The Polk Awards — which honor investigative reporting and are some of the most prestigious awards in journalism — were announced Monday by Long Island University. The New York Times and ProPublica were among the big winners.

The Times won three awards, including two for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Meanwhile, ProPublica — led by reporters Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Alex Mierjeski and Brett Murphy — won the National Reporting award for “revealing secret, lavish and highly questionable gifts that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has received for decades from wealthy benefactors.” That reporting includes: “Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire.”

The Times won for Foreign Reporting “for unsurpassed coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas.”

John Darnton, the longtime Polk Awards curator, said in a statement, “As horrific as the outbreak of war in the Middle East and the ongoing fighting in Ukraine were, they provided us with no shortage of magnificent reporting, done at great peril, from which to choose.”

Here are other highlights from this year’s awards:

• The Local Reporting award went to Jesse Coburn of Streetsblog NYC for “Ghost Tags: Inside New York City’s Black Market for Temporary License Plates.” That was a seven-month investigation that “uncovered an extensive underground economy in fraudulent paper license plates that motorists used to evade detection while driving on suspended licenses, dodging tolls and tickets and committing other more serious crimes.”
• The State Reporting award went to Chris Osher and Julia Cardi of The Gazette of Colorado Springs for “exposing the heartbreaking consequences of a family court system that relied on the advice of unqualified and incompetent parental evaluators to return young children to abusive fathers, leading to four deaths in a two-month period.”
• The Business Reporting award went to the staff of Reuters for its coverage of the “nefarious practices at companies owned by multi-billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.”
• Anna Werner of CBS News and the KFF Health News team of Brett Kelman, Fred Schulte, Holly K. Hacker and Daniel Chang shared the Medical Reporting award for “When Medical Devices Malfunction.”
• The other Medical Reporting award went to Michael D. Sallah, Michael Korsh and Evan Robinson-Johnson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Debbie Cenziper of ProPublica for “With Every Breath,” which investigated the risks of faulty breathing machines and corporate cover-ups to continue marketing those machines.
• Justice Reporting went to Brian Howey, a freelance reporter “whose exposé on a tawdry police practice was published by the Los Angeles Times and developed into a segment of a podcast by Reveal, The Center for Investigative Reporting.” Howey began the project as a grad student in the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s investigative reporting program.
• Luke Mogelson of the New Yorker won the Magazine Reporting award for “Two Weeks at the Front in Ukraine.”
• The Photojournalism award went to Samar Abu Elouf and Yousef Masoud of The New York Times for covering Israel’s bombing and invasion of their homeland, Gaza.
• Meribah Knight of WPLN Nashville, Ken Armstrong of ProPublica and Daniel Guillemette of Serial Productions, which is owned by The New York Times, won the award for a four-part podcast, “The Kids of Rutherford County,” which “chronicled the shockingly misguided approach to juvenile discipline by a domineering judge in one Tennessee county.”
• The award for Television Reporting went to Vice News correspondent Julia Steers and producer Amel Guettatfi for “Inside Wagner,” described by LIU as a “compelling on-the-ground coverage of Russian mercenaries on the Ukraine front and in the Central African Republic.”
• The award for Commentary went to Masha Gessen for her New Yorker essay “In the Shadow of the Holocaust.”
• The 2023 Sydney Schanberg Prize — established by the journalist Jane Freiman Schanberg to honor long-form investigative or enterprise journalism in memory of her late husband and his Pulitzer Prize-winning career (he was played by Sam Waterston in the movie “The Killing Fields”) — went to Jason Motlagh of Rolling Stone for “This Will End in Blood and Ashes,” which reported on the collapse of order in Haiti.

The awards are named for the CBS journalist George Polk, who was killed covering the Greek civil war in 1948. This year’s winners were selected from 497 submissions that appeared in print, online, on TV or radio. They were nominated by news organizations and individuals or recommended by a national panel of advisors.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the awards, which also includes the naming of the inaugural 16 Polk Laureates, whose “careers reflect the awards’ commitment to outstanding investigative reporting.”

You can find the complete list here. It includes combat photographer Lynsey Addario, longtime newspaper editors Dean Baquet and Marty Baron, famed Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, New Yorker editor David Remnick, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and Nikole Hannah-Jones, the guiding force behind The New York Times’ “1619 Project.”

Oliver’s blistering commentary

HBO’s John Oliver, shown here in May 2023. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

As I mentioned above, ProPublica won for its investigative reporting on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. And that brings me to this item.

John Oliver started season 11 of his HBO show “Last Week Tonight” with a bang. And he is, apparently, putting his money where his mouth is.

Oliver thinks Thomas is on the Supreme Court for all the perks, so he is offering Thomas $1 million per year — plus a swanky motor coach worth an estimated $2.4 million — if Thomas agrees to step down from the court immediately. He said the offer is good for 30 days.

Oliver said on air, “Clarence Thomas is arguably the most consequential justice on the court right now, and he’s never really seemed to like the job. He’s said it’s not worth doing ‘for the grief.’ So what if he could keep the luxury perks that he clearly enjoys without having to endure all of that grief? We have a special offer for you tonight. We are prepared to offer you $1 million a year for the rest of your life if you simply agree to leave the Supreme Court immediately and never come back.”

Oliver held up the contract and said, “This is not a joke. This is real. A million dollars a year until you or I die.”

It was a hilarious bit, given all the reporting — particularly from ProPublica — about the gifts Thomas has received over the years. But, of course, this isn’t really going to happen … right?

Oliver pointed out that his offer is completely legal, adding, “Which seems crazy to me because it really feels like it shouldn’t be. But as they keep pointing out, there are no rules in place to stop me from doing this. And let me be clear: HBO is not putting up the money for this. I am personally on the hook.”

And if Thomas accepts the offer?

Oliver said, “I could be doing stand-up tours for your retirement for years.”

White House angry at New York Times

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger did an interview Monday with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and revealed that the White House is “extremely angry” over the Times’ coverage of President Joe Biden, including Biden’s age,

Sulzberger said, “We are going to continue to report fully and fairly, not just on Donald Trump but also on President Joe Biden. He is a historically unpopular incumbent and the oldest man to ever hold this office. We’ve reported on both of those realities extensively, and the White House has been extremely upset about it.”

That was a juicy headline to come of the interview, but it was actually a substantive conversation that delved deep into the journalism industry.

About the Times, Sulzberger said, “We try to learn from everyone and everyone tries to learn from us, too. Journalism faces existential pressure right now. But one of the good things that’s emerged from this pressure is that we all trade notes. Who are we looking at? It’s a very broad swath of journalistic organizations. But I also spend a lot of time looking at non-journalistic media organizations because our industry underestimates how shared the dynamics we all face are.”

Sulzberger was asked about how the Times is successful while many news organizations are cutting staff, including the Times’ chief rival, The Washington Post.

“The trends that are decimating news have nothing to do with the success of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic or the New Yorker,” Sulzberger said. “They are a set of existential pressures that are stemming from the decimation of the legacy business models and the replacement of those with the much more economically challenging digital options.”

Sulzberger added, “I’ll push back on your premise even further. I actually think that people may be overstating the challenge the Washington Post is going through. If you had told them 10 years ago that they would have a newsroom with hundreds more journalists and maybe two million more subscribers, they would have taken that in a heartbeat, even if it involves some painful moments along the way. So I think the Washington Post, which continues to produce amazing work, is one of the success stories along with the Wall Street Journal and the Times. All of us have more subscribers than we’ve ever had.”

Sulzberger, however, admitted there is a difference between national and local media. Check out the entire interview for more insightful questions and answers about where media is, and where it might be going.

Houston Landing staff unionize six weeks after EIC and senior reporter fired

For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.

The staff of Houston Landing announced Monday that they are unionizing, six weeks after their editor-in-chief and a senior reporter were abruptly fired.

Those firings caught staff at the digital nonprofit off guard and highlighted their lack of job protections, the union wrote in a press release. They are unionizing to have a say in company policies and to seek protections like “just cause,” which prevents employers from disciplining or terminating employees without a fair reason. Roughly 75% of the newsroom’s 21 union-eligible staff members have signed union cards.

“Recent leadership decisions … have caused concern about a lack of transparency within our organization. We fear the Landing is moving away from values that are integral to our mission,” the union wrote in its mission statement. “As policies change and the Landing grows, we would like a continued seat at the table with company leadership.”

Houston Landing CEO Peter Bhatia did not respond to a request for comment. If the Landing refuses to voluntarily recognize the staff’s union, they can petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election to unionize.

The union campaign is not the first time the Landing’s staff have acted collectively. In the days following the firings — which were made at the behest of Bhatia — newsroom staff denounced the decision in a letter to the Landing’s board of directors. The board ultimately deferred to Bhatia, who has claimed that the firings are part of a strategic shift to make the company a “truly digital enterprise-driven news operation.” Staff have expressed confusion over this shift in strategy as the Landing has met its targets for pageviews, engagement and impact, among other metrics.

The Landing is the third nonprofit newsroom in Texas to unionize since the start of the year. Both the San Antonio Report and The Texas Tribune announced union campaigns last month in part to preserve the benefits they already receive and to secure additional job protections in an uncertain economic climate.

‘This is infuriating’

Just in time for President’s Day on Monday, The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey ranked every president ever. (The survey polled presidential experts.)

Abraham Lincoln finished first with Franklin D. Roosevelt coming in second, and George Washington third. Barack Obama finished seventh, ahead of John F. Kennedy (10th), Bill Clinton (12th) and Ronald Reagan (16th).

Joe Biden was 14th.

And who was dead last, coming in at No. 45? Donald Trump.

That did not go over well with the Fox News bunch, including Fox News host and former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who said, “This is infuriating in so many ways.”

Media pans NBA All-Star Game

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) goes up for a dunk during the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

It was supposed to be one of its signature events celebrating and highlighting the National Basketball Association, but the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday night landed like a basketball filled with cement.

No one expects the NBA players to play particularly rigorous defense, but Sunday’s game was an embarrassment. Just look at the final score: The Eastern stars beat the West, 211-186.

So the NBA sports media spent Monday wondering whether or not the game can even be salvaged from now on.

Stephen A. Smith, one of the most powerful voices in sports, said on his ESPN show, “First Take,” that the league should just do away with the game if the players aren’t going to put in an effort.

“What transpired (Sunday) night was an absolute travesty,” Smith said. “Nearly 400 points scored. No defense, no effort whatsoever. This is the ultimate indictment against NBA stars who show up for All-Star weekend. You play harder in the summer when you’re training.”

Smith added, “Nobody’s asking you to compete like you’re going up in a playoff game or even a regular season game.”

Smith said the players just need to go out and compete like they do when they work out together in the offseason.

“That is not hard,” Smith said. “The fact that you would go out and flagrantly show such a lack of effort on the defensive side of the ball in any capacity is just a travesty.”

David Aldridge, a veteran basketball journalist who is now a senior columnist for The Athletic, tweeted, “That was dreadful. Again. I am beginning to think this game is irredeemable. I am not sure why even minimal defense effort is beyond this generation of All-Stars. But it may be time to end this game if they can’t give more of a damn than that.”

Meanwhile, ESPN’s JJ Redick, recently named to the network’s top broadcasting team for the NBA Finals, had another complaint. The game was supposed to start at 8 p.m. Eastern and didn’t tip off until 8:42 p.m.

On his “The Old Man and the Three” podcast, Redick said, “Why can’t we start anything on time in the NBA? Why can’t we? I’m gonna sound like an old person here, but if it says 8 o’clock, I don’t want it to tip off at 8:42. I’ve already told my kids they can watch the first quarter. It’s a Sunday night. Guess what? They’ve stayed up late like four straight nights because nothing starts on time in the NBA; and it’s driving me crazy. And I work for a broadcast partner. Can we please just start things on time in the NBA? It’s out of control. It’s absolutely out of control.”

I like the point Redick made about working for a broadcast partner. Both he and Smith work on NBA broadcasts for a network that has a lot invested in the NBA. Good to see them unload on the league when it’s called for.

Oh, one final suggestion: The Ringer founder Bill Simmons says the All-Star Game should just get rid of the three-point shots, adding, “Then we won’t have people taking 45-foot (expletive) three-pointers. Nobody wants to watch that. Stop it! Get rid of threes.”

Media tidbits

• The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint and Isabella Simonetti with “Inside Kim Godwin’s Challenging Tenure as ABC News President.”
• The Washington Post’s Nora Krug writes about the author of “The Woman in the Window” and his new book in “A.J. Finn had a spectacular rise and fall. Now he has a new novel.”
• The always superb Wesley Morris of The New York Times hands out his own movie awards in “The Best, Weirdest, Wildest Performance of the Year.”
• For Deadspin, Jane McManus with “Kenny Smith ruined Sabrina Ionescu’s moment.”
• Poynter has added four people to its National Advisory Board: ​​Stella M. Chávez (immigration reporter, KERA, Dallas); Ramón Escobar (senior vice president, talent recruitment and development, CNN); Kathleen McGrory (investigations editor, New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship); and Adrienne Roark (president, content development and integration, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures). Poynter’s Jennifer Orsi has more details.

Hot type

• There’s no question in my mind that “Slap Shot” is the greatest (and funniest) sports movie ever made. Check out this terrific piece from The Athletic’s Jayson Jenks: “The wacky true story of the hockey team that inspired ‘Slap Shot.’”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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