Craig Harris wins first-ever Toner Prize
The Robin Toner Program in Political Reporting at Syracuse University has announced the first-ever Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting.
Craig Harris, from the Arizona Republic, is the winner of the Toner Prize for his eight-part series on Arizona’s broken and costly public pension plan, which costs taxpayers nearly $1.4 billion each year. His series instigated reform from Arizona lawmakers and mayors to change the pension systems and correct the abuse. Mr. Harris will receive a $5,000 prize and will be honored at the Toner Lecture/Symposium on March 28.
Honorable mentions went to Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker, and Sebastian Jones and Marcus Stern of ProPublica. Mr. Lizza’s narrative, “As the World Burns,” demonstrated the failure of climate change legislation this summer meant to transform the nation’s use of energy. Mr. Jones and Mr. Stern reported on the ways money influences public policy and the electoral process, such as political fundraisers at a Super Bowl and a Bruce Springsteen concert, as well as a foreign liquor company earning large tax breaks.
Thirty judges with journalism backgrounds reviewed 103 entries for the prize to determine the best national or local political reporting of the year. Entries came from across the country and from a range of organizations, from the New York Times, NPR, the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal, to the Times West Virginian (circulation 10,400). The juries put forth 10 recommendations for the finalist judges, who narrowed down the entries to declare Mr. Harris the winner.
The finalist judges are:
- Adam Clymer, who retired in 2003 as Chief Washington Correspondent of the New York Times, where he had been a reporter and editor since 1977 and worked closely for many years with Robin Toner. Before that he reported for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, the Baltimore Sun and the New York Daily News. He is the author of Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography (1999) and Drawing the Line at the Big Ditch: The Panama Canal Treaties and the Rise of the Right (2008).
- Paul Delaney, who was a reporter and editor for the New York Times and a reporter with the Washington Evening Star, Dayton Daily News and Atlanta Daily World. He was also chair of the journalism department at the University of Alabama and a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists. He is completing a memoir on his career.
- Dorothy Gilliam, who spent 33 years with The Washington Post, as reporter, editor, columnist and founder and director of the Young Journalists Development Program (YJDP). Dorothy expanded YJDP from three to 23 high schools, and initiated college programs between The Post and George Washington University, Howard University and the University of Maryland. She supervised publication of a book entitled, Reaching Generation Next: A News Media Guide to Creating Successful High School Partnerships. She was GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs’ 2003-2004 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro fellow, and helped secure the grant that established the Prime Movers Program, now in its fifth year in Washington, D.C. and its third year in Philadelphia. She was president of the National Association of Black Journalists from l993-l995, and is founding a board member of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
- Marcy McGinnis, the associate dean of Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism. Prior to Stony Brook she had a 35-year career at CBS News where she rose through the producing ranks to senior producer, executive producer, London Bureau Chief and Senior Vice President of News Coverage, a position she held for eight years.
- David Yepsen, who is the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Prior to that he worked as a political reporter and columnist for the Des Moines Register for 34 years, during which time he spent long hours every four years bouncing around wintry Iowa landscapes with Robin, chasing candidates and finding quaint places to take Johnny Apple to eat. In 1989, he was a fellow at the Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2008, he was a fellow at the Institute of Politics, also at Harvard.
Mr. Harris will be honored at the spring 2011 Toner Lecture on American Politics and Political Journalism. The lecture will also feature award-winning journalist Marilyn Serafini. As the first Robin Toner Distinguished Fellow, Serafini works as a Special Correspondent for Kaiser Health News and reports on politics and public policy. Serafini has covered Congress, the Clinton administration’s health care policy, and the Obama’s administration health care legislation. She has won awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists for her articles on the 2008 presidential candidates’ health care proposals, and the trend toward specialty hospitals owned by physicians.
The Toner Prize is awarded by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the Robin Toner Program in Political Reporting. The program and the Robin Toner Endowed Fund honor the work of the late national political correspondent and Newhouse alumna, Robin Toner. Toner, who graduated from SU in 1976, was the first woman to be a national political correspondent for the New York Times. In her 25 years as a reporter, she covered major political races as well as public policy issues. Her specialty focused on health care policy, particularly the Clinton administration’s health care proposals. Dubbed the “reporter’s reporter” by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Toner’s expertise and writing set her work apart from the average political news coverage.
Below are links to the winning entries:
Craig Harris, “An Arizona Republic Investigation: Public Pensions, A Soaring Burden”: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/11/12/20101112arizona-pension-funds.html
Ryan Lizza, “As the World Burns” : http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza
Sebastian Jones and Marcus Stern, “ProPublica’s Money & Politics Series”: http://www.propublica.org/article/new-democrat-coalition
http://www.propublica.org/article/skyboxes-congress-lobbying-springsteen-concert
http://www.propublica.org/article/campaign-contribution-records-are-open-but-hardly-transparent
http://www.propublica.org/article/lobbyists-help-smooth-the-way-for-a-tax-break-for-foreign-rum-maker-203
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