IRE's Tight Rules Eliminate Some Candidates for Awards

By: Joe Strupp When Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) announced its annual awards this morning, some might have been surprised that The Washington Post's James Grimaldi, Susan Schmidt and R. Jeffrey Smith were noticeably absent.

Already honored with the Selden Ring for Investigative Reporting and as finalists for both a Pulitzer Prize and the Shorenstein Center's Goldsmith Prize, the trio's disclosures about lobbyist Jack Abramoff would seem a likely contender for the IRE honors.

But they never had a chance. Why? Tight contest restrictions that disqualify any entry linked directly to an IRE Board member, either through editing or writing. Since Grimaldi is among the board members, the award-winning work was out.

"A lot of us make some sacrifices to be on the board," Grimaldi said Tuesday just hours after the awards were announced. "But we think the integrity of the organization is paramount. It is a very old rule in IRE and it is pretty close to being gospel."

For writers like Grimaldi, his board presence likely affects only his work. But for some board members who are either managing editors or investigative editors, most of their staff's articles can be disqualified if they are involved in the editing.

The current 13-person IRE board includes six members who hold an editor title at a newspaper. For some, such as Steven C. Miller of The New York Times, the membership does not impact much of his paper's work since he handles mostly training aspects.

But for others, such as Mark Katches, investigative editor at The Orange County Register, or Shawn McIntosh, deputy managing editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it can impact a broad array of work.

"We have had Pulitzer finalists six times in the past 10 years that could have been eligible for an IRE, but were not because I have been on the board," said David Boardman, managing editor of The Seattle Times and the IRE president. "It is part of the cost of being an IRE board member."

Boardman also cited Katches as another example, noting the Register's 2004 coverage of tainted candy imported from Mexico, which received a Pulitzer finalist nod, was not eligible for IRE honors.

"We are proud because we feel ours is the purest award in terms of conflict of interest," Boardman said. "It is a trade-off. People in my organization pay a price, but my membership on the board is one of the reasons I met many of them."

Most journalism awards, including the Pulitzers, require judges from newspapers with entries to recuse themselves from those particular discussions. But IRE board members say their restrictions, which date back to the group's founding more than 30 years ago, are important to keep. "Many other contests have acquired a taint of politics," Boardman said about such lesser limits. "We feel it is important to keep things as pure as possible."

Andy Hall, investigative and projects reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison and a four-year IRE board member, said the ban also kept his wife, Dee J. Hall, out of contention in 2001. Although he had nothing to do with her stories that disclosed a state legislative scandal involving public funds for partisan activities, which won a Society of Professional Journalists award, his IRE link made her ineligible due to their marrriage. "It is a rule we know about before we seek membership on the IRE board," he said.

The group's top prize this year, the IRE Medal, went to The Record of Hackensack, N.J. for its coverage of toxic waste from a former auto plant site, while other newspaper awards went to The Washington Post, South Florida Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Charleston (W.V.) Gazette, The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., and Willamette Week of Portland, Ore. (see separate story on E&P Online).