The Tom Renner Award - for outstanding crime reporting - was given to KCBS-Los Angeles, where Joel Grover and Jennifer Cobb showed how corrupt doctors, nurses and street hustlers were defrauding the California Medicaid program. Judges called the work gutsy, smart and powerful. The Renner Award comes with an IRE medal and a $1,000 prize.

An IRE certificate was awarded for the first time in the online category, which was introduced last year. The Center for Public Integrity was named for "Our Private Legislatures," in which financial disclosure documents for legislators from all 50 states were gathered and made available in a database.

Others certificate winners:

* 60 Minutes II for "First Casualty," an investigation into the fate of a Navy pilot shot down in Operation Desert Storm.

* Dateline NBC for "The Paper Chase," an examination of the insurance industry's process of reviewing patient records.

* KHOU-Houston for "Treading on Danger?" The station led the charge in investigating Firestone tires on Ford Explorers.

* The Orange County Register for "The Body Brokers," which details the $500 million-a-year industry in donated body parts.

* The Detroit News for "Detroit Fire Department: Out of Service," in which fire department shortcomings are linked to deaths.

* Naples Daily News for "Stadium Naples," for documenting corrupt dealings involving a golf-stadium development.

* Ted Gup for his Doubleday book "The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA."

* Living on Earth from NPR for Ingrid Lobet's "Beneath Native Land: Occidental Petroleum in South America."

* University of Missouri student Scott M. Finn writing for the Charleston Gazette about how campaign contributions, lobbyist spending and personal financial interests affect the West Virginia Legislature. The student certificate comes with a $1,000 cash scholarship.

The awards will be presented during a June 16 luncheon at the IRE National Conference in Chicago. The conference, to be held June 14-17 at the Chicago Hyatt-Regency, will feature many of the winners speaking about the techniques they used to develop their stories.

2000 IRE AWARDS WINNERS AND FINALISTS

SMALL NEWSPAPERS (UNDER 100,000)

IRE CERTIFICATE

"Stadium Naples," Naples Daily News, Gina Edwards.

Relentless and dogged beat reports over four years documented a web of corrupt dealings involving a golf-stadium development, county grants, the PGA tour and local commissioners. Ultimately, one of the key subjects of these stories was indicted based on the information developed in the newspaper. The stories show how digging on a breaking news story can lead to important investigative disclosures. The paper gave the reporter plenty of support through space and prominent play throughout the investigation.

FINALISTS

* "An Empty Promise," The National Law Journal, Elizabeth Amon.

* "OMYA and World War II," Rutland Herald, Bruce Edwards.

* "Officers Down," Savannah Morning News, Paula Reed Ward.

* "Drug Pump's Deadly Trail," Tallahassee Democrat, Paige St. John.

MEDIUM NEWSPAPERS (100,000 THRouGH 250,000) IRE CERTIFICATE

"Detroit Fire Department: Out of Service," The Detroit News, Melvin Claxton, Charles Hurt. The reporters documented irresponsibility and incompetence in the Detroit Fire Department, outlining myriad flaws - malfunctioning fire trucks, broken hydrants, closed stations - that contributed to deaths. They reconstructed in detail one fire in which two children died because equipment was not in working order. The series put pressure on public officials to increase funding. The presentation was clear and the writing was precise.