James Steele, of the Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism, said the heart of journalism has always been to speak for those who don’t have a voice.
Steele told an audience at the Walter Cronkite School on Monday night that any committed journalist is interested in fairness and equity and is upset by misuses of power. According to him, all three of the evening’s award recipients recognized by the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism gave a voice to those who are being abused.
Steele said that, as an investigative business journalist, it is important to avoid having a game plan for an article while reporting.
“You start with a question,” he said. “As you’re developing it, you’ll see new paths that open and you have to have flexibility to follow it.”
The Barlett and Steele Gold Award went to “Fish Slavery,” a piece by Associated Press journalists Robin McDowell, Margie Mason, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan. Through their investigation, they interviewed captive Burmese slaves on an Indonesian Island in order to expose labor abuses by a Thai fishing industry, which ships its cargo to major U.S. supermarkets and pet food companies. As a result of their investigation, more than 1,000 slaves were freed.
McDowell said the piece did not get the response they were hoping to receive from consumers in America.
“We are looking at the mistakes we made,” McDowell said. “The team is now trying to “reach out to the consumers in a more direct way to make them realize it’s their responsibility, as well.”
The Silver Award was presented to “Unchecked Care” by Christopher Serres and Glenn Howatt from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Serres and Howatt reported on the growth of in-home health agencies, due to policies that encourage elderly care at patient’s homes over hospitals. Through their investigation, they found that home-care agencies were leaving patients without care for extended periods, and nursing aides with limited training were performing risky procedures. Howatt said caretakers were being paid nine to 10 dollars an hour and continued to go to patient’s homes to provide care even after they stopped getting paid.
Serres said journalists are duty-bound to find out why people’s stories are not being told.
“Everyone has a voice — there is no such thing as the voiceless,” Serres said. “There are only those who are deliberately silenced and those who are deliberately ignored.”
The Bronze Award was given to “Dying for Care” by Pat Beall from The Palm Beach Post. Through her sixth months of reporting on prison inmates’ medical care, Beall experienced months of “tug-of-war” trying to get documents from the Department of Corrections. She said she found that mortality rates among inmates in natural deaths and suicides had risen up to a 10 year high within the first nine days of privatization of the prison, and that the number of inmates being referred to outside hospitals for more serious medical care had dropped dramatically.
She found families of two deceased inmates who had been treated for cancer with Tylenol and Ibuprofen while in prison.
In a Q&A session, Beall said that in order to ensure a fair investigation, she believes every subject of her interview during their time together.
“The other side of the story is what makes it so fascinating,” Beall said. “Getting somebody to help you understand that side is just great.”
Contact the reporter at Conall.Casey-Waid@asu.edu.
