13 IRE members honored with Polk awards

The winners of the 2103 George Polk Awards in Journalism, announced Sunday by Long Island University, included 13 IRE members. The awards honor special achievement in journalism, particularly in the areas of investigative and enterprise reporting. The following IRE members were among this year’s 30 recipients of awards given in 13 categories:

• Glenn Greenwald (The Guardian) won one of three awards given for national security reporting for his article about the collection of Americans’ phone records by the National Security Agency, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
• Laura Poitras (The Guardian) also was recognized, along with Barton Gellman, in the National Security Reporting category for their reporting based on intelligence obtained from Snowden.
• Shawn Boburg (The Record) will receive the George Polk Award for State Reporting in recognition of his work covering the September lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, N.J.
• Rosalind Helderman (Washington Post) will be awarded the George Polk Award for Political Reporting for her work with Laura Vozzella and Carol Leonnig in uncovering the relationship between Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and a wealthy entrepreneur.
• Meg Kissinger (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) will receive one of two awards given in the medical reporting category for her revealing series of stories on the Milwaukee County mental health system.
• Philip Reese (Sacremento Bee) will receive the other medical reporting award for his work with Cynthia Hubert exposing the “patient-dumping” practices of a Las Vegas hospital.
• Frances Robles (New York Times) will be honored with the George Polk Award for Justice Reporting for discovering the use of tainted testimony by a Brooklyn homicide detective.
• Tim Elfrink (Miami New Times) won the award for sports reporting for his article identifying Biogensis as a supplier of steroids to MLB players.
• Alison Fitzgerald, Daniel Wagner and John Dunbar (The Center for Public Integrity) will be recognized in the business reporting category for demonstrating the failure of Wall Street to hold accountable those responsible for the 2009 financial meltdown.   
• Mark Fainaru-Wada (ESPN) will be among those granted the George Polk Award for Network Television Reporting for his contribution to tracing the National Football League’s efforts to cover up evidence linking head injuries to high rates of brain disease among players.
• Noah Pranksy (WTSP) is the winner in the local television reporting category for his disclosure of the reduction of yellow light times at intersections in Floridaand the consequences of those changes.