Best of the Press
This article originally appeared in Southern Exposure Vol. 20 No. 4, "Fast Forward." Find more from that issue here.
When our panel of 42 judges selected the winners of our sixth annual Southern Journalism Awards this year, we noticed an interesting pattern among the first-place stories.
The top three stories honored for investigative reporting all deal with crime — but each reports that the real wrongdoer is the criminal justice system itself. The excerpts presented here from newspapers in Texas, West Virginia, and South Carolina examine the failure of the legal system to enforce the law and control abusive police, violent husbands, and overcrowding in juvenile prisons.
The top three stories honored for feature reporting about the changing South explore a different sort of crime: the failure of public policy to control private development and ensure a decent standard of living for all citizens. Award winners from papers in Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina look at the rise in urban poverty, the economic and environmental threat posed by chip mills, and the impact of sprawling resorts on the Gullah community of the Sea Islands.
The Southern Journalism Awards honor reporters whose stories broaden the range of issues, voices, and sources found in the region’s daily newspapers. By asking tough, often imaginative questions and by probing untapped sources of information, these journalists have demonstrated the potential of the media to analyze community problems and contribute to positive change.
Our thanks to the editors, reporters, scholars, authors, and community leaders from across the region who served on our panel of judges. Thanks also to Bob Hall for coordinating the contest, and to Marc Miller for editing the excerpts presented here.
—Eric Bates
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Eric Bates
Eric Bates was managing editor, editor, and investigative editor of Southern Exposure during his tenure at the magazine from 1987-1995. His distinguished career in journalism includes a ten-year tenure as Executive Editor at Rolling Stone and jobs as the Editor-in-Chief at the New Republic; Features Editor at New York Magazine; Executive Editor at Vanity Fair and Investigative Editor at Mother Jones. He has won a Pulitzer Prize and seven National Magazine Awards.