Winners Announced for The 2007 George Polk Awards

Long Island University announced the winners of the 2007 George Polk Awards this week. The awards recognize journalists in 14 categories including television, magazine, political, foreign and local reporting. Recipients will receive their awards at a luncheon in April. A national panel of advisors that includes several LIU faculty members chose the winners from their own nominations as well as those sent in from outside sources.

Among the winners is Chauncey W. Bailey, Jr., editor of the Oakland Post, who is receiving the Polk Award for Local Reporting posthumously. In August 2007, Bailey was shot and killed while investigating a story on Your Black Muslim Bakery, which is a local Bay Area business that has been linked to several crimes. Bailey's death was the first intentional killing of a journalist in the U.S. since 1993, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

John McPhee, a staff writer for The New Yorker, will receive the George Polk Career Award. His career has spanned nearly 50 years and includes writing as well as time as a professor at Princeton University. McPhee won a 1999 Pulitzer Prize for his work, Annals of a Former World, which is a guide of the terrain surrounding Interstate 80, the country's second-longest highway running from California to New Jersey.

The George Polk Book Award is being given to Jeremy Scahill for his book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. This book is a chronicle of Blackwater USA, which is a provider of private military service. Through this work, Scahill exposed misconduct within the company, including human rights violations and killings. He also revealed the government's dependence on the company, which aided in the passing of legislation to disallow contracts with private military companies.

New York Times writer Charles A Duhigg will be awarded the George Polk Award for Medical Reporting. He exposed unethical practices and treatments in nursing homes and long-term care insurers. His reports were published as a series beginning in December 2006 and disclosed abuse of the elderly, which included depletion of their money and sub-par levels of care. Duhigg's reports led to Congressional action, resulting in investigations and changes in laws that protect the elderly and hold the industry responsible.

Edward Chancellor will be the recipient of the Polk Award for Financial Reporting. His winning article, "Ponzi Nation" was published in Institutional Investor magazine. He warned of economic problems before they began, stating that risk-taking and interconnected investments were likely to be disastrous in the current economy of sub-prime mortgages and hedge funds.

The Charlotte Observer of Charlotte, North Carolina is receiving the Polk Award for Economic Reporting. The paper published a series of articles over the course of a year that addressed the area's high rate of foreclosures. The Observer reported that the practices of a homebuilding company were questionable, which resulted in investigations by the federal government and the Securities and Exchanges Commission. This led to various new laws protecting homeowners.

The Polk Award for Environmental Reporting will be presented to Shai Oster of The Wall Street Journal. His reports on China's environmental problems, most notably the issues surrounding the nation's use of the Yangtze River for hydroelectric power appeared on the Journal's Chinese-language website. This led to China's decision to relocate millions of people affected by construction and promise to spend billions reversing the damages.

The Chicago Tribune's seven-month series of stories on defective children's toys have earned it the Polk Award for Consumer Reporting. The newspaper reported on injury and death of several children from defective building sets, cribs, and toys contaminated with lead that resulted in multiple product recalls. The Tribune did extensive research on tainted toys that led them to factories in China, which influenced American importation and held government agencies accountable.

Leila Fadel is the recipient of the Polk Award for Foreign Reporting. She traveled to remote areas of Iraq where few other journalists go and reported on car bombing victims. She also told first-hand accounts from a proud Iraqi insurgent.

The George Polk Award for State Reporting is being given to Jerry Mitchell, who writes for Jacksonville, Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger. He reported on the Mississippi State Department of Health and covering-up of several disease outbreaks, including tuberculosis, syphilis, and high infant mortality. These reports led to the appointment of an entirely new Board of Health.

Writer of the political blog Talking Points Memo, Joshua M Marshall, will receive the Polk Award for Legal Reporting. Marshall along with other writers for his blog initiated the coverage of the United States attorney firings. The blog uncovered a pattern of attorneys being terminated for refusing to align with the Bush administration and ultimately led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Reporters Barton D Gellman and Jo Becker of the Washington Post will share the Polk Award for Political Reporting. The pair reported on Dick Cheney as an influential political force. They uncovered Cheney's role in U.S. policies on torture and other controversial issues. Much of what they reported on has been overturned or deemed unconstitutional by Congress.

The Polk Award for Magazine Reporting will go to freelance writer Joshua A Kors. In his story, "Thanks for Nothing," Kors investigated the story of a former U.S. soldier who suffered depression along with hearing and memory problems due to her service in Iraq. While the soldier received a purple heart, he was denied medical treatment and benefits. The story uncovered that this man was one of many who had been denied treatment after being misdiagnosed as mentally ill. The article was originally published in two parts in The Nation and led to congressional action requiring investigation of any denial based on mental disability as well as the soldier featured in the article receiving full benefits.

Members of the team for ABC World News with Charles Gibson will share the George Polk Award for Television Reporting. Senior foreign correspondent Jim Sciutto, producer Angus Hines and cameraman/producer Tom Murphy reported on Myanmar's government action against student and Buddhist monk protesters despite a media blackout. They uncovered the misdeeds of the government, including covert arrests and murder.

The Polk Awards began in 1949 to honor George Polk, a CBS correspondent who was killed in Greece while investigating their civil war. It has since become one of the most respected awards in journalism. Past winners of the include Walter Cronkite, Christiane Amanpour, Ted Koppel, and Spike Lee along with many local journalists from small towns across the country.

The annual George Polk Seminar will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16 at the Kumble Theater. Several of this year's winners will be panelists for a discussion entitled "Strategies - Old and New - for Groundbreaking Journalism." The seminar is free and open to the public, but a reservation is required. The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, April 17 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. Tickets are required to attend the awards ceremony. Tickets for the ceremony and reservations for the seminar can be obtained by calling Long Island University's Department of Special Events at (516) 299-3298 or e-mailing jeanette.moralis@liu.edu.