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National Reporting

For a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs, using any available journalistic tool, Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Year
Winners
Finalists

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For chronicling political and personal shifts of the richest person in the world, Elon Musk, including his turn to conservative politics, his use of legal and illegal drugs and his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Staff of Reuters

For an eye-opening series of accountability stories focused on Elon Musk’s automobile and aerospace businesses, stories that displayed remarkable breadth and depth and provoked official probes of his companies’ practices in Europe and the United States.

Staff of The Washington Post

For its sobering examination of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which forced readers to reckon with the horrors wrought by the weapon often used for mass shootings in America. (Moved by the Board from the Public Service category, where it also was entered and nominated.)

Caroline Kitchener of The Washington Post

For unflinching reporting that captured the complex consequences of life after Roe v. Wade, including the story of a Texas teenager who gave birth to twins after new restrictions denied her an abortion.

Staff of The New York Times

For an ambitious project that quantified a disturbing pattern of fatal traffic stops by police, illustrating how hundreds of deaths could have been avoided and how officers typically avoided punishment.

Staffs of The Marshall Project; AL.com, Birmingham; IndyStar, Indianapolis; and the Invisible Institute, Chicago

For a year-long investigation of K-9 units and the damage that police dogs inflict on Americans, including innocent citizens and police officers, prompting numerous statewide reforms.

T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica

For their investigation into America’s 7th Fleet after a series of deadly naval accidents in the Pacific.

Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times

For groundbreaking stories that exposed design flaws in the Boeing 737 MAX that led to two deadly crashes and revealed failures in government oversight.

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For uncovering President Trump’s secret payoffs to two women during his campaign who claimed to have had affairs with him, and the web of supporters who facilitated the transactions, triggering criminal inquiries and calls for impeachment.

Staffs of The New York Times and The Washington Post

For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration. (The New York Times entry, submitted in this category, was moved into contention by the Board and then jointly awarded the Prize.)

The Washington Post Staff

For its revelatory initiative in creating and using a national database to illustrate how often and why the police shoot to kill and who the victims are most likely to be.

Carol D. Leonnig of The Washington Post

For her smart, persistent coverage of the Secret Service, its security lapses and the ways in which the agency neglected its vital task: the protection of the president of the United States.

David Philipps of The Gazette, Colorado Springs, CO

For expanding the examination of how wounded combat veterans are mistreated, focusing on loss of benefits for life after discharge by the Army for minor offenses, stories augmented with digital tools and stirring congressional action.

David Wood of The Huffington Post

For his riveting exploration of the physical and emotional challenges facing American soldiers severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during a decade of war.

Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein of ProPublica

For their exposure of questionable practices on Wall Street that contributed to the nation's economic meltdown, using digital tools to help explain the complex subject to lay readers.

Matt Richtel and members of the Staff of The New York Times

For incisive work, in print and online, on the hazardous use of cell phones, computers and other devices while operating cars and trucks, stimulating widespread efforts to curb distracted driving.

Staff of St. Petersburg Times

For "PolitiFact," its fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign that used probing reporters and the power of the World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters. (Moved by the Board to the National Reporting category.)

Jo Becker and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post

For their lucid exploration of Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful yet sometimes disguised influence on national policy.

James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times

For their carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping that stirred a national debate on the boundary line between fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberty.

Staffs of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service

For their disclosure of bribe-taking that sent former Rep. Randy Cunningham to prison in disgrace.

Staff of Los Angeles Times

For its engrossing examination of the tactics that have made Wal-Mart the largest company in the world with cascading effects across American towns and developing countries.

Alan Miller and Kevin Sack of Los Angeles Times

For their revelatory and moving examination of a military aircraft, nicknamed "The Widow Maker," that was linked to the deaths of 45 pilots. (Moved by the Board from the Investigative Reporting category to the National Reporting category, where it was also entered.)

Staff of The Washington Post

For its comprehensive coverage of America's war on terrorism, which regularly brought forth new information together with skilled analysis of unfolding developments.

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For its revealing stories that question U.S. defense spending and military deployment in the post-Cold War era and offer alternatives for the future.

Staff of The New York Times, notably Jeff Gerth

For a series of articles that disclosed the corporate sale of American technology to China, with U.S. government approval despite national security risks, prompting investigations and significant changes in policy.

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For its coverage of the struggle against AIDS in all of its aspects, the human, the scientific and the business, in light of promising treatments for the disease.

Marjie Lundstrom and Rochelle Sharpe of Gannett News Service

For reporting that disclosed hundreds of child abuse-related deaths go undetected each year as a result of errors by medical examiners.

Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele of The Philadelphia Inquirer

For their 15-month investigation of "rifle shot" provisions in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, a series that aroused such widespread public indignation that Congress subsequently rejected proposals giving special tax breaks to many politically connected individuals and businesses.

Staff of Miami Herald

For its exclusive reporting and persistent coverage of the U.S. -- Iran-Contra connection.

Staff of The New York Times

For coverage of the aftermath of the Challenger explosion, which included stories that identified serious flaws in the shuttle's design and in the administration of America's space program.

Craig Flournoy and George Rodrigue of The Dallas Morning News

For their investigation into subsidized housing in East Texas, which uncovered patterns of racial discrimination and segregation in public housing across the United States and led to significant reforms.

Arthur Howe of The Philadelphia Inquirer

For his enterprising and indefatigable reporting on massive deficiencies in IRS processing of tax returns-reporting that eventually inspired major changes in IRS procedures and prompted the agency to make a public apology to U.S. taxpayers.

James Risser of Des Moines Register

For a series on farming damage to the environment.
Finalists:

Gaylord D. Shaw of Los Angeles Times

For a series on unsafe structural conditions at the nation's major dams.
Finalists:

Walter Mears of Associated Press

For his coverage of the 1976 Presidential campaign.
Finalists:

James Risser of Des Moines Register

For disclosing large-scale corruption in the American grain exporting trade.
Finalists:

Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele of The Philadelphia Inquirer

For their series "Auditing the Internal Revenue Service," which exposed the unequal application of Federal tax laws.
Finalists:

Jack White of Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin

For his initiative in exclusively disclosing President Nixon's Federal income tax payments in 1970 and 1971.

James R. Polk of Washington Star-News

For his disclosure of alleged irregularities in the financing of the campaign to re-elect President Nixon in 1972.
Finalists:

Robert Boyd and Clark Hoyt of Knight Newspapers

For their disclosure of Senator Thomas Eagleton's history of psychiatric therapy, resulting in his withdrawal as the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 1972.
Finalists:

Jack Anderson of United Features Syndicate

For his reporting of American policy decision-making during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
Finalists:

Lucinda Franks and Thomas Powers of United Press International

For their documentary on the life and death of a 28-year-old revolutionary Diana Oughton: "The Making of a Terrorist."
Finalists:

William J. Eaton of Chicago Daily News

For disclosures about the background of Judge Clement F. Haynesworth Jr., in connection with his nomination for the United States Supreme Court.
Finalists:

Robert Cahn of The Christian Science Monitor

For his inquiry into the future of our national parks and the methods that may help to preserve them.
Finalists:

Nathan K. (Nick) Kotz of Des Moines Register and Minneapolis Tribune

For his reporting of unsanitary conditions in many meat packing plants, which helped insure the passage of the Federal Wholesome Meat Act of 1967.

Howard James of The Christian Science Monitor

For his series of articles, "Crisis in the Courts."
Finalists:

Stanley Penn and Monroe Karmin of The Wall Street Journal

For their investigative reporting of the connection between American crime and gambling in the Bahamas.
Finalists:

Haynes Johnson of Washington Evening Star

For his distinguished coverage of the civil rights conflict centered about Selma, Ala., and particularly his reporting of its aftermath.
Finalists:

Louis M. Kohlmeier of The Wall Street Journal

For his enterprise in reporting the growth of the fortune of President Lyndon B. Johnson and his family.
Finalists:

Merriman Smith of United Press International

For his outstanding coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Finalists:

Anthony Lewis of The New York Times

For his distinguished reporting of the proceedings of the United States Supreme Court during the year, with particular emphasis on the coverage of the decision in the reapportionment case and its consequences in many of the States of the Union.
Finalists:

Nathan G. Caldwell and Gene S. Graham of Nashville Tennessean

For their exclusive disclosure and six years of detailed reporting, under great difficulties, of the undercover cooperation between management interests in the coal industry and the United Mine Workers.
Finalists:

Edward R. Cony of The Wall Street Journal

For his analysis of a timber transaction which drew the attention of the public to the problems of business ethics.
Finalists:

Vance Trimble of Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance

For a series of articles exposing the extent of nepotism in the Congress of the United States.
Finalists:

Howard Van Smith of The Miami (FL) News

For a series of articles that focused public notice on deplorable conditions in a Florida migrant labor camp, resulted in the provision of generous assistance for the 4,000 stranded workers in the camp, and thereby called attention to the national problem presented by 1,500,000 migratory laborers.
Finalists:

Clark Mollenhoff of Des Moines Register and Tribune

For his persistent inquiry into labor racketeering, which included investigatory reporting of wide significance.

Relman Morin of Associated Press

For his dramatic and incisive eyewitness report of mob violence on September 23, 1957, during the integration crisis at the Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Finalists:

James Reston of The New York Times

For his distinguished national correspondence, including both news dispatches and interpretive reporting, an outstanding example of which was his five-part analysis of the effect of President Eisenhower's illness on the functioning of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
Finalists:

Charles L. Bartlett of Chattanooga Times

For his original disclosures that led to the resignation of Harold E. Talbott as Secretary of the Air Force.
Finalists:

Anthony Lewis of Washington Daily News

For publishing a series of articles which were adjudged directly responsible for clearing Abraham Chasanow, an employee of the U.S. Navy Department, and bringing about his restoration to duty with an acknowledgment by the Navy Department that it had committed a grave injustice in dismissing him as a security risk. Mr. Lewis received the full support of his newspaper in championing an American citizen, without adequate funds or resources for his defense, against an unjust act by a government department. This is in the best tradition of American journalism.
Finalists:

Richard Wilson of Des Moines Register & Tribune

For his exclusive publication of the FBI Report to the White House in the Harry Dexter White case before it was laid before the Senate by J. Edgar Hoover.
Finalists:

Don Whitehead of Associated Press

For his article called "The Great Deception," dealing with the intricate arrangements by which the safety of President-elect Eisenhower was guarded enroute from Morningside Heights in New York to Korea.
Finalists:

Anthony Leviero of The New York Times

For his exclusive article of April 21, 1951, disclosing the record of conversations between President Truman and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur at Wake Island in their conference of October, 1950.
Finalists:

Edwin O. Guthman of The Seattle Times

For his series on the clearing of Communist charges of Professor Melvin Rader, who had been accused of attending a secret Communist school.
Finalists:

C. P. Trussell of The New York Times

For consistent excellence covering the national scene from Washington.
Finalists:

Nat S. Finney of Minneapolis Tribune

For his stories on the plan of the Truman administration to impose secrecy about the ordinary affairs of federal civilian agencies in peacetime.

Bert Andrews of New York Herald Tribune

For his articles on "A State Department Security Case" published in I947.
Finalists: