NEW YORK: The Sidney Hillman Foundation announced today that Sara Ganim of the Harrisburg Patriot-News has won the December Sidney Award for her series of investigations exposing the Penn State sex abuse scandal.
Ganim, a 24-year-old crime reporter, broke the news in March that a grand jury was investigating former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky for allegedly sexually abusing a high school football player. She has since interviewed several young men who say that Sandusky abused them.
In November, Ganim revealed that indications of abuse by Sandusky surfaced as early as 1995, but authorities repeatedly failed to act.
"This reporter from a small newspaper took on one of the most powerful institutions in her area and brought down some of the most powerful names in sports, local police, community leaders, and Sandusky's charity," said Hillman judge Lindsay Beyerstein. "For years, everyone put prestige and power ahead of vulnerable children."
Read more about her series of breaking investigations on the scandal in an interview with Ganim here.
A former assistant coach told the grand jury that he saw Sandusky raping a boy in the shower of the Penn State locker room in 2002 and that he told legendary head football coach Joe Paterno about the incident. Sandusky was allowed to keep working with young people and running a children's charity.
Paterno and university president Graham Spanier were fired after the grand jury indicted Sandusky. Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz were also arrested and charged with perjury and failure to report a crime.
Ganim's scoops came from her hard work as an old fashioned beat reporter, work that did not go unnoticed by others. "It didn't take long for us to recognize our most formidable competition. It was the Patriot-News of Harrisburg," wrote one New York Times editor.
Sara Ganim is a crime reporter for the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Before joining the Patriot-News she covered the crime and courts beat for the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa. She is a graduate of Penn State University.
The Sidney Hillman Foundation honors excellence in journalism in service of the common good. Judges are Rose Arce, Hendrik Hertzberg, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Harold Meyerson, Susan Meiselas, and Lindsay Beyerstein.
The Sidney Award is given once a month to an outstanding piece of socially conscious journalism, by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, which also awards the annual Hillman Prizes every spring. Winners of the Sidney receive a certificate, a $500 honorarium and a bottle of union-made wine.
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