Scripps Howard Awards select the best of 2018 journalism, announce finalists

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Feb 26, 2019, 11:00 ET

CINCINNATI, Feb. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The New York Times and the South Florida Sun Sentinel in Deerfield Beach, Florida, lead news organizations receiving recognition from the judges of the 66th Scripps Howard Awards, each with three entries selected as finalists.

The Awards, which honor the best American journalism from the past year, has named finalists in 15 categories among 912 entries received from U.S. journalists and news teams.

A panel of veteran journalists and media industry leaders convened Feb. 21-22 at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida, to judge the 2018 entries.

The Scripps Howard Foundation presents more than $170,000 in prize money to the winning organizations and journalists of the Scripps Howard Awards.

Winners will be announced at 2 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, March 5, during a live stream on YouTube and Facebook. The Awards will be presented the evening of Thursday, April 18, at an event in Cincinnati and also streamed live on YouTube and Facebook. The Awards will be rebroadcast on Newsy on April 21 and on Scripps stations throughout the summer.

From the list of 2018 winners, one entry will be selected as the recipient of the Impact Award. The Impact Award recognizes journalism that serves the public through coverage of an issue leading to changes in the public, private or business sector.

"Each year, judges for the Scripps Howard Awards review hundreds of entries from across the country to elevate those with far-reaching importance for our world," said Liz Carter, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation. "A resounding theme from the judges this year was the collaboration across news organizations large and small to produce stories with impact. This perfectly captures the spirit of the Awards and we are impressed by the work submitted this year."

The Foundation's corporate parent, The E.W. Scripps Company, is the presenting sponsor of the Awards. The Scripps Howard Awards show is produced in partnership with Newsy.

"Though these are challenging times for journalists and news organizations, the work produced by Scripps Howard Awards finalists is a testament to our industry's unwavering commitment to the press' responsibility to safeguard our democracy," said Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson. "Scripps is proud to support the Scripps Howard Foundation's celebration of the year's finest journalism."

The New York Times has two finalists in the Human Interest Storytelling category and one in the Innovation category. The South Florida Sun Sentinel has one finalist in the Breaking News, Innovation and Multimedia categories.

Bloomberg News and Vice News each had entries named finalists in two categories.

A full list of finalists follows:

Breaking News:
The Kansas (Missouri) City Star – "Tragedy on Table Rock Lake"
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – "Tree of Life Shooting"
South Florida Sun Sentinel – "Parkland: A Breaking News Story that Demanded a Long-Term Commitment"

Broadcast – Local Coverage:
KARE-TV (Minneapolis) – "A Pattern of Denial"
KUSA-TV (Denver) – "Lien on Me"
KNTV-TV (San José, California) – "Transgender Kids"

Broadcast – National, International Coverage:
MSNBC – "Putin's Covert War"
FRONTLINE PBS – "Documenting Hate"
Vice News – "After the Fall"

Business/Financial Reporting:
Bloomberg – "Sign Here to Lose Everything"
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – "Implant Files"
Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting – "Kept Out"

Community Journalism:
Knoxville (Tennessee) News Sentinel – "The Devastation of TVA's Coal Ash Spill"
The Tennessean (Nashville) – "Tennessee's 'Safekeepers'"
The Post and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina) – "Minimally Adequate"

Environmental Reporting:
The Associated Press, Center for Public Integrity, Newsy and The Texas Tribune – "Blowout: Inside America's Energy Gamble"
The Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail and ProPublica – "The New Power Brokers: West Virginia's Natural Gas Industry"
National Geographic – "Planet or Plastic?"

Distinguished Service to the First Amendment:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV (Atlanta) – "How Atlanta Trampled the Public's Right to Know"
Dallas Morning News – "Pain and Profit"
The Denver Post – "Shrouded Justice"

Human Interest Storytelling:
The New York Times – "Lost in the Storm"
The New York Times – "Blood Will Tell"
Univision – "America First: The Legacy of an Immigration Raid"

Innovation:
BBC – "Anatomy of a Killing"
The New York Times – "Visual Forensics"
South Florida Sun Sentinel – "Parkland"

Investigative Reporting:
Reuters – "Myanmar Burning"
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) – "Denied Justice"
The Wall Street Journal – "Trump's Hush Money"

Multimedia Journalism:
Frontline PBS – "The Last Generation: An Interactive Film on the Marshall Islands"
The Oregonian/OregonLive.com – "Ghosts of Highway 20"
South Florida Sun Sentinel – "Unprepared and Overwhelmed"

Opinion:
Bloomberg – Tim O'Brien Columns
Capital Gazette (Annapolis, Maryland) – "Capital Gazette Shooting and Aftermath"
Palestine (Texas) Herald-Press – "What are they Hiding?"

Radio/Podcast:
WBEZ-FM (Chicago) and Chicago Tribune – "16 Shots"
Michigan Radio – "Believed"
WNYC Studios – "Aftereffect"

Topic of the Year: Midterm Elections:
CBS News: "60 Minutes" – "As Texas Goes"
The Washington Post – "Midterm Elections"
Vice News – "She's Running"

Visual Journalism:
The Associated Press – David Goldman Photography Portfolio
BBC – "Trail of the Deadly Drug Trade"
The Los Angeles Times – Marcus Yam Newspaper Photojournalism Portfolio

The Scripps Howard Foundation, in partnership with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), also announced the finalists for its two journalism education awards:

Teacher of the Year
Jinx Broussard, Ph.D. – Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University
Kathleen Culver, Ph. D. – School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Ph. D. – School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa

Administrator of the Year
Dean Diane McFarlin, B.S. – College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida
Director Judy Oskam, Ed.D. – School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas State University

These national awards recognize excellence in teaching and administration within journalism and communication programs. Both awards will be presented at the 2019 AEJMC Conference in Toronto this August.

About The Scripps Howard Foundation
The Scripps Howard Foundation supports philanthropic causes important to The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) and the communities it serves, with a special emphasis on excellence in journalism. At the crossroads of the classroom and the newsroom, the Foundation is a leader in supporting journalism education, scholarships, internships, minority recruitment and development, literacy and First Amendment causes. The Scripps Howard Awards stand as one of the industry's top honors for outstanding journalism. The Foundation improves lives and helps build thriving communities. It partners with Scripps brands to create awareness of local issues and supports impactful organizations to drive solutions.

About Scripps
The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) serves audiences and businesses through a growing portfolio of local and national media brands. With 36 television stations, Scripps is one of the nation's largest independent TV station owners. Scripps runs a collection of national journalism and content businesses, including Newsy, the next-generation national news network; podcast industry leader Stitcher; the fast-growing national broadcast networks Bounce, Grit, Escape and Laff; and Triton, the global leader in digital audio technology and measurement services. Scripps produces original programming including "Pickler & Ben," runs an award-winning investigative reporting newsroom in Washington, D.C., and is the longtime steward of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Founded in 1878, Scripps has held for decades to the motto, "Give light and the people will find their own way."