'Newsday' Duo Wins Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting

By: Joe Strupp Sandra Peddie and Eden Laikin of Newsday in Melville, N.Y., have been named the winners of the 2009 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, according to the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, which sponsors the award.

An announcement on the award's Web site stated: "The duo was recognized for their articles exposing widespread corruption and systemic failures in local special government districts on Long Island."

The $35,000 award, which has been presented annually for 20 years by the USC Annenberg School, "honors the year?s outstanding work in investigative journalism that led to direct results."

?In more than 100 stories over a year, the Newsday reporters uncovered and documented pervasive pension abuses, double-dipping by retirees and lavish spending by employees and retained lawyers of the little-noticed special districts that spend many millions of taxpayers? money to provide services like water hookups and trash collection,? judges wrote in a commendation, "citing the breadth of the revelations and the resulting reforms."

?From story to story and one special district to another, their investigation grew organically to include statewide laws and practices,? the judges added. ?Within months, the New York state legislature unanimously passed a pension-reform package and other legislation to address the abuses uncovered by Newsday. State government departments also changed rules and stepped up enforcement to end specific instances of corruption.?

Geneva Overholser, director of USC Annenberg's School of Journalism, added in a statement: "Rooting out corruption requires tenacity and dedication, and the team from Newsday exhibited those traits in abundance. Their work and the many other worthy entries show that investigative reporting -- so critically important to our nation -- continues strongly in cities across the country. We cannot assume that this will always be true. We are delighted that the Selden Ring Award serves to support and encourage this vital work."

The judges also cited Detroit Free Press reporters Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick for their ?relentless but scrupulously fair? coverage of a scandal that sent the mayor of Detroit and his top aide to prison last year.

The winners were selected from a field of 69 nominations. The award will be presented in April.

The Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting was established in 1989 by the late Selden Ring, a Southern California business leader and philanthropist. "He started the award to honor journalists whose investigative reporting informed the public about major problems or corruption in society and yielded concrete results."