The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism was named a winner Monday of 14 prizes in the 2017 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism contest, including awards for investigative, public service and explanatory reporting; single story and multi-story coverage; photography and illustration. Four awards are shared with Wisconsin Public Radio in the categories of investigative, long feature and explanatory radio reporting and multi-platform reporting.
The Center now has received a total of 62 awards since 2011 in the state’s premiere all-media journalism competition.
The honors recognize stories that examined an increase in hate and bias incidents in Wisconsin, the use of long-term solitary confinement in Wisconsin’s prison system, flawed hair analysis that has led to wrongful convictions, threats to Wisconsin’s dairy industry and rising tensions over its undocumented immigrant workers since the election of President Trump, a murder conviction whose DNA test results raise questions about the real perpetrator of the crime, the poor treatment of state whistleblowers, Wisconsin’s failure to take steps to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water, and coverage of a public meeting in which Kewaunee County residents learned many area wells were contaminated by animal and human waste.
Sharing several awards with the Center was Alexandra Hall, Wisconsin Public Radio’s former Mike Simonson Memorial Investigative Fellow who was embedded in the Center’s newsroom last year. Mukhtar Ibrahim and Katherine Proctor, investigative reporting fellows from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, also participated in award-winning projects. Sixteen current or former University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication students, working as paid Center interns or in classroom collaborations, played important roles in five of the award-winning entries. The Center’s collaborations with journalism students are funded in part by the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment at UW-Madison. Joint projects with the Medill Justice Project and HuffPost also received recognition.
“These awards illustrate the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s critical role in informing residents of the impacts of public policies, holding power to account and training the next generation of investigative journalists,” said Executive Director Andy Hall, who co-founded the independent nonprofit and nonpartisan Center in 2009 with Managing Editor Dee J. Hall.
“We are proud to share this recognition with our many journalistic partners and the hundreds of people, foundations and companies whose generosity made this work possible.”
Finalists will be notified whether they have won a first, second or third place at the annual Gridiron Dinner May 11 in Milwaukee.
The Center’s winners are:
Best Coverage of a Single News Topic or Event Including Breaking News:
Multimedia and Digital Director Coburn Dukehart for a story reporting on the widespread water contamination in Kewaunee County and geology which makes its groundwater particularly vulnerable to contamination by human waste and manure from dairy farms.
Best Multi-Story Coverage of a Single Feature Topic or Event:
Mukhtar Ibrahim, Alexandra Hall, Riley Vetterkind and Coburn Dukehart of the Center for a package of stories that examines a rise in hate and bias incidents in Wisconsin, including anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim incidents. One story profiles the Proud Boys, a pro-Western, anti-feminism men’s club. These stories were produced in collaboration with Documenting Hate, ProPublica’s national reporting project.
Best Investigative Story or Series:
Dee J. Hall, Katherine Proctor, Emma Schatz and Coburn Dukehart for Flawed Forensics, a series that examines the now-discredited technique of microscopic hair comparison to tie suspects to crimes. The report found a justice system loathe to uncover and correct its own mistakes, some of which have led to wrongful convictions.
Best Public Service Story or Series:
Cara Lombardo and Coburn Dukehart for a story that reveals missed opportunities by Gov. Scott Walker, lawmakers and Milwaukee city leaders to reduce the risk of lead in Wisconsin’s drinking water. This story was part of the Center’s national award-winning Failure at the Faucet series.
Best Explanatory Story or Series:
Coburn Dukehart, Dee J. Hall and Riley Vetterkind for the Center and Alexandra Hall, reporting for both Wisconsin Public Radio and the Center, for a package of stories that document the crucial importance of immigrant labor in the nation’s No. 2 milk-producing state. One story, reported in collaboration with HuffPost, examines how the demand for immigrant labor is driven in part by the declining population in many of Wisconsin’s rural counties.
Best Illustration or Cartoon:
Artist Emily Shullaw for an original painting depicting in stark detail the anguish reported by inmates in administrative confinement, a form of solitary confinement for which there is no set end date. This painting was created as part of a series of original paintings and illustrations based on Center surveys that were completed by inmates in solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons.
Best Feature Photograph:
Multimedia and Digital Director Coburn Dukehart for “Undocumented on the Dairy.”
Best News Photograph:
Multimedia and Digital Director Coburn Dukehart for “Scott Walker’s Wink”
Best Series Reporting — Audio:
Alexandra Hall, reporting for both Wisconsin Public Radio and the Center, for an audio report that explores how Wisconsin dairy farmers are struggling to keep their immigrant workers since Donald Trump was elected president.
Best Investigative Report — Audio:
Alexandra Hall, reporting for both Wisconsin Public Radio and the Center, for an audio report that reveals that the FBI admits errors in 90 percent of hair and fiber cases. Such errors are now a factor in one-fifth of all DNA exonerations. The case involving Richard Beranek is among 13 in Wisconsin in which the FBI acknowledges it used flawed microscopic hair comparison.
Best Long Hard Feature Story — Audio:
Alexandra Hall, reporting for both Wisconsin Public Radio and the Center, for an audio report that examines the Proud Boys, a pro-Western, anti-feminism men’s club.
Best Use of Multi-Platform Reporting:
Alexandra Arriaga, Coburn Dukehart and Dee J. Hall for the Center, Alexandra Hall, reporting for both Wisconsin Public Radio and the Center, and artist Emily Shullaw for a story that revealed some inmates had remained in solitary confinement for years or even decades, causing all types of psychological harm. Because the Center was forbidden from photographing, recording or speaking to any of the inmates, journalists decided to use a multi-platform report to paint a picture of these men’s lives. The package featured an online/print story by Arriaga, an audio report by Alexandra Hall, illustrations by Shullaw; a video produced by Dukehart featuring Shullaw’s illustrations and voice actors reading inmates’ responses to survey questions; and an audio interview by Dee J. Hall with an inmate released from administrative confinement after nearly 28 years in isolation.
Best Investigative Story or Series — Online:
This collaborative story examining alleged evidence tampering in the Ken Hudson case was reported by Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and Courtnee Brinker, Abhinanda Datta, Shahzeb Hashim, Lauren Jensik, Holly Kane, Hannah Moulthrop and Ezra Solomon of Northwestern University’s Medill Justice Project. From the outset, Kenneth Hudson has claimed he was innocent of murder and that police poured and smeared a red liquid on him. This story investigates the hard-to-explain DNA results in which blood red stains now yield either no DNA or just a profile consistent with Hudson. Hudson’s claims that police or prosecutors had destroyed or tampered with the samples to hide the true source of the red liquid.
Best Public Service Story or Series – Online:
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism staff, along with UW-Madison J420 students and Cara Lombardo of the Center for Broken Whistle, a series that explores Gov. Scott Walker’s attack on waste, fraud and abuse and the dwindling protections and incentives for whistleblowers in Wisconsin. The series was launched in the fall of 2017. It was reported by the investigative reporting class at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication taught by the Center’s managing editor, Dee J. Hall, with additional reporting by Hall and Cara Lombardo. The student reporters were Gretchen Christensen, Sam Coutu, Rosario Dominguez, Catherine Goslin, Bobby Ehrlich, Taylor Palmby, Julie Spitzer, Elias Radke, Madeline Sweitzer, Leo Vartorella, Helu Wang, Madeline Westberg and Kruti Yellapantula.
The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
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