July 14th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Online Deadline Reporting
Deadline Reporting (Affiliated) WINNER: STAFF, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH “Kirkwood City Hall Shootings” Shortly after 7 p.m. Feb. 7, Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton burst into a city council meeting in Kirkwoord, Mo., pulled a handgun from his coat and began shooting. As people tried to take cover or flee, he moved swiftly across the room, firing.
July 14th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Online Non-Deadline Reporting
Non-Deadline Reporting (Affiliated) WINNER: STAFF, LOS ANGELES TIMES “Mexico Under Siege” Thousands of civilians have been killed indiscriminately. Kidnapping, torture and brutality are rampant. The population in key combat zones lives in terror, and the president has said his country is at war.
July 14th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Online Investigative Reporting
Investigative Reporting (Affiliated) WINNER: CHRISTINE YOUNG, JOHN PERTEL, CHRISTOPHER MELE & PATRICK MULLEN, TIMES HERALD-RECORD “I Didn’t Do That Murder” Lebrew Jones, a mentally disabled security guard, was convicted in 1989 on the basis of a nonsensical statement he gave police after 20 hours of questioning without a lawyer.
July 14th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Online Public Service Journalism
Public Service in Online Journalism (Affiliated) WINNER: THE OKLAHOMAN “Your Right to Know/Know It Series” “You have cancer.” The words take your breath away, say those who have heard them. The shock seems surreal. Time stops and yet races by, they say.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Newspaper Feature Writing
Feature Writing (Circulation 100,000+) WINNER: AMY ELLIS NUTT, THE STAR-LEDGER “The Accidental Artist” He had been weighed down by the baggage of loss for so long. Now, in taking up his artist’s life again, he realized all the pieces were there: his youth, his wife and children, his work as a chiropractor, his stroke, his brother’s death, even his success as an artist.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Television Documentaries
Television Documentaries (Network/Syndication Service/Program Service) WINNER: KURT KUENNE, MSNBC “Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father” “Dear Zachary” is a first-person account of the life and murder of Dr. Andrew Bagby (1973-2001), whose killer fled to Canada, went on to bear his child and walked free on bail awaiting trail, giving her the opportunity to kill again.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winner: Newspaper Editorial Writing
Editorial Writing WINNER: JOHN P. MCCORMICK, MARIE DILLON & BRUCE DOLD, CHICAGO TRIBUNE “The Illinois Culture of Political Sleaze” It has been three days since Gov. Rod Blagojevich was named in a criminal complaint that sets out charges of audacious behavior, including a campaign to sell a U.S.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Television Public Service
Public Service in Television (Network/Syndication Service/Program Service) WINNER: “CBS EVENING NEWS, WEEKEND EDITION” “AIDS in the African American Community” This story originated after the release of a report by a Southern-based AIDS advocacy group, indicating that Southern states, particularly rural and minority communities, are hard-hit by AIDS.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winner: Newspaper Washington Correspondence
Washington Correspondence WINNER: DAVID BARSTOW, THE NEW YORK TIMES “Message Machine” Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winner: Newspaper Foreign Correspondence
Foreign Correspondence WINNER: CLIFFORD J. LEVY, THE NEW YORK TIMES “Kremlin Rules” In a nine-part series, “Kremlin Rules,” Clifford J. Levy, Moscow bureau chief at The New York Times, documented the lengths to which Russia under Vladimir Putin has smothered political opposition, silenced independent voices and centralized control over large swaths of the economy.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winner: General Column Writing
General Column Writing WINNER: JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS The Pentagon says that if you offer more realistic college benefits, too many troops might decide to leave at the end of their enlistments and take advantage of it. And that, they say, would only make it even harder to find and enlist enough recruits to man our wars.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winner: Newspaper Sports Column Writing
Sports Column Writing WINNER: SALLY JENKINS, THE WASHINGTON POST Beijing has its splendors: ambrosial pear juice and duck skin in coarse sugar, ancient gnarled cypresses, bending willow trees, palaces with concealed courts, and sprawling districts in which nationalities blend into a worldly sauntering crowd.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Newspaper Public Service Circulation
Public Service Circulation (Circulation 100,000+) WINNER: THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH “Test of Convictions” He started with a bowl of lobster bisque and worked his way down the menu at Mitchell’s Steakhouse. Next up was filet mignon wrapped in bacon, a baked potato, french fries, corn and asparagus.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Magazine Categories
Magazine Writing WINNER: CHRISTIAN PARENTI, PLAYBOY MAGAZINE “Our Battles Joined” They killed Ajmal on Easter Sunday. I was at home in Brooklyn when it happened. My girlfriend was away, and I had slept in, awaking alone to the peaceful springtime view of the backyards on my block.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Photography
Breaking News Photography WINNER: PATRICK FARRELL, THE MIAMI HERALD “A People in Despair: Haiti’s Year Without Mercy” In 2008, The Miami Herald repeatedly dispatched photographer Patrick Farrell to Haiti, which bore the brunt of the Atlantic hurricane season. In fact, he was there the night Hurricane Ike, the fourth storm to hit Haiti in a month, re-flooded the already overwhelmed country, swallowing lives and homes.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Editorial Cartoons and Informational Graphics
Editorial Cartooning WINNER: CHRIS BRITT, THE STATE JOURNAL REGISTER “Chris Britt’s cartoons stood out from the field for their fearlessness — always the quintessential job requirement for a political cartoonist,” judges said. “Deploying a variety of structural and compositional methodologies, Britt invariably presents points of view that are simultaneously contrarian and obvious — the latter due to his straightforward approach to building an argument, often with multiple panels.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winner: Newsletter Journalism
Public Service in Newsletter Journalism WINNER: INSIDE WASHINGTON PUBLISHERS “EPA Rollback on Drinking Water Protections” One of the untold stories of the Bush administration is its weakening of public health protections in the event of a nuclear attack. This series of exclusive articles uncovered and then detailed the potential impacts of the U.S.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winner: Research about Journalism
Research About Journalism WINNER: MINABERE IBELEMA “The African Press, Civic Cynicism, and Democracy” PULBISHED BY PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Whereas the African press had been ambivalent in its support of democracy, it has now decidedly embraced it and is valiantly defending it,” author Minabere Ibelema said.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Radio Categories
Breaking News Reporting WINNER: MELISSA BLOCK & ANDREA HSU, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO “Chengdu, China Earthquake Coverage” Oh, my goodness, we’re in the middle of an earthquake. The whole block is shaking. … The top of the church is falling down. The ground is shaking underneath our feet and all of the people are running out into the street.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Awards Winners: Television Breaking News Coverage
Breaking News Coverage (Network/Syndication Service/Program Service) WINNER: ALEXANDRA WALLACE, MARY LAURENCE FLYNN, RICHARD ENGEL & MADELEINE HAERINGER, “NBC NIGHTLY NEWS WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS” “Tip of the Spear” With just 150 men, 29-year-old Capt. Jimmy Howell has a daunting mission: to drive the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters out of the Korengal Valley, their main safe haven in Afghanistan.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Winners: Television Investigative Reporting
Investigative Reporting (Network/Syndication Service/Program Service) WINNER: SCOTT PELLEY, TOM HONEYSETT, NICOLE YOUNG & SOLLY GRANATSTEIN, CBS NEWS’ “60 MINUTES” “The Wasteland” Scott Pelley: Tonight we’re going to take you to one of the most toxic places on earth, a place that government officials and gangsters don’t want you to see.
July 13th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Television Feature Reporting
Feature Reporting (Network/Syndication Service/Program Service) WINNER: RICK KAPLAN, KIMBERLY DOZIER & ASHLEY VELIE, CBS NEWS “The War at Home” Twenty-two year old combat medic Jonathan Norrell volunteered for every mission during his year in Iraq. He was bombed, ambushed, treating wounded under fire — and the memories still haunt him, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports.
July 12th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Newspaper Deadline Reporting
Deadline Reporting (Circulation 100,000+) WINNER: METROPOLITAN STAFF, THE NEW YORK TIMES “The Spitzer Scandal” Arguably, it could be considered the deadline story of the year: March 12, 2008, Eliot Spitzer became the first governor of New York in a century to resign in disgrace.
July 12th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Newspaper Non-Deadline Reporting
Non-Deadline Reporting (Circulation 100,000+) WINNER: LUCY MORGAN, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES “Double-Dipping” The loophole was created, as are so many in Tallahassee, on the last night of the legislative session, when few people notice what gets into bills flying through legislative hallways.
July 12th, 2009 • Quill Archives
SDX Award Winners: Newspaper Investigative Reporting
Investigative Reporting (Circulation 100,000+) WINNER: DAVID OLINGER & ERIN EMERY, THE DENVER POST “The Battle Within” In the last six months of his life, Staff Sgt. Mark Waltz tried 23 different prescription medications to relieve the pain of war. He came home from his second tour of Iraq suffering from combat stress, a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and relentless back pain.
July 9th, 2008 • Quill Archives
Winner: The Post & Courier
The Charleston, S.C., Sofa Super Store fire was still smoldering when Executive Editor Bill Hawkins and his team at The Post and Courier began their investigation. Nine firefighters had died in the blaze, the largest single loss of firefighters’ lives since 9/11.
July 9th, 2008 • Quill Archives
Winner: John Moore, Getty Images
Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan after eight years in exile and survived a suicide bomb blast during her arrival procession in Karachi. Her Dec. 27 campaign rally in Rawalpindi was her largest event, drawing thousands of supporters. Departing the rally, she came out into the open road, waving from the sunroof of her armored vehicle.
July 9th, 2008 • Quill Archives
Winner: Kyra Phillips, Mark Nelson, Steve Robinson & Robert Howell, CNN
In the summer, “CNN: Special Investigation Unit” began to document the story of Jena, La. Long before 20,000 marchers converged on this small town, SIU was there meeting with the families and officials caught up in the chain of racially charged events and court cases stemming from the hanging of nooses in the high school courtyard.
July 9th, 2008 • Quill Archives
Winner: Loretta Tofani, The Salt Lake Tribune
Wei Chaihua, 44, left his pristine life in rural China to make his fortune in the city. In Foshan, China, he worked in a factory that made parts for Char-Broil grills and gas stoves — without proper respirator protection. Now he’s dying of silicosis, a lung disease contracted by breathing in silica dust.
July 9th, 2008 • Quill Archives
Winner: Mona Reeder, The Dallas Morning News
Texas politicians celebrate the virtues of small government by touting the Lone Star state’s thriving economy, low cost of living, business-friendly government and booming suburbs. But there’s another side to that story, and photographer Mona Reeder carefully gathered the images to tell it.
July 9th, 2008 • Quill Archives
Winner: Sarah Hill, Scott Schaefer, Stacey Woelfel & Scott Schmidt, KOMU-TV
In the United States, this man would have a wheelchair. But in Vietnam … one of the world’s poorest countries, Thuong Nguyen had to learn to walk without legs. This father of six works as a shoe repairman. He mends worn sandals … though he has no shoes of his own.
July 9th, 2008 • Quill Archives
Winner: Erin Middlewood & Stephanie Rice, The Columbian
Greg Knudtson received a frantic call from his wife, Tomoko: “Emergency, emergency. Jenna quit breathing.” The Vancouver couple had just entrusted their 11-week-old daughter to the family’s child care provider, Jennifer Florentin, when Tomoko returned to work. Florentin had discovered Jenna wasn’t breathing when she went to wake her after an hourslong nap.
