Finalist: Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
For exclusive coverage that contradicted police narratives in the killing of Breonna Taylor, and for its sensitive and innovative coverage of the aftermath.
Nominated Work
May 29, 2020
Winners
Prize Winner in Breaking News Reporting in 2021:
Staff of the Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn.
For its urgent, authoritative and nuanced coverage of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis and of the reverberations that followed.
Breaking News Reporting
Finalists
Nominated as finalists in Breaking News Reporting in 2021:
Helen Branswell, Andrew Joseph and the late Sharon Begley of STAT, Boston, Mass.
For their prescient, expert and accessible coverage of the emergence of COVID-19, sounding the alarm on the potential spread and potency of the virus.
The Jury
The Jury
Susan Chira(Chair)
Editor-in-Chief, The Marshall Project
David Boardman
Dean, Klein College of Media and Communication, Temple University
Rod Hicks
Director of Ethics and Diversity, Society of Professional Journalists
Stacy-Marie Ishmael
Former Editorial Director, The Texas Tribune
Marc Masferrer
President and Editor, Bradenton Herald
Winners in Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
For its rapid coverage of hundreds of last-minute pardons by Kentucky’s governor, showing how the process was marked by opacity, racial disparities and violations of legal norms. (Moved by the jury from Local Reporting, where it was originally entered.)
Staff of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For immersive, compassionate coverage of the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue that captured the anguish and resilience of a community thrust into grief.
Staff of The Press Democrat
For lucid and tenacious coverage of historic wildfires that ravaged the city of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, expertly utilizing an array of tools, including photography, video and social media platforms, to bring clarity to its readers — in real time and in subsequent in-depth reporting.
Staff
For relentless coverage of the “Ghost Ship” fire, which killed 36 people at a warehouse party, and for reporting after the tragedy that exposed the city’s failure to take actions that might have prevented it.
2021 Prize Winners
Robert Greene of the Los Angeles Times
For editorials on policing, bail reform, prisons and mental health that clearly and holistically examined the Los Angeles criminal justice system.
Wesley Morris of The New York Times
For unrelentingly relevant and deeply engaged criticism on the intersection of race and culture in America, written in a singular style, alternately playful and profound.
Michael Paul Williams of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch
For penetrating and historically insightful columns that guided Richmond, a former capital of the Confederacy, through the painful and complicated process of dismantling the city's monuments to white supremacy.
Nadja Drost, freelance contributor, The California Sunday Magazine
For a brave and gripping account of global migration that documents a group’s journey on foot through the Darién Gap, one of the most dangerous migrant routes in the world.