IRE received 595 entries this year in its annual investigative reporting con- test. Many of the entries used a wide variety of computer-assisted report- ing techniques, including building original databases and using soft- ware programs to track shipments by sea. Here is an overview of television, other media and special category win- ners and finalists that used CAR. See the May-June IRE Journal for a full list of winners.
You can order copies of these stories from the IRE Resource Center. Con- tact the center at 573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org. Television Network-Certificate PBS Frontline/New York Times Tele- vision/Canadian Broadcasting Corpo- ration: "A Dangerous Business" by Neil Docherty, David Rummel, Lowell Bergman, Linden MacIntyre, David Barstow, Robin Stein, James, Sandler, Nelli Kheyfets, Remy Weber, Jason Maloney, Lynda Baril, Louis Wiley Jr., David Fanning, Ann Derry and Lawrie Mifflin.
This hour-long documentary, aired in conjunction with a series of articles in The New York Times, revealed that cast iron pipe-maker McWane Inc. had accumulated more safety violations than all of its major industry competi- tors combined. The investigation in- cluded an analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data that uncovered dangerous working conditions.
The documentary also has been awarded a Columbia duPont Award, a Goldsmith Prize for investigative re- porting, the George Polk Award and a Peabody Award. Network-Finalist Primetime Thursday, ABC News: "Nuclear Smuggling," by Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz, David Scott, Yoruba Richen and Gerilyn Curtin. On the two-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Primetime Thursday aired a story that revealed gaps in U.S.
port security. As a ship- ping client, ABC was able to track a uranium shipment using the tracking system on the shipping company's Web site. The tracking system was cru- cial in informing ABC when the ship- ment passed certain ports. This report also won second place in the 2004 National Headliner Awards for investigative reporting and the 2004 Excellence in Media Silver An- gel Award. Top 20 Market-Certificate KMGH-Denver: "Honor and Betrayal: Scandal at the Academy," by Jeff Har- ris, John Ferrugia, Kurt Silver, Jason Foster and Byron Grandy.
KMGH's investigation exposed the U.S. Air Force Academy system that deterred and even punished female cadets for reporting sexual assaults. This 10-month project yielded more than 100 stories, including a one-hour documentary, and prompted several investigations and the removal of Academy leadership. The station created its own database in Microsoft Excel of current and former female cadets in order to research and locate victims.
The investigation also won a Colum- bia duPont Award, a Peabody Award, the National Headliner Award - Best of Show, a Society of Professional Jour- nalists award, and a CINE award. Top 20 Market-Finalist WFAA-Dallas: "State of Denial," by Brett Shipp, Mark Smith and Kraig Kirchem. WFAA's seven-month investigation exposed Texas' crippled workers' compensation system. In many cases, state regulators failed to en- force labor laws and overlooked in- surance companies that unjustly de- nied benefits to injured workers.
WFAA built an Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of patients' names, insurance carriers, physicians and status of their benefits and medical treatment. The series also won the Texas AP Broadcasters Award for investigative journalism. Top 20 Market-Finalist WESH-Orlando: "Building Homes: Building Problems," by Stephen Stock, Michelle Meredith, Shannon Hori, Dave McDaniel, Kathy Marsh, Travis J. Sherwin, Jim Payne, Peter A.
Delis, Mark Rice and Jason Morrow. WESH joined forces with the Orlando Sentinel to inspect 406 central Florida homes built in 2001. The investigation found that 80 percent of the homes had at least one major building flaw. The station obtained a database of in- spection records from each municipal- ity and used Microsoft Access to ana- lyze its own database of inspectors' daily reports. The 14-story series also has won a Peabody Award.
Below Top 20 Market-Finalist KAKE-Wichita: "Lake Kahola: A City Manager's Ethical Abyss," by Paul Aker and Craig Lee. KAKE uncovered a series of no-bid consulting contracts authorized by the Wichita, Kan., city manager and issued to his close personal friend and seller of lakefront property. The four bids to- taled $40,000 and KAKE found the manager's friend never completed the majority of the work required.
KAKE used a proprietary database that included a property's appraisal and its address that it used for prelimi- nary information and verification. Below Top 20 Market-Finalist . WITI-Milwaukee: Still Drunk, Still Driv- ing," by Bob Segall and Michele Murray. WITI's investigation found thousands of drunken drivers with multiple driv- ing while intoxicated convictions who were still driving vehicles that should have been seized by law enforcement.
WITI created a database of court in- formation for the repeat drunken driv- ers. The station also analyzed the number of cases in which judges or- dered vehicle seizures. The report also won a regional Emmy and a Milwaukee Press Club Award. Other Media Magazine-Certificate Time: "U.S. Energy Policy," by James B. Steele and Donald L. Barlett. A nine-month investigation revealed that the 30-year failure of the United States to adopt and stick with a na- tional energy policy will force the na- tion to struggle with recurring oil and gas crises in the future.
Using Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel, Barlett and Steele constructed spreadsheets that charted energy trends containing information from oil wells drilled to gal- lons of oil refined. They also exten- sively used the Department of Energy's Energy Information Admin- istration, which has an online store- house of energy data. Magazine-Finalist The Atlantic Monthly. "Texas Clem- ency Memos," by freelancers Alan Berlow and Toby Lester.
After two years of research, Berlow found that George W. Bush, while gov- ernor of Texas, had approved the ex- ecutions of 57 criminals without "care- fully" and "thoroughly" reviewing their cases as he publicly promised. Berlow reviewed hundreds of pages of reports and communications between Bush and his chief legal counsel, Alberto Gonzales, now White House counsel. Berlow used Microsoft Access to sort through data to find documents relat- ing to executions and to filter out cor- respondence to Gonzales.
Radio-Certificate WNYC-New York Public Radio: "Hand- shake Hotels," by Andrea Bernstein and Amy Eddings. WNYC's seven-month investigation un- covered how New York City spends more than $180 million a year to house the homeless in hotels without contracts. WNYC created a database using Microsoft Excel and Access to track the biggest operators of hotels for the homeless and calculate how much the city was spending.
The series also won the Society of Pro- fessional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award, Heywood Broun Award, Re- gional RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, Newswomen's Club of New York Front Page Award and the New York State Associated Press Broad- casters Association Award. Online-Certificate Center for Public Integrity: "The Water Barons," by William Marsden, Maud Beelman, Daniel Politi, Erika Hobbs, Bill Allison, Andre Verloy, Laura Peterson, Samiya Edwards and Aron Pilhofer.
A yearlong investigation by the Inter- national Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the center, found that public drinking water sys- tems worldwide are being privatized. The investigation included the analy- sis of five databases, including one from the World Bank containing data about contracts for drinking water projects. ICIJ used several programs including Microsoft SQL Server, Ac- cess, Excel and ESRI ArcView.
Online-Finalist Center for Public Integrity: "Well Con- nected," by John Dunbar, Bob Williams, Scott Singleton and Morgan Jindrich. Ten months of research found that Fed- eral Communications Commission of ficials were "showered with nearly $2.8 million in travel and entertainment over the past eight years, most of it from the telecommunications and broadcast in- dustries the agency regulates." The series involved the analysis of data from the commission's Cable Opera- tions and Licensing System.
"Well Connected" also won the Online News Association's award for enter- prise journalism. Book-Medal "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Cam- pain to Rig Our Tax System to Ben- efit the Super Rich - and Cheat Ev- erybody Else" by David Cay Johnston and published by Penguin Group USA. Johnston's book unravels the com- plexities of the U.S. tax system, and shows how the middle class subsidizes the rich and the income gap is greater than previously reported.
Johnston used Excel to create hun- dreds of spreadsheets using IRS sta- tistical reports and similar data sources. He also used Access. Special Citation for International Entry The Sydney Morning Herald. "Public Land, Private Profit," by Gerard Ryle and Brian Robins. A seven-month investigation revealed how public property across Australia was being leased to corporations, wealthy individuals and political donors at rates far below market value.
Journalists for the newspaper built sev- eral databases using Cyber. The pa- per also compiled in Excel spread- sheets a list of 18,000 leases from the Department of Lands. Student Work-Certificate Daily Tar Heet. "Raising the Cap," by John Frank, Jamie Dougher, Matt Hanson, Joe Rauch, Suzanne Presto and Lynne Shallcross. The independent newspaper used poll and admissions data to counter the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's introduction of a policy to increase out-of-state enrollment.
After publication, the university decided to put the debate on hold indefinitely. Excel was used to analyze admissions data and retention surveys. The paper also used SPSS to look at poll data. Student Work-Finalist Capital News Service: "Effluent Es- calation," by Dan Wilcock, University of Maryland. The investigation revealed that over- flows of raw sewage from municipal sys- tems into Chesapeake Bay increased more than 1,200 percent in the past three years.
The reports exposed errors in the Maryland Department of Environment's data and reporting system. Wilcock used Excel to analyze three years of sewage overflows. FOI Award-Medal Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, S.D.: "Governor Bill Janklow's pardons and commutations," by David Kranz, Patrick Lalley, Stu Whitney, Terry Woster and Jon Walker. After dealing with inadequate open record laws in South Dakota, the Argus Leader published several articles on the hidden activities of former Gov.
Bill Janklow. The paper's six-month investigation uncovered that Janklow commuted more prison sentences than any other governor in the nation. He sealed about 60 pardons and didn't inform the Board of Pardon and Paroles. Using Excel, the Argus Leadercreated its own spreadsheet and calculated the average age of inmates, average length of commutation and prevalence of serious crimes. Associated Press Managing Editors' Freedom of Information Award.
The series also won the Scripps Howard Foundation's public service award and FOI-Finalist The Sacramento Bee. "Liberty in the Bal- ance," by Sam Stanton and Emily Bazar. The investigation uncovered how the war against terrorism is eroding civil liberties of Americans and immi- grants. The four-part series focused on immigrants jailed indefinitely on minor charges because of unwar- ranted suspicions of terrorist activity.
The paper used Zoomerang to cata- log the results of surveys completed by California libraries being asked for patron information by federal officials. The paper also compared immigra- tion statistics from each year. "Liberty in the Balance" won an inves- tigative reporting award from the As- sociated Press News Executives Council, second place National Head- liner Award for public service and third place in the Best of the West contest.
Contact Megan Clarke by e-mail at megan@ire.org