Fear of young black men cited after news of jury verdict; Angelo Henderson Had "basically a heart attack"; new Chicago FM sports talk station still hiring; press freedom, rights groups urge Morocco to free editor; Ray Hanania tries again to organize Arab American journalists; Comcast merger said to target residential Internet market; Supreme Court reporter switches to race relations; Polk award goes to N.Y. Times series on child homelessness (2/17/14)Fear of Young Black Men Cited After News of Jury Verdict
Angelo Henderson Had "Basically a Heart Attack"
New Chicago FM Sports Talk Station Still Hiring
Press Freedom, Rights Groups Urge Morocco to Free Editor
Hanania Tries Again to Organize Arab American Journalists
Polk Award Goes to N.Y. Times Series on Child Homelessness
"Andrea Elliott of The New York Times will receive the George Polk Award for Local Reporting for 'Invisible Child,' her riveting five-part series focusing on one of 22,000 homeless children in New York City," Long Island University announced on Monday. "After encountering an engaging 11-year-old girl, Dasani Coates, outside a Brooklyn homeless shelter, Elliott spent 15 months virtually living with Dasani and her family to produce an unsparing inside-out account of the realities of urban poverty that has echoes of Charles Dickens."
The rival New York Post put a "bah, humbug" on the series in a December editorial headlined, "The New York Times''homeless' hooey."
The LIU announcement also said, "The George Polk Award for National Reporting will go to Eli Saslow of The Washington Post for six stories delving into the lives of some of the 47 million Americans who receive aid from the $78 billion federal food stamp program, which has tripled in the past decade. Reporting on a corner of Rhode Island where one in three families qualifies for aid, desperate seniors who must be convinced to swallow their pride to apply for aid, a rural Tennessee town where children go hungry when school is out, a Congressman who wants to require recipients to work for food stamps, a Texas county where processed food is so prevalent obesity and diabetes are double the national average and a mother of six in Washington, D.C., facing the largest cuts to the program in 50 years, Saslow has painted an indelible portrait of American poverty."
The judges' most attention-getting choice was the award for national security reporting, given to "four reporters who revealed the extent of secret surveillance and massive data collected by the National Security Agency.. . . The four — from the British newspaper The Guardian and The Washington Post — were among 30 recipients from 15 news organizations who were recognized in 13 categories for work in 2013. . . ."
