Audrey & VP (Scott Robinson)
Photos take during the evening ceremonies for the 2014 Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting — March 24, 2014. Vice President Joe Biden was the keynote speaker along with John Lewis, U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district.
All Images © 2014 Scott Robinson
Unlimited usage of all images, no restrictions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Vice President Joe Biden will help honor a fellow Syracuse University alum tonight at an awards dinner sponsored by the university’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Biden, a 1968 graduate of Sun’s law school, will give the keynote speech at the annual ceremony to award the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting. The winner will be announced at the event at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington.
The Toner Prize honors the life and work of the late Robin Toner, the first woman to serve as national political correspondent for The New York Times. Toner worked at the Times for almost 25 years, helping to cover five presidential campaigns.
Toner, a 1976 graduate of SU, died in December 2008 after battling colon cancer. She was 54.
Her family, friends and classmates established the Robin Toner Endowed Fund at SU to honor her life and work. Part of the fund supports the Toner Prize , a $5,000 prize awarded annually by the Newhouse School for the best national or local political reporting in print, broadcast or online.
This will be the fourth year of the Toner Prize . Molly Ball of The Atlantic won last year’s prize for her in-depth reporting on the 2012 election.
The prize dinner attracts some of the 14,000 Syracuse University graduates who live in the Washington, D.C., region.
The Toner Program
The Robin Toner Program in Political Reporting is designed to support programs that keep alive the flame of quality, fact-based political journalism that Robin Toner, the late national political correspondent of The New York Times, so cherished and at which she excelled – coverage that illuminates the electoral process, reveals the politics of policy and engages the public in democracy. Plans for the program call for:
•The Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting to be awarded annually by the University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications for the best national or local political reporting of the previous year in any medium – print, broadcast or online.
•The Toner Lecture/Symposium on American Politics and Political Journalism to bring the best in political journalism to the Syracuse campus to discuss the craft and challenges of political reporting.
•The Toner Stipend for Innovation in Coverage of Electoral Politics to be awarded in advance of every presidential election cycle and every important, mid-term election cycles to encourage new techniques in campaign reporting in any medium.
The Toner Lecture/Symposium on American Politics and Political Journalism to bring the best in political journalism to the Syracuse campus to discuss the craft and challenges of political reporting
For more information, please contact:
Charlotte Grimes, the Knight Chair in Political Reporting
Newhouse School/Syracuse University
cgrimes@syr.edu
(315)443-2366
The media world may claim New York as its home, but Washington owns the political beat. That’s why it makes perfect sense that The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty should win this year’s Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting.
The annual $5,000 reward in given out in honor of the late Robin Toner, the first woman to be a national political correspondent for the New York Times, known especially for he extensive coverage of the Clinton presidency. From 1985 to her death in 2008, Toner filed more than 1,900 articles, only six of which required corrections.
This year’s competition drew over 125 submissions from across the country and a range of mediums, from MSNBC to the St. Louis Beacon digital division. Finalists were selected by 33 veteran journalists who served on 11 separate juries to judge submissions.
Vice President Joe Biden gave remarks at the official awards ceremony last night, speaking on the great respect he held for Toner , whom he had met first on the campaign trail in 1987. “When talking to Robin, I always knew it wasn’t a cynical exercise for her,” Biden said.”It wasn’t scorekeeping. She knew the outcome of the election affected real people’s lives, and that’s why she held us accountable. It mattered. It wasn’t just a game, it wasn’t a sport. It mattered. It mattered to her.”
Toner’s two children, 16-year-olds Nora and Jake Gosselin, then presented Karen Tumulty with the grand prize . Tumulty started her career covering Congress for the Los Angeles Times, before spending 15 years at Time. There she rose through the ranks from congressional reporter, to White House correspondent, to national political correspondent.
Karen Tumulty joined The Washington Post in 2010 as national political correspondent. Her coverage this year included series on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz, as well as an in-depth look at the political culture of West Virginia. Her standout piece of the year was a profile of Vietnam veteran Earl Smith, who gave his 101st Airborne screaming eagle patch to Barack Obama. One judge described the article as showing a “great breadth of reporting, excellent looks at politics from ground level, marries politics and humanity.”
•Advisory Board