'LAT' Wins Top Race-Coverage Award from Columbia

By: E&P Staff The Los Angeles Times won the top prize in the 2005 Let's Do It Better! Awards for outstanding coverage of race and ethnicity in print and broadcast journalism, presented by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

The Paul Tobenkin Award, the school?s highest recognition for the courageous coverage of a racial topic will be given to the paper for its five-part series documenting the mismanagement and malpractice at the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Career Achievement Awards will go to Sharon Rosenhause, managing editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando Bagwell, founder and president of Roja Productions, an independent film and television production company.

Winners receive honoraria and will present their work at the Let's Do It Better! Workshop on Race and Ethnicity, a conference for professional journalists to be held June 9 through June 11 at Columbia's Journalism School.

Other print citations went to:

? The Associated Press for ?Doors to Death,? a three-part narrative series by Pauline Arrillaga.
? The Daytona Beach (Fla.) News Journal for ?Race and Punishment,? a series by Ron Hurtibise and Donna Callea.
? The Houston Chronicle for ?The Search for Eddie Peabody,? a series by Zanto Peabody.
? The New York Times for a portfolio of work by David Gonzalez.
? The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times for a portfolio of columns by Eric Deggans, and ?A Husband for Vibha,? by reporter Babita Persaud and photographer Stefanie Boyar.
? The Philadelphia Inquirer for ?Echoes of the Killing Fields,? by Adam Fifield, and ?A Great Divide,? by a team: Dale Mezzacappa, Alletta Emeno, Diane Mastrull, Kellie Patrick, Annette John-Hall, Toni Callas, Melanie Burney, and photographers Ron Tarver and Sarah Glover.
? The San Francisco Chronicle. For beat reporting on the Muslim and Arab communities by Jonathan Curiel.
? The Washington Post. ?See No Bias,? by Shankar Vedantam.