IRE History | Recent Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
   Steve Doig, Contest Committee chairman, 480-965-5012, steve.doig@asu.edu
IRE offices:
   Brant Houston, Executive Director, 573-882-2042, brant@ire.org
   Len Bruzzese, Deputy Director, 573-882-2042, len@ire.org

Complete listings of winning news organizations and journalists, as well as finalists, in each category.
April 2, 2005

2004 IRE Awards announced
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Investigative stories on the conduct of a powerful West Virginia legislator, dangerous railroad crossings, questionable plea bargains in the Florida judicial system and city contracts with mob-owned businesses in Chicago were among the winners in the 2004 IRE awards, Investigative Reporters and Editors announced today.

The annual awards of IRE - a 5,000-member professional and educational organization - recognize outstanding investigative work in 15 categories, most of them based on market or circulation size. The categories are separated into print, broadcast, online media and work that demonstrates superior use of freedom of information and open records laws.

IRE, founded in 1975, is a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to training and supporting investigative journalists. It is based at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Contest judges gave the top honor - an IRE Medal - to the Charleston (W.V.) Gazette for revelations about the misdeeds of West Virginia legislator Jerry Mezzatesta. Gazette reporter Eric Eyre found that Mezzatesta held two public jobs but did little work for one of them, diverted school money to fire departments, and broke promises not to use his influence unfairly.

The state Ethics Commission cleared Mezzatesta after he produced letters apparently disproving Eyre's work - until Eyre showed that the "too good to be true" letters were dated before the stationery was created. Voters ousted the politician, he and his wife were convicted of altering official documents and the speaker of the West Virginia House apologized to the Gazette for not believing the initial stories.

A story about mob-controlled dump trucks working for the City of Chicago won the Tom Renner Award for crime reporting. Chicago Sun-Times reporter Tim Novak's curiosity about a sign on the side of a dump truck, identifying it as leased to the City of Chicago, started his investigation with reporter Steve Warmbir into how Chicago spends $40 million a year to hire dump trucks that mostly just sit at work sites.

"Clout on Wheels" revealed that the money went to 15 firms owned by mobsters or their families, as well as to politically connected people, who in turn gave at least $840,000 in campaign donations to the mayor and other politicians since 1996.

A series of reports from Angie Moreschi, Bill Ditton and Gerry Lanosga of WTHR-Indianapolis won IRE's Freedom of Information award for its investigation into problems with Indiana's child welfare system.

"Cries for Help" led to a new law opening child abuse reports and child neglect reports after a child dies. Instead of resting on its laurels, the WTHR team then tested the new law, leading to yet more important disclosures. Along the way, when a state agency failed to obey the new disclosure laws that WTHR's reporting had spawned, the station went to court and forced compliance. The relentless reporting forced substantive changes at the agency.

The IRE Awards program is unique in its efforts to avoid conflicts of interest. Work that includes any significant role by a member of the IRE Board of Directors or an IRE contest judge may not be entered in the contest. This often represents a significant sacrifice on the part of the individual - and often an entire newsroom - who may have done outstanding investigative work. For example, this year The Orange County Register, The Seattle Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Wisconsin State Journal, WCNC-Charlotte and WEWS-Cleveland were unable to enter the contest.

The judges noted that the small newspaper category was unusually difficult to review because of the strength of the entries. "IRE is delighted to see strong investigative work being done across all the categories," the judges said

Other certificate winners:

Walt Bogdanich, Jenny Nordberg, Tom Torok, Eric Koli, Jo Craven McGinty and Claire Hoffman of The New York Times for "Death on the Tracks: How Railroads Sidestep Blame." Using sophisticated computer analysis and good old-fashioned reporting, Bogdanich and his colleagues disclosed the remarkable tale of how railroads have systematically shirked their responsibility to safeguard rail crossings, leading to injury and death on isolated byways across America. The series spurred railroads to take corrective actions and led federal officials to tighten procedures for reporting accidents and signal malfunctions.
Manny Garcia, Jason Grotto and Judy Miller of The Miami Herald for "Justice Withheld," detailing the Florida plea-bargaining practice in which serious crimes are wiped off the books. Within months of the Herald's report, a new law was on the books limiting the practice and requiring judges and prosecutors to justify using it.
Ames Alexander, Ted Mellnik, Gary Wright, Liz Chandler, Lisa Hammersly Munn and Henry Eichel of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer for "DWI: Sobering Acquittals; DWI Dismissals," which used databases from the courts and state records of alcohol tests to paint a damning portrait of a broken judicial system and the price paid by those maimed or killed by drunk drivers who repeatedly had been let off.
Kevin Flowers and Peter Panepento of the Erie, Pa., Times-News for "Insider Trading in City Hall," about a secret scheme by associates of the city's mayor to profit off redevelopment of an old industrial site. The reporters connected well-hidden dots in such clear and powerful language and graphics that state and federal officials paid attention and a grand jury indicted the mayor.
Nigel Jaquiss of Willamette Week in Portland, Ore., broke a blockbuster story that had been whispered about for years in Oregon. In "The 30-Year Secret" and "Who Knew," Jaquiss revealed that former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, one of the state's most powerful men, had forced a 14-year-old babysitter into a three-year sexual relationship when he was a 35-year-old Portland mayor.
A team including John Larson, Jason Samuels, Andrew Lehren, Melanie Jackson, Shayla Harris, Ben Vient, Grace Jean, Gary Simmons, Neal Shapiro, David Corvo, Marc Rosenwasser and Aretha Marshall of NBC News' Dateline for "A Pattern of Suspicion," a compelling and ambitious examination into racial profiling across the country that analyzed data from more than four million traffic stops in a dozen cities. It found that in almost every city, blacks were at least twice as likely as whites to be stopped or ticketed for non-moving violations.
Mike Mason, Aaron Wische, Matt McGlashen and Randy Wright of WFTS-Tampa, Fla., for "Expressway Investigation," which used thousands of engineering reports, board minutes and inspection documents to uncover shoddy construction methods that threatened the structural integrity of the $350 million highway under construction, including the collapse of one of the elevated segments.
Brian Collister, Holly Whisenhunt Stephen and Steve Kline of WOAI-San Antonio for "Racial Profiling Problems," an investigative report that deconstructed a city study that purported to show there was no racial profiling in San Antonio. WOAI exposed that the $54,000 study was useless; race information had been incorrectly marked by police on 26 percent of the tickets, and the database used to create the report was full of errors.
Daniel Zwerdling, Anne Hawke, Ellen Weiss and Bill Marimow of National Public Radio for "Abuse of Immigrant Detainees," an investigation into what happened to immigrants detained at two jails in New Jersey, telling in horrific detail how guards attacked hapless prisoners with dogs and beat the jailed immigrants if they dared to complain.
Elizabeth Brown, M. Asif Ismail, Alex Knott, Dan Guttman and Larry Makinson of The Center for Public Integrity for "Outsourcing the Pentagon," an exhaustive study of more than 2.2 million Pentagon contract actions over the past six years. The CPI team discovered that more than 40 percent of Pentagon contracting money, about $362 billion, was awarded on no-bid contracts, and that nine of the Pentagon's top 10 contractors got the majority of their money without competitive bidding.
The award for books went to Ron Suskind for "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill," published by Simon & Schuster. Suskind teamed up with former Treasury Secretary O'Neill to give an unflinching look at how policy and politics intersected in the administration's first two years.
Claudine LoMonaco and Mary Spicuzza, then students at University of California, Berkeley, for "A Death in the Desert," aired on Frontline/World. LoMonaco and Spicuzza reported and produced a moving, well-written and beautifully photographed story profiling the death of Matias Garcia, one of thousands of migrant workers who have died in the Arizona desert trying to cross the border to work. The reporters tell a story of immigration policy through the eyes of a family we care about.
This year the judges chose again to give a special citation for international work. The citation went to Joongang Ilbo of Seoul, South Korea, for a four-day series exploring the plight of children living in abject poverty in Korea. Kyu-youn Lee, Kichan Kim, Jungha Kim and Min-ho Son used computer analysis and on-the-spot reporting, including interviews with hundreds of sources, produced a report that was so well-documented and compelling that more than 100 civic and welfare groups allied to address the problems, and the Korean government quickly launched a comprehensive plan that includes paying for the cost of child care for needy families and the construction of more than 500 child welfare centers across the country.

The judges also recognized a team that included students from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, Medill professors, and professional journalists from American Public Media with a special citation for a comprehensive analysis of the 4,851 trips taken by members of Congress - and funded by private interests - over the past four years. "Power Trips" was told across several media, with newspaper and radio stories and an online site that included a searchable database allowing constituents to check the trips of their senators and congressional representatives.

The IRE Awards will be presented during the June 4 luncheon at the IRE Annual Conference in Denver. The conference, scheduled for June 2-5 at the Grand Hyatt Denver, will feature many of the winners speaking about the techniques, methods and resources they used to develop their stories.

Contest entries are screened and judged by other working journalists.

Copies of all contest entries are available from the IRE Resource Center. The center can be reached via e-mail at rescenter@ire.org or by calling 573-882-3364.

Complete listings of winning news organizations and journalists, as well as finalists, in each category.