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1989 IRE Awards
Return to The IRE Contest

The IRE Awards were established in 1979. Click on a date to see past winners:
1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979

Newspapers over 75,000

Gilbert M. Gaul
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Series examines the economics, regulation and ethics of the blood industry

Lou Kilzer and Chris Ison
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Series details a dark association between the St. Paul fire department and arsonists.

Kit Wagner, John Winn Miller, Lee Mueller, Bob Geiger, Mary Ann Roser, Jack Brammer, Bill Estep, Valarie Honeycutt, Jamie Lucke and Joseph S. Stroud
Lexington Herald-Leader
Series shows how Kentucky's schools are kept substandard by predatory local politics.

Newspapers under 75,000

Julia Gray and Michael Voss
Washington Daily News (Washington, D.C.)
Stories uncover that town officials for eight years had been covering up the fact that the municipal water supply contained dangerous levels of carcinogenic chemicals.

Stan Jones, Patti Epler, Richard Mauer and Craig Medred
Anchorage Daily News
Series investigates how industry, state and federal regulators failed to operate in a competent manner which could have prevented the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Mark Ballard and Richard Connelly
Texas Lawyer
Stories find that Harris County's 37 civil district judges have turned a system designed to protect children into a lucrative reward for political allies.

Magazine

Steven Emerson
U.S. News & World Report
Story scrutinizes a secret government program, Continuity of Government, which is rife with incompetence and waste.

Phillip Longman
Florida Trend
Investigation shows how and why state and federal officials misrepresented to the public that a deadly disease was infecting Florida's citrus nurseries.

Book

Stephen Pizzo, Mary Fricker and Paul Muolo
Inside Job
A thorough investigation of the savings and loan scandal.

Television, larger markets

Joe Cullom, Gary Scurka, Barbara Gardner, Micki Sellers and Horatio Jennings
WWOR-TV (Secaucus, N.J.)
Story showing how New Jersey policemen are racist in their zeal to win the drug war

Scott Pearson and Lewis Cohen
KQED-TV (San Francisco)
An investigation of police brutality in the San Francisco area.

Richard Kaplan, Neal Shapiro, Pierre Salinger, Chris Wallace, Judd Rose, Sam Donaldson, Diane Sawyer, Terry Lichstein, Lisa Hsia, Robert Calo and Rudi Bednar
ABC News
A comprehensive look at the downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland

Television, smaller markets

Karin Dorsett
WFTV (Orlando)
Series investigates guardianship, whereby the elderly are deprived of basic rights

Tom Gasparoli
WTVF-TV (Nashville)
Series investigates school bus drivers who are accused of sexual misconduct, driving without licenses and having extensive criminal records.