Remember how Bill O’Reilly once tried to claim he had won a Peabody Polk award when Inside Edition earned it after O’Reilly left? Well, now Josh and the folks at TPMM have won one, fair and square.
Will Bunch captures the importance of this award, for Josh, and for the blogosphere, quite well (h/t folo).
The George Polk Awards are kind of like the Golden Globes of American journalism . Not as well known as those Oscars of the news business, the Pulitzer Prize, the Polk Awards are nevertheless probably a close second in terms of prestige, and this year I am especially blown away by the quality of the work they honor.
[snip]
But I want to highlight one Polk Award that shows there are emerging models for using the very tool at the root of the turmoil of the news business — the Internet — as a newfangled way to re-invent investigative reporting — by using new techniques that emphasize collaboration over competition and by working with readers and through collective weight of many news sources to expose government misconduct.
[snip]
Hopefully, this acknowledgment of what one savvy blogger and his team have accomplished is a milestone that will speed the day when mainstream journalists realize that the best kind of blogger like Marshall is truly one of our own kind, using new tools and a new way of thinking to break a news story that otherwise might have not been discovered.
I think there was never a doubt that TPMM provided coverage that was instrumental in exposing the scandal. I’m glad to see one of journalisms institutions recognizes that fact.