White House Correspondents’ Association℠ Announces Recipients of the 2011 Awards

Four reporters have been named winners of three of journalism’s most prestigious awards, and will be honored at the White House Correspondents’ Association℠ dinner on April 30 at the Washington Hilton. At the annual dinner, the association also gives out more than $100,000 in scholarships for journalism students.

Dan Balz of the Washington Post and Jake Tapper of ABC News have won the Merriman Smith Award for excellence in presidential coverage under deadline pressure in the print and broadcast categories, respectively. The award carries a $2,500 prize.

Tapper won in the broadcast category for the second year in a row, and is being honored this year for his story that revealed that Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair was about to be asked by President Obama to step down.

Peter Baker of the New York Times has won the Aldo Beckman award, which recognizes a correspondent who personifies the journalistic excellence and personal qualities of Aldo Beckman, a former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association℠ and correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune and the association, which established the award in 1981, will give a prize of $1,000.

Michael Berens of the Seattle Times won the Edgar A. Poe Award that recognizes excellence in coverage of news of national or regional significance, with a single award for either a print or broadcast journalist. A prize of $2,500 comes with the award, which was established by the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Newhouse Newspapers in honor of their distinguished correspondent Edgar A. Poe.

Honorable mention was also awarded to Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post. The judges praised Jaffe’s “nuanced portrait of the impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on the people fighting them. A memorable montage.”
READ MORE ON OUR 2011 AWARDS PAGE