Four investigations from the Center for Public Integrity have won awards from the New York State Society of CPAs 2015 Excellence in Journalism Awards.
The Medicare Advantage Money Grab series won Best Independent or Affiliated Outlet (medium to small). The project examined the billions of tax dollars wasted through manipulation of “risk scores” and the power of the Medicare Advantage industry. It was reported by senior health care reporter Fred Schulte, former data editor David Donald, intern Erin Durkin and news developer Chris Zubak-Skees.
The Center’s documentary, Time is Money, revealed how a growing web of prison bankers, private vendors and corrections agencies profit off the innocent by shifting costs onto inmates’ families. Finance reporter Dan Wagner and multimedia editor Eleanor Bell collaborated on the Profiting from Prisoners series. It won Best TV or online video news story.
Florida’s Foreclosure Crisis investigated the aftermath of the housing crash in the Sunshine State and revealed a parallel legal system whose focus is on clearing the court system of cases and cutting the time it takes a bank to foreclose. The project found that this system had created a nightmarish series of obstacles for people struggling to hang on to their homes. Finance Managing Editor Alison Fitzgerald and digital editor Jared Bennett won the award for Best Personal Finance Story.
The Center’s senior reporter for broadband, Allan Holmes, examined the telecommunication industry’s web of influence in Wireless Companies Fight for their Futures. This investigation examined the money and lobbying behind the battle for wireless spectrum and won the award for Best Beat News Reporting.
The awards recognize national and local reporters whose work contributed to a better and balanced understanding of business and financial topics.
This is the 32nd year of the awards produced by the New York Society of CPAs and judged by a group of Society members and journalists from the New York Financial Writers Association.
The Awards will be presented at an Awards Luncheon in New York in early May; see the full announcement and other place-getters here.