Headliners Foundation Announces Awards for High-Impact Texas Journalism
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Alison Unger (512) 445-4520
aunger@headlinersfoundation.org
AUSTIN, TX (May 14, 2021) — Tony Plohetski of the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV has been awarded the Gold prize in the 2020 Showcase Awards for Enterprise and Innovation from the Headliners Foundation of Texas.
Plohetski and team members Brian Bell and Tom Rapp from KVUE, Julie Chang, Bronte Whittpenn and Brandi Swicegood from the Austin American-Statesman won for the investigative series “Lights. Camera. Violence.,” a five-month rolling investigation into the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office that exposed a pattern of excessive violence used by deputies and often filmed for the television show “Live PD.” Subsequent to his reporting, the highly-rated television show was cancelled, voters rejected the sheriff’s re-election bid, and the sheriff was indicted for his alleged involvement in destroying “Live PD” footage of a Williamson County man’s arrest and death.
The Foundation also announces four Showcase Silver winners:
Investigative reporters Lauren McGaughy and Dave Boucher from the Dallas Morning News for “The Memory Room,” a two-part investigative series that revealed how Texas police and prosecutors have turned to investigative hypnosis to help solve cases. Less than a year after the story ran, the Texas Department of Public Safety quietly shuttered its investigative hypnosis program after 40 years. Two state lawmakers have filed bills this session to ban evidence gleaned during a hypnosis session.
Houston Chronicle reporters Alex Stuckey, Mike Morris, Emily Foxhall, John Tedesco, Jordan Rubio, Jenny Deam, Eric Dexheimer, Jay Root, Stephanie Lamm and Matt Dempsey for “Exposed,” a series of investigative reports that revealed the city’s behind-the-scenes struggle to contain the spread of COVID-19.
KXAN-TV’s Josh Hinkle, David Barer, Arezow Doost, Chris Nelson, Eric Henrikson, Robert Sims and Rachel Garza for their multi-platform series “Locked in Limbo: Mental Illness & Inmate Backlogs,” which described how thousands of mentally ill men and women languished in Texas' county jails waiting for a bed in a state hospital to get the help they needed. During KXAN’s investigation, state lawmakers vowed to explore other options for mental competency restoration.
KSAT-TV’s Dillon Collier and Tim Gerber for their investigative report “Broken Blue: Misconduct in the San Antonio Police Department,” which uncovered a decade-long pattern of misconduct by officers who were allowed to return to their jobs even after multiple incidents. The one-hour news special sparked changes in San Antonio including citizen demands to remove excessive job protections for officers, a citizen's campaign to repeal some of those state laws, and the mayor promising to roll back officer protections in the next collective bargaining agreement.
Certificates of Merit were awarded to these journalists:
KXAN-TV’s Josh Hinkle, David Barer, Robert Sims, Rachel Garza, Sarah Rafique, Andrew Choat and Arezow Doost for their two-year investigative report “Dead & Undone,” which prompted a legislative effort to eliminate a loophole that allowed police agencies across Texas to keep details about in-custody deaths secret and to reform custodial death reporting by law enforcement.
Tanya Eiserer, Keri Blakinger (The Marshall Project), Jason Trahan and Chris Paxton for WFAA-TV’s investigative report “No Way Out: Covid Behind Bars,” which told the story of how and why Texas’ prison system – one of the largest in the world – was unprepared for the pandemic.
WFAA-TV’s David Schechter, Jason Trahan, Chance Horner and T. Nicole Waivers for their investigative report “Banking Below 30,” which revealed that 20% of the roughly 100 banks in Dallas County drew service maps that excluded – or redlined – the high minority, lower income neighborhoods below Interstate 30.
Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster for his long-form narrative “Reckoning with Joppa,” which told the story of the historic freedman’s town of Joppa (pronounced jop-ee), and its strained relationship with Dallas, the city that surrounds it.
The Showcase Awards for Enterprise and Innovation in Journalism program is the only statewide competition for Texas-based news media that judges entries across all platforms – digital, broadcast, magazine, and newspaper – on their significant impact on government, public policy or the conduct of a business, nonprofit or other organization. All professional media are eligible to submit entries to the contest, including magazines, web-only publishers, radio outlets and even small, specialized news providers. Interviews with several of this year’s winners will be posted in the coming months on the Foundation’s website.
Fred Zipp, Vice-Chair of the Foundation and Chair of the Professional Excellence Committee that oversees the awards process, praised the diversity of work being produced by Texas journalists. “The last year has put a strain on resources across all forms of media,” Zipp said. “The creativity, intuition and determination of these award-winning journalists to seek out and tell important stories is a testament to the resilience of the industry.”
Patti Ohlendorf, Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Governors, agrees. “The quality of this year’s Showcase Awardees’ work is outstanding,” said Ohlendorf. “Changes in the landscape of traditional media have made it more difficult for journalists to operate effectively, and the Foundation is proud to provide a platform where Texas journalists can be recognized and rewarded for their work.”
Since 2013, the Showcase Awards for Enterprise and Innovation have honored the best journalists in Texas, annually awarding $2,000 for the Gold prize and $1,000 to journalists winning a Silver. Each team member shares in the cash prize. This year, a nine-member committee including veteran journalists, editors and journalism educators judged entries from media outlets throughout the state, some of which are posted on the Foundation’s website at https://www.headlinersfoundation.org/showcase-awards-2020.
Winners of the 2020 Showcase Awards for Enterprise and Innovation will be honored at the Foundation’s Mike Quinn awards luncheon on October 23rd at the Headliners Club in Austin.
The Headliners Foundation of Texas’ mission is to promote excellence in journalism by providing scholarships to student journalists; recognizing and rewarding outstanding work by professional journalists; and supporting special projects that promote journalistic excellence and preserve history.
-30-