Getting your player ready...
NEW YORK — Author Gay Talese, a former New York Times reporter who influenced a generation of writers with books such as “Thy Neighbor’s Wife” and “Honor Thy Father,” has been named the winner of a George Polk Award for career achievement.
Other winners of the 2008 Polk Awards included New York Times reporters Barry Bearak and Celia Dugger, who risked their lives exposing violence in Zimbabwe, and Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune, who reported on pre-emptive U.S. tactics in combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa.
The Polk Awards are considered among the top prizes in U.S. journalism. They were created in 1949 in honor of CBS reporter George W. Polk, who was killed while covering the Greek civil war. The Associated Press
Other winners were:
Polk Award for foreign reporting. Even after Bearak was jailed for
five days for illegal reporting, the pair continued to file stories
describing the violence that shook Zimbabwe following disputed
elections.
efforts to pre-empt radical Islamist activity in African nations
including Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.
about retired military officers working as analysts for broadcast
networks while moonlighting as paid defense industry consultants.
Barstow reported that these ostensibly independent analysts used
their air time to advance the interests of defense contractor
clients.
series “Demoted to Private: America’s Military Housing Disaster.”
Nalder showed how the Defense Department awarded $1 billion in
contracts to a politically connected consortium as part of an
effort to privatize military housing construction.
stories that led to the resignation and jailing of Detroit Mayor
Kwame Kilpatrick. The two found graphic text messages and other
evidence showing that Kilpatrick had lied under oath about a sexual
relationship with his chief of staff.
corruption in the Service Employees International Union.
Mesa, Ariz., for a five-part series about Maricopa County Sheriff
Joe Arpaio’s campaign against illegal immigrants.
sub-Saharan Africa, published in the business magazine Fast
Company.
Sentinel for a six-part series on potential toxins found in
everyday materials such as “microwave-safe” plastics and baby
bottles.
four-part series on the University of Washington’s football team,
which won the 2001 Rose Bowl even though at least two dozen members
had been arrested, some on charges of violent felonies, while at
the school.
co-producer Nicole Young of CBS’ “60 Minutes” for a segment that
showed how some American companies that are paid to recycle
electronic waste have instead dumped it in China.
Story,” a portrait of the Republican operative and his continuing
influence on American politics after his death in 1991 at age 40
from a brain tumor.
Public Radio and distributed by Public Radio International, and
Adam Davidson of National Public Radio, for their collaborative
report, “The Giant Pool of Money,” which distilled the complex
chain of events that led to the subprime mortgage crisis.
