Dateline Award winners

 Published Date: September 30, 2011

Here are the results of this year's Dateline Awards, held by the D.C. Pro chapter. Judges' comments for most are posted with the results at www.spjdc.org.

Magazine – Editorial, Columns and Commentary

  • First Place: I think I Hear you by Josh Swiller, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Second Place: Grace and Grit by Emmet Rosenfeld, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Third Place: I Was George Washington by Gwendolyn Purdom, Washingtonian

 Weekly Newspaper – Business/Financial Reporting

  • First Place: Still Searching for a Home by Joey DiGuglielmo, Washington Blade
  • Second Place: Earmark lobbyists mount effort to defend practice of bringing home the bacon by Kevin Bogardus, The Hill

Daily Newspaper – Features

  • First Place: Pioneering plaintiff wants DC’s 1st gay marriage by Jessica Gresko/Associated Press
  • Second Place: Some may live in D.C., but they vote somewhere else

Weekly papers Arts Criticism – No Award

All photo entries: No awards

Radio Spot News

  • First Place: WTOP Staff: Fear and Death at Discovery Building

Radio General News

  • First Place: WTOP Staff: Primary Mayor’s Race

Radio Feature

  • First Place: Job Market Notebook by Adrienne Mitchell, Marketwatch Radio Network + Marketwatch.com
  • Second Place: Flipping For The Pinball Machine by Michelle Basch

Newsletter

  • First Place: Douglas P. Guarino, Gridlock on Radiation Protection Leaves Public At Risk, “Inside EPA”
  • Second Place: Paul Goldberg, The Duke Genomics Scandal, “The Cancer Letter.”
  • Third Place: Jordana Mishory, Pentagon Auditing, Inside Washington Publishers

Magazine: Sports

Radio Sports

  • First Place "Great Expectations" by Harry Jaffe, The Washingtonian
  • Second Place "In the Big Leagues Now" by Drew Lindsay, The Washingtonian

 Radio Business/Financial Reporting

  • First Place: D.C. Rollergirls, Andrew Mollenbeck, WTOP News.
  • Second Place: The New Mayor of Nats Town, Michelle Basch, WTOP News.

 Radio Investigative Reporting

  • First Place: Fixing the Economy, Andrew O’Day, John Wordock, Steve Potisk, Tracy Johnke, WTOP News.
  • First Place: Dignity Denied, J.J. Green, WTOP News.

Online only news/features

  • First Place: Andrew Restuccia, Washington Independent, for "Pipeline safety."
  • Second Place: Katherine Reynolds Lewis, freelance, "Virginia farm supplies eateries in DC despite animal-care violations.".

Magazine General News

  • First Place: “Plugging the Leaks” by Shane Harris, August 2010, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Second Place: “Payback Time?” by Susan Baer, September 2010, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Third Place: “Tales from the Boom and Bust” by Mary Clare Fleury, Marisa M. Kashino, Emily Leaman, Luke Mullins, Denise Kersten Wills and Eric Wills, May 2010, Washingtonian Magazine

Magazine  Features

  • First Place: “Taken” by Cindy Rich, September 2010, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Second Place: “Law & Order” by Marisa M. Kashino, December 2010, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Third Place: “My Landlord was a Russian Spy” by Michael Gaynor, September 2010, Washingtonian Magazine

Magazine Business/Financial Reporting

  • First Place: “Big Deal” by Garrett M. Graff, December 2010, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Second Place: “Revenge of the Nerds” by Michael Gaynor, February 2010, Washingtonian Magazine

Magazine Investigative Reporting

  • First Place: “Own the Sky” by Shane Harris, November 2010, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Second Place: “Life, Death, and Love” by Harry Jaffe, May 2010, Washingtonian Magazine
  • Third Place: “Leaving It All Behind” by Erin Delmore, November 2010, Washingtonian Magazine

General News category

  • First Place: Gregg Carlstrom, Federal Times/Garrett Government Media Corp., "I am not the enemy"
  • Second Place: Steve Peoples, Roll Call, "Marino short on money, not energy, against Carney"
  • Third Place: Alexander Bolton, The Hill, "House lawmakers seeking higher office put campaigning before voting"

Weekly spot news

  • First Place: Stephen Losey, Federal Times/Gannett Government Media Corp., "Pay freeze won't stop raises"
  • Second Place: Jordy Yager, The Hill, "Official flushes 'anthrax' down Capitol Hill toilet with hundreds of tourists nearby"
  • Third Place: Steve Peoples, "Roll Call, Liberals gained steam while losing the fight"

Weekly general news

  • First Place: Gregg Carlstrom, Federal Times/Garrett Government Media Corp., "I am not the enemy"
  • Second Place: Steve Peoples, Roll Call, "Marino short on money, not energy, against Carney"
  • Third Place: Alexander Bolton, The Hill, "House lawmakers seeking higher office put campaigning before voting"

Robert D.G. Lewis Watchdog Award (a $1,000 prize for an entry that "best exemplifies journalism aimed at protecting the public from abuses by those who would betray the public trust").

Douglas Guarino, Inside EPA for “Gridlock on Radiation Protection Leaves Public at Risk”

Judges' comments:

  • A true-life Erin Brockovichesque tale, in which the Florida EPA and the state have argued for decades over appropriate cleanup standards for homes built on a former phosphate mining site that could potentially be exposing as many as 40,000 Central Floridians to what one source called the "Libby of radiation sites."
  • Why? Money, of course. The story quoted a "former EPA official" saying "this was being discussed at pretty high levels" withing then-Gov. Jeb Bush's office, which was concerned that the costly cleanup would undermine a phosphate industry that's important in the state.
  • The state was allowing radiation levels 33 times the normal EPA standards, while managing to keep the EPA's concerns hidden for three decades – until Guarino's stories.
  • The story quotes a source saying, "based on current EPA Superfund standards, about 1 in 40 people would be expected to develop cancer" at the increased levels. Scary stuff, uncovered for the first time through the use of good old fashioned FOIAs and shoe leather.
  • Two more stories in the entry detailed how, after nearly 70 years since the construction of the first nuclear reactor, the U.S. still lacks clear policies on how to clean up an accident to keep the public safe.
  • The story paints of vivid picture of bureaucratic inefficiency, detailing how the EPA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have spent years pointing fingers at each other, saying, "It's their responsibility, not ours."
  • Guarino quotes an NEI source who "downplays the likelihood of such a cleanup being necessary, saying accidents are 'highly unlikely to occur.'" This was written in November–less than four months before the Japan tsunami.
  • The stories prompted EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reassess the potential impacts of phosphate mining before permitting new mines, and sparked a long-called-for aerial survey considered key in the cleanup process.
  • It also prompted environmentalists to file legal challenges against proposals to relicense aging nuclear plants in Massachusetts and Ohio.
  • Important reporting driven by dogged determination."


Daily Newspaper – General News

  • First Place: Kytja Weir, The Washington Examiner for “Metro Suicides” Judges
  • Second Place: David Sherfinski, The Washington Examiner for “Connolly-Fimian Election Contest”

Daily Newspaper – Investigative Reporting

  • First Place: Kytja Weir, The Washington Examiner for “Metro Board Members Play Hooky”
  • Second Place: Markham Heid, The Washington Examiner for “Hundreds of Restaurants Violate Health Codes”

Weekly Newspaper—Features

  • First Place: Emily Heil, Roll Call for “Cemetery Sales Pitch: We Want Your Body”
  • Second Place: Joey DiGuglielmo, Washington Blade for “Casualties of War”

Third Place: Emily Heil, Roll Call for “Sloan Wages Quixotic Campaign Against Norton”

Correspondent Award: No award given

Daily Newspaper – Spot News: No award given

Daily Newspaper – Editorial, Columns, Commentary: No award given

Blog: No award given

Weekly Newspaper – Investigative

 Weekly Newspaper – Editorial

  • First Place: Stephen Losey, Federal Times for “Did Top Postal Exec Break Contracting Rules?”
  • Second Place: Puneet Kollipara and Kevin Bogardus, The Hill for “BP Paid for Agency Officials’ Trips”
  • First Place: A.B. Stoddard, The Hill for “Columns by A.B. Stoddard”
  • Second Place: Kevin Naff, The Washington Blade for “Columns by Kevin Naff”
  • Third Place: Alexander Bolton, The Hill for “Five Stumbling Blocks for Democrats”