1999 Sigma Delta Chi Award Honorees
Newspaper/Wire | Magazines | Art/Graphics | Radio
Television | Newsletters | Research | Online Journalism
Newspaper/Wire Services
Deadline Reporting (Circulation 100,000 or greater)
The staff of the Denver Rocky Mountain News won the award for coverage of the shootings at Columbine High School.
Deadline Reporting (Circulation less than 100,000)
The staff of The Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah, won the award for its coverage of the shootings at the LDS Family History Library.
Non-Deadline Reporting (Circulation 100,000 or greater)
David Shaw, media critic for the Los Angeles Times, won the award for "Crossing the Line – Behind the Staples Affair," an analysis of the Times' decision to share profits with the new arena it was writing about.
Non-Deadline Reporting (Circulation less than 100,000)
Paul J. Nyden of the Charleston Gazette in Charleston, W.V., won the award for a sustained examination of the West Virginia Workers' Compensation Fund. Nyden uncovered evidence that the West Virginia state government allowed large corporations - especially large coal companies - to default on hundreds of millions in debt while they cracked down on small businesses.
Investigative Reporting (Circulation 100,000 or greater)
Katherine Boo of The Washington Post won the award for "Invisible Lives" and "Invisible Deaths." The yearlong reporting effort revealed shocking shortfalls in the care of mentally retarded people living in group homes in Washington, D.C.
Investigative Reporting (Circulation less than 100,000)
Willy Stern, senior writer for the Nashville Scene, won the award for "Above the Law." The series exposed widespread crimes and civil-rights violations against Hispanic immigrants in Nashville, many of them illegal aliens.
Feature Writing (Circulation 100,000 or greater)
David Finkel, who was sent to Kosovo as a foreign correspondent from his position as a staff writer for Washington Post Magazine, won the award for "Kosovo." Finkel's collection of stories chronicled the stories of individuals whose world had been turned upside down by the war in Kosovo.
Feature Writing (Circulation less than 100,000)
Lois Collins of The Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah, won the award for "Generations of Tears." It is a narrative tale of four generations of a family being destroyed by the genetic disease, Huntington's.
Editorial Writing
Tom Moran of The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., won the award for "Left Behind in the Boom."
Washington Correspondence
Bill Muller of The Arizona Republic won the award for "McCain – A Life Story of Arizona’s Maverick Senator."
Foreign Correspondence
Tina Susman and Geoffrey Mohan of Newsday in New York won the award for "Children at War." The four-day series examined causes and consequences of child warfare around the world, revealing once-brutalized, now brutal youth who had been transformed into killer machines or sex slaves.
General Column Writing
Tracey O'Shaughnessy of the Waterbury Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn., won the award for her "Sunday Reflections" columns, where she drew readers into her own life experiences.
Sports Column Writing
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times won the award for his collection of columns.
Public Service (Circulation 100,000 or greater)
Ken Armstrong and Steve Mills of the Chicago Tribune won the award for "Failure of the Death Penalty in Illinois." The two investigated all 285 death-penalty cases in Illinois and zeroed in on the problems undermining capital punishment in Illinois. Citing the paper's findings, the state's governor has ordered a halt to all executions while the state embarks on a review of its death penalty procedures.
Public Service (Circulation less than 100,000)
Sean Patrick Lyons and the staff of the Waterbury Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn., won the award for "A System Padded with Patronage." Persisting against resistant government forces, the paper uncovered a closed-door system that had allowed government officials to dole out dozens of teaching positions in the city's school system.
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Magazines
Magazine Reporting
Adam Hochschild, a free-lance journalist, won the award for "South India Paradox," a piece that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner Magazine. Hochschild probed the problems and successes of the Kerala area and explained the impact of Kerala's political and economic system on Canada and the United States.
Public Service
Rod Nordland of Newsweek magazine won the award for "The Next Chernobyls," the story of aging nuclear power plants, both in the West and in the former Soviet Bloc, and the risks that they pose of another major nuclear catastrophe.
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Art/Graphics
Photography – Spot News
The staff of the Denver Rocky Mountain News won the award for its photographic coverage of the shootings at Columbine High School.
Photography – Features
John Beale, staff photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette won the award for "This Old Man," a 23-year photographic exploration of the life of a hermit who lived without the convenience of electricity, telephone or running water.
Editorial Cartooning
Mike Thompson of the Detroit Free Press won the award for his collection of editorial cartoons.
Informational Graphics
The graphics team of The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., won the award for "New Carissa." Through informational graphics, the newspaper told the ongoing story of the removal of a beached ship as its leaking fuel oil threatened the coastline.
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Radio
Spot News Reporting
The staff of NewsTalk 750 WSB in Atlanta, Ga., won the award for "Mark Barton Shooting," its coverage of a shooting spree in Atlanta that left nine people dead before the gunman killed himself.
Continuing Reporting of a Breaking Event
The staff of NPR News won the award for its coverage of the war in Kosovo, from the beginning of the air campaign through the return of the Kosavars to their devastated homes and ahead to the world's efforts to bring war criminals to justice.
Investigative Reporting
Doug Sovern, Bob Safford and Holly Quan of KCBS Radio in San Francisco, Calif., won the award for "MUNI Worker's Comp." The investigation uncovered a massive worker's compensation crisis at San Francisco's transit agency.
Feature Reporting
Producer Stacy Abramson and reporter/narrator Jenny Carchman of Sound Portraits Productions won the award for "The Jewish Giant," broadcast on NPR's "All Things Considered."
Documentaries Producer/reporter
Dan Collison and editor Gary Covino of DC Productions won the award for "A Danger to Self or Others," broadcast on NPR's "All Things Considered."
Public Service
Scott Jagow, Amy Quinton and Mark Rumsey of WFAE Radio in Charlotte, N.C., won the award for "Who's Keeping the Kids?," an examination of child care in the Charlotte area.
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Television
Spot News Coverage (Network/Top 40 Markets)
The news staff of Eyewitness News KSL TV Channel 5 in Salt Lake City, Utah, won the award for "Tornado," the station's coverage of the only recorded tornado in Salt Lake City history.
Spot News Coverage (All Other Markets)
The news and weather staffs of KWTV Channel 9 in Oklahoma City won the award for "May 3rd Tornado," the station's 24-hour coverage of a series of storms including the only recorded F-5 tornado in this country's history.
Continuous Reporting of a Breaking Event (Network/Top 40 Markets)
The staff of WCVB-TV Boston won the award for "Six Fallen Firefighters." The continuing coverage chronicled the deaths of six firefighters and the city's response to the tragedy.
Continuous Reporting of a Breaking Event (All Other Markets)
The staff of News 8 Austin and News Director Kevin Benz won the award for its coverage of "Texas A&M Bonfire Collapse."
Investigative Reporting (Network/Top 40 Markets)
Correspondent Ed Bradley and producers David Gelber and Helen Malmgren of CBS News – "60 Minutes II" won the award for "Unsafe Haven." The piece was a look inside Charter Behavioral Health Systems, the nation's largest chain of psychiatric hospitals. It lead to federal and state investigations into the system and changes within the Charter system itself.
Investigative Reporting (All Other Markets)
George Ryan of WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge, La., won the award for "Silent Trust," a series that exposed student-on-student sexual misconduct at the Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge, La.
Feature Reporting (Network/Top 40 Markets)
Bob Abernethy, Arnold Labaton, Marcia Henning and Mary Alice Williams of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly won the award for "Premature Babies," an examination of how innocent children can get caught in the lag between medical advances and the understanding of the consequences of those advances.
Feature Reporting (All Other Markets)
Robert Morris, Betty VanEtten and Richard Maniscalco of "Voice of America" won the award for "Love in Any Language," a profile of music teacher Teri Burdette.
Documentaries (Network/Top 40 Markets)
Reporter Tom Brokaw, producer Andrea Malin and executive producer Craig Leake, NBC News – "Dateline NBC," won the award for "The Greatest Generation – A Special Edition of Dateline NBC." The documentary profiled the World War II generation, particularly the combat veterans.
Documentaries (All Other Markets)
Michael Golden, Matt Miller, Brian DiFuria and Bob Lopez of the KSEE-TV News Department in Fresno, Calif., won the award for "Behind the Crime." The hour-long program summarized the station's eight-month effort to improve the method by which local television news covers criminal justice issues and probe community concerns about crime and the coverage of crime on television.
Public Service (Network/Top 40 Markets)
The award went to "Seeking Solutions with Hedrick Smith," produced by Hedrick Smith Productions in Bethesda, Md., and presented by South Carolina Educational Television. The program showed how grass-roots groups have found effective ways to fight teenage violence, street crime, hate crimes and drugs.
Public Service (All Other Markets)
Producer/writer Mark Swinney, reporters David Bernard, David McNamara, Karen Swensen, Bill Elder, Stephanie Riegel and Bill Capo, and anchors Dennis Woltering, Angela Hill and Cart Arredondo of WWL-TV in New Orleans won the award for "Eye on Hurricanes '99." The special reviewed what happened during Hurricane Georges and previews what steps the government and the public should take to prepare for, and react to, the next big hurricane.
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Newsletters
Public Service in Newsletter Journalism
Adriel Bettelheim, Sarah Glazer, Kathy Koch, David Hosansky, Kenneth Jost and Thomas J. Colin of The CQ Researcher won for their series on healthcare.
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Research
Research about Journalism
The award went to The Project for Excellence in Journalism for its work, including the book "Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media," written by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, and the organization's local television news research project.
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Online Journalism
Deadline Reporting
The staff of ABCNEWS.com won the award for "The War Over Kosovo: Tragedy on Macedonia's Border."
Non-Deadline Reporting
Michael Moran, Jennifer Loomis, Wayne Taylor, Paul Segner, Kari Huus and Andrew Locke of MSNBC.com won the award for "China: The Revolution at 50."
Public Service
Holden Lewis, senior staff reporter for bankrate.com won the award for "Recovering From a Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Floyd," a series of pieces aimed at better understanding how to overcome a natural disaster.
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