WHCA Names 2001 Award Winners
April 6, 2001
Sandra Sobieraj of The Associated Press, Jim Angle of Fox News Channel and Steve
Thomma of Knight-Ridder have won three of Washington¹s top journalism awards for their
coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign and its tumultuous climax.
In addition, Elizabeth Marchak, Dave Davis and Joan Mazzolini of The Plain Dealer have
won the Edgar A. Poe award for a five-part series on the inferior health care given minorities
in America.
The awards, administered by the White House Correspondents¹ Association, are
to be presented at the group¹s annual dinner Saturday, April 28, 2001. President and Mrs.
Bush and Vice President and Mrs. Cheney are expected to attend.
Sobieraj won the Merriman Smith Memorial Award in the print category, and Angle won in
the broadcast category. The awards honor outstanding presidential coverage under deadline
pressure and carry a $1,000 prize. Smith, a veteran correspondent for United Press
International, covered the White House for 30 years.
Sobieraj was cited for her election night
reporting including a dramatic, behind-the-scenes account of Al Gore¹s decision to retract his
concession. A story about Gore¹s phone call to Bush featured the memorable quote, ³You
don¹t have to get snippy about this.² The judges said Sobieraj¹s work, long after other
reporters had gone to bed, was ³deadline reporting in the best tradition of Merriman Smith.²
Angle won for his coverage of the ensuing Florida recount. He was on the air live Dec. 12 a
day Florida lawmakers certified the state¹s electors and Florida¹s Supreme Court threw out
absentee ballots reporting the rapid-fire developments in a way the judges said put ³breaking
news into perspective.²
Thomma is receiving the Aldo Beckman Award, recognizing a correspondent who
exemplifies the journalistic excellence and personal qualities of Aldo Beckman, a former
White House Correspondents¹ Association president and Washington bureau chief of the
Chicago Tribune. The Tribune Company and the association present a prize of $1,000.
The judges found Thomma¹s campaign coverage “far ahead of the curve.” He wrote early, with
apparent prescience, that Al Gore could beat George Bush in Florida, despite Bush¹s family
ties there. His reporting was strong on changing demographics in America, and his stories on
South Carolina and vanishing old coalitions illustrated this.
The Poe award, for excellence on a story of national or regional significance, carries a $2,500
prize. The Plain Dealer team was honored for a series that combined statistical analysis and
personal examples to bring into sharp focus a persistent color line in American medicine. The
judges called it a ³disturbing and powerful package² that made clear ³how blacks and other
minorities are receiving unequal health care.²
The Poe judges also awarded honorable mentions. One went to John Barry and Evan Thomas
of Newsweek for their reporting on the ineffectiveness of high-altitude U.S. bombing against
Serb tanks during the Kosovo campaign.
The other went to David Pace of The Associated Press for an analysis showing most Indians
have benefited little from the billion-dollar casino gambling business.
The Beckman judges were Wes Pippert (chairman), director of Missouri Journalism
Washington; Linda Killian, director of the Boston University Washington Journalism Center;
and Adam Clayton Powell, vice president of the Freedom Forum.
The Smith judges were: Frank Starr (chairman), assistant professor, Medill News Service;
Deborah Potter, executive director, Newslab; and Lee Thornton, University of Maryland.
Judging the Poe award were: Ellen Shearer, co-director, the Medill News Service; Walter
Mears, former vice president, The Associated Press; John Mashek, former Washington
bureau chief, the Boston Globe.