Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo and TPMCafe has been honored with a George Polk award for legal reporting and his work on the Justice Department firings of US Attorneys. This is an acknowledgment of the importance of the news/political blogosphere and a step towards recognition that the substance of an investigation is more important than the medium through which it is reported.
The Polk Award for Legal Reporting will go to Joshua Micah Marshall, editor and publisher of the widely read political blog, Talking Points Memo. His sites, www.talkingpointsmemo.com and www.tpmMuckraker.com, led the news media in coverage of the politically motivated dismissals of United States attorneys across the country. Noting a similarity between firings in Arkansas and California, Marshall and his staff (with his staff reporter-bloggers Paul Kiel and Justin Rood) connected the dots and found a pattern of federal prosecutors being forced from office for failing to do the Bush Administration’s bidding. Marshall’s tenacious investigative reporting sparked interest by the traditional news media and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/us-attorneys/2007/03/
Tip – E&P:
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003712141
Details of Polk Award:
http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/polk/press/2007.html
