All posts tagged "Alexandria Jacobson"

Three Raw Story investigations by investigative reporter Alexandria Jacobson won first place prizes in the National Federation of Press Women’s 2024 Professional Communications Contest.

Jacobson’s work was honored on June 22 at the organization’s national conference in St. Louis, Mo. Jacobson won first place in three categories:

• Continuing Coverage or Unfolding News for her series with Raw Story Editor-in-Chief Dave Levinthal, “Lawmakers, Law Breakers,” that identified at least 37 congressional violators of a federal conflicts-of-interest and financial disclosure law
• In-depth Reporting for “Losing Track,” a three-part series about various failures of the country’s enfeebled national security vetting system
• Specialty Articles: Education for “‘Too preposterous to be real’: College hires ‘pink slime’ publisher as journalism prof” about a Tennessee university’s controversial hire of an executive associated with a widely scrutinized conservative PAC-backed media network

“The NFPW professional communications contest puts a spotlight on outstanding entries from throughout the United States,” said Helen S. Plotkin, National Federation of Press Women professional contest director. “Our judges continue to comment about the high quality of entries they judge in the contest. The entries showcase high quality and exceptional efforts.”...

Raw Story journalists have won four 2024 Folio Awards for their investigative reporting on politics, government and extremism, the Fair Media Council announced today at its annual luncheon on Long Island, N.Y.

Raw Story awardees include:

• Investigative reporter Mark Alesia won the Sean. A. Fanelli Award for education news for his chilling tale about an Indiana school administrator who became the subject of death threats and national ridicule after a conservative nonprofit and Fox News teamed up to "unfairly and inaccurately" thrust her into the crucible of "culture war cruelty." Folio Award judges wrote that Alesia's report earned "high marks for relevance" and is a "well-rounded examination of the issue."
• Editor-in-chief Dave Levinthal and congressional correspondent Matt Laslo took top honors in the public policy news category for a data-driven deep dive that revealed how the Senate Ethics Committee had failed to punish any of its Senate colleagues during its last 1,523 tries. "The topic and investigative approach to the data earned this story high marks," judges wrote.
• Investigative reporter Alexandria Jacobson and Levinthal won in the enterprise news category for their "Lawmakers, Law Breakers" series that revealed how 37 members of the current Congress last year violated a federal law designed to stop insider trading, curb financial conflicts of interest and enhance public transparency. (The number this year has grown to 46 members.) "Great topic," judges wrote.
• Investigative reporter Jordan Green won in the January 6 coverage category for his "Our Best Face" series, which revealed how "peaceful" pro-Trump rally organizers cultivated ties to violent extremists in the weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. "Exhaustive coverage of a seminal event in American history" and "great investigative reporting," judges wrote. Last year, Green became the first journalist in Raw Story's history to win a Folio Award, doing so for his investigative reporting on extremism.

The Fair Media Council, one of the nation's oldest nonprofit news consumer advocacy organizations, describes the annual Folio Awards as "the gold standard for recognizing the best in news and social media."...

Editor & Publisher has named Raw Story to its 2024 "News Media's 10 to Watch" list — an honor recognizing 10 news organizations for their innovation and ingenuity.

The publication praised Raw Story's staff expansion, "deep reporting" and growth in readership and subscribers.

"Raw Story spent 2023 investing heavily in investigative and enterprise journalism, and it isn’t stopping," Editor & Publisher wrote in an article published online Thursday. "These investments aim to dramatically expand its original journalism, increase its subscriber base and enhance its overall leadership in national media." ...

Raw Story investigative reporter Alexandria Jacobson has won the prestigious Sidney Award for her months-long investigation into violence against letter carriers and a recent spike in mail-related crime.

Jacobson's investigation, "Letter carriers face bullets and beatings while postal service sidelines police," prompted immediate reaction from federal lawmakers who called on Congress to pass legislation that helped enhance safety for postal workers and the mail itself.

“Jacobson’s meticulous reporting casts a light on the risks faced by letter carriers and the official indifference to their wellbeing on the job,” Sidney Award judge Lindsay Beyerstein said Wednesday. “This story makes it clear how the security of letter carriers affects not only the workers involved but all of us in terms of the scale of thefts and fraud.”...

Raw Story investigative reporter Alexandria Jacobson and Editor-in-Chief Dave Levinthal today won a 2023 Best in Business Award for their ongoing "Lawmakers, Law Breakers" series that's revealed how dozens of members of Congress have violated a federal law designed to stop insider trading and curb conflicts of interest.

The award, sponsored by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, comes in the contest's personal finance category.

Judges wrote of the "Lawmakers, Law Breakers" series: "In this well-executed investigation, Alexandria Jacobson and Dave Levinthal reveal that 37 members of Congress failed to properly disclose personal stock trades in just one year. Their dogged reporting effort raises important questions about the adequacy and policing of financial conflict-of-interest laws designed to give Americans confidence in their lawmakers’ impartiality."...

Early in 2023, Raw Story announced that it would heavily invest in our investigative journalism with the goal of bringing you hard-hitting and incisive news you wouldn’t find elsewhere.

Since then, Raw Story has hired a team of investigative journalists and published several hundred exclusive stories and reported commentaries that have together shone significant light into the darkest corners of politics and government.

We’ve also won three major national awards for this work, including Editor & Publisher naming Raw Story the “best news/political blog” of 2023....