'Wash Post' Reporters Win Top Prize for Walter Reed Stories

By: Joe Strupp Dana Priest and Anne Hull of The Washington Post are the 2008 winners of the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for their coverage of poor conditions and bad management at that Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The $35,000 annual prize, presented by the School of Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, "recognizes the year?s outstanding work in investigative journalism that led to direct results," a release stated.

"Beginning in February 2007, the Post published a series of articles detailing how the once 'crown jewel of military medicine' has been transformed into 'a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients' living in poor conditions and struggling in a 'messy bureaucratic battlefield nearly as chaotic as the real battlefields they faced overseas,'" the release added.

?The Washington Post series exposing the outrageous conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is precisely the kind of journalism the Selden Ring award was created to honor and encourage,? judges wrote in announcing the award. ?The reporters wrote what they saw firsthand -- horrible, unsanitary conditions for outpatient care. They witnessed uncaring treatment, bureaucracy that ignored human needs. They told this story with great authority and power. Walter Reed, once considered the gold standard for treatment of soldiers, was revealed as badly in need of overhaul. The impact of the series was immediate and sweeping. At a time when the country is still divided on the war in Iraq, all sides agree that our veterans deserve the finest care.?

?If it were not for these two reporters, our veterans would continue to suffer needlessly and unconscionably," added Michael Parks, former editor of the Los Angeles Times and current director of Annenberg School of Journalism. ?This is exactly what investigative reporting should do. Hold the government accountable to its people.?

Two other finalists for the award were: The New York Times, for ?A Toxic Pipeline," an investigation into the dangers of toxic chemicals that "led the FDA to halt the import of diethylene glycol from China, sparked recalls in more than 30 countries and forced China to close a factory"; and the Chicago Tribune for ?Hidden Hazards," which "shed a powerful spotlight on problems the Consumer Product Safety Commission failed to uncover. The reporters found unsafe car seats, toys and cribs that killed kids. The newspaper gave readers useful graphics in print and online to understand the defects in products and how to use them safely."

The winners were selected from more than 80 nominations, judges revealed. The Selden Ring Award was established in 1989 by the late Selden Ring, a Southern California business leader and philanthropist.