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Heywood Broun Award Goes to Arkansas Journalist
Washington, D.C. - Mary Hargrove, an associate editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the 2000 Heywood Broun Award for a series that explored the failures of the Arkansas juvenile justice system.
The journalism award is presented annually by The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America. As top winner, Hargrove will receive a check for $5,000, and she and the winners of three honorable mentions will be honored and receive award plaques at an April 24 luncheon at the National Press Club here in Washington.
The award winners were selected from 208 entries from across the country and Canada. They included 55 television entries, a record number.
Hargrove's series was conceived as a look at improvements in the Arkansas juvenile justice system, following up on a series she did in 1998. That series revealed guards were physically, emotionally and sexually abusing children in state-run institutions.
The suicide of a youth in the system last year was Hargrove=s first clue that policymakers had not made good on the proposed changes. Her investigation found that children were being warehoused without badly needed physical or psychological treatment. The lack of treatment contributed to violence inside and outside the system -- attacks on weaker children by the stronger, more dangerous ones and attacks on citizens by dangerous youths released from state custody.
"We believe that Ms. Hargrove's series was completely in keeping with Heywood Broun's passionate championing of the underdog and the disadvantaged," the judges said in a joint statement. "During his lifetime Broun maintained a steadfast belief that journalists could help right wrongs, especially social ills."
As a result of the series, several bills aimed at reforming the juvenile justice system were introduced in the state legislature. One bill would put dangerous juvenile offenders into the Arkansas Crime Information Center computer network. A second requires treatment for juveniles who need it and puts violent juveniles released from facilities under very rigid rules, more like parole.
The Broun honorable mentions were awarded to: Reporter Darcy Spears and photojournalist/editor Steve Miller of KVBC News, an NBC affiliate in Las Vegas, for "When Justice Fails," a segment on a young man wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years; Carl Strock, for his columns in the Schenectady (N.Y.) Gazette that were instrumental in winning a new trial for a man accused of sexually abusing a young girl; and the late Lars-Erik Nelson, for his New York Daily News columns criticizing The New York Times coverage of the Wen Ho Lee nuclear espionage case.
AHeywood Broun himself would be very proud of the entries this year, which represented many first-class stories and broadcast reports that exposed an array of social problems and brought about important reforms,@ said Linda Foley, president of the Guild and a CWA vice president.
The judges were Marvin Kalb, executive director of the Washington office of the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy; Alan L. Otten, former Washington Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal; Sanford "Whitey" Watzman, retired Cleveland Plain-Dealer reporter; and Lena Williams, a reporter for The New York Times. The panel=s non-voting chairman was Bill McLeman, former director of field operations for the Guild.
The Broun award was named after the crusading columnist and most prominent founder of the Guild. It was first presented in 1941 to recognize Aindividual journalistic achievement by members of the working media, particularly if it helps right a wrong or correct an injustice."
The journalism award is presented annually by The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America. As top winner, Hargrove will receive a check for $5,000, and she and the winners of three honorable mentions will be honored and receive award plaques at an April 24 luncheon at the National Press Club here in Washington.
The award winners were selected from 208 entries from across the country and Canada. They included 55 television entries, a record number.
Hargrove's series was conceived as a look at improvements in the Arkansas juvenile justice system, following up on a series she did in 1998. That series revealed guards were physically, emotionally and sexually abusing children in state-run institutions.
The suicide of a youth in the system last year was Hargrove=s first clue that policymakers had not made good on the proposed changes. Her investigation found that children were being warehoused without badly needed physical or psychological treatment. The lack of treatment contributed to violence inside and outside the system -- attacks on weaker children by the stronger, more dangerous ones and attacks on citizens by dangerous youths released from state custody.
"We believe that Ms. Hargrove's series was completely in keeping with Heywood Broun's passionate championing of the underdog and the disadvantaged," the judges said in a joint statement. "During his lifetime Broun maintained a steadfast belief that journalists could help right wrongs, especially social ills."
As a result of the series, several bills aimed at reforming the juvenile justice system were introduced in the state legislature. One bill would put dangerous juvenile offenders into the Arkansas Crime Information Center computer network. A second requires treatment for juveniles who need it and puts violent juveniles released from facilities under very rigid rules, more like parole.
The Broun honorable mentions were awarded to: Reporter Darcy Spears and photojournalist/editor Steve Miller of KVBC News, an NBC affiliate in Las Vegas, for "When Justice Fails," a segment on a young man wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years; Carl Strock, for his columns in the Schenectady (N.Y.) Gazette that were instrumental in winning a new trial for a man accused of sexually abusing a young girl; and the late Lars-Erik Nelson, for his New York Daily News columns criticizing The New York Times coverage of the Wen Ho Lee nuclear espionage case.
AHeywood Broun himself would be very proud of the entries this year, which represented many first-class stories and broadcast reports that exposed an array of social problems and brought about important reforms,@ said Linda Foley, president of the Guild and a CWA vice president.
The judges were Marvin Kalb, executive director of the Washington office of the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy; Alan L. Otten, former Washington Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal; Sanford "Whitey" Watzman, retired Cleveland Plain-Dealer reporter; and Lena Williams, a reporter for The New York Times. The panel=s non-voting chairman was Bill McLeman, former director of field operations for the Guild.
The Broun award was named after the crusading columnist and most prominent founder of the Guild. It was first presented in 1941 to recognize Aindividual journalistic achievement by members of the working media, particularly if it helps right a wrong or correct an injustice."
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