TNG-CWA Names Broun Award Winners

TNG-CWA Names Broun Award Winners

WASHINGTON, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- David S. Fallis, a reporter for The Washington Post, has been awarded the 2004 Heywood Broun Award for his four part series on Virginia's "assisted living industry," a patchwork of more than 600 privately run homes for disabled adults who have nowhere else to live. His work, said the judges, "painted a devastating picture of a dysfunctional system and was presented in a vivid, compelling narrative rich with facts and individual human stories."

The award, which includes a plaque and $5,000 cash prize, is awarded annually by The Newspaper Guild-CWA and this year will be presented March 30 at the Freedom Award Fund dinner in Washington, D.C.

Also to be honored are two entries cited for "substantial distinction," each to be awarded a certificate and $1,000 prize. In the print category, the judges recognized a series by Kevin Fagan of the San Francisco Chronicle that examined the extent of that city's homelessness, as well as the successes and failures of various initiatives to deal with the problem. The judges also singled out a broadcast entry from ABC News PrimeTime, reported by Diane Sawyer, that questioned the quality of care delivered by Veterans Administration hospitals.

The award winners were selected from among 133 entries from across the United States and Canada.

Fallis developed his series by compiling a library of databases, filing hundreds of public information requests and studying cost reports, agency emails, inspection reports and complaint investigations. Among his findings were 51 questionable deaths, more than 135 other cases of life threatening errors, assaults or injuries, and approximately 4,400 residents who had been abused, neglected or exploited since 1995. The series, "A Dangerous Place," indicted not only caregivers but state regulators, prompting the convening of a special task force and several legislative bills introduced in the 2005 Virginia legislative session.

"David Fallis of the Washington Post gave a voice to tens of thousands of disabled adults," the judges observed. "It was remarkable work by one reporter" that "clearly exemplifies the spirit of Heywood Broun."

This year's judges included Juan Gonzalez, a New York Daily News staff columnist since 1988, co-host of the Pacifica Network show Democracy Now! and past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists; Peter Perl, director of newsroom training and professional development at The Washington Post since last year, and prior to that an award winning staff writer of the newspaper's Sunday magazine; Richard Prince, who maintains the web site of the Maynard Institute of Journalism Education and chairs the Media Monitoring Committee of the National Association of Black Journalists; Lori Robertson, managing editor of American Journalism Review; and Nan Robertson, a former Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for The New York Times and author of "The Girls in the Balcony: Women, Men and the New York Times."

Judging the broadcast entries were S. Tyrone Barksdale, a producer and on air personality for WHUR FM in Washington, D.C.; and Debra Pettit, an Emmy Award winning producer for NBC News.

Chairing the panel was Larkie Gildersleeve, the Newspaper Guild's former research director.

The Heywood Broun Award is named for the most prominent founder of the American Newspaper Guild in 1934, a crusading columnist who believed individual journalists have the power to cause social change. The 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."

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.

Source: The Newspaper Guild-CWA

CONTACT: Jeff Miller or Candice Johnson, of CWA Communications, +1-202-434-1168

Web site: http://www.cwa-union.org/

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