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1990 IRE Awards
Return to The IRE Contest

The IRE Awards were established in 1979. Click on a date to see past winners:
1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979

Newspapers over 75,000

Dianna Marder
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A series exposing tactics used by a convenience store chain to get innocent employees to confess to stealing money then forcing them to pay up.

Luis Feldstein Soto, Tom Fiedler, Lisa Getter, Justin Gillis, David Lyons, Jacquee Petchel and Joe Starita
The Miami Herald
Series on lavish lifestyles of public officials and conflicts between their business relationships and public duties.

Newspapers under 75,000

Joan Mazzolini
Birmingham Post-Herald
Series showing the discriminatory membership policies at Birmingham country clubs.

Eric Greenberg
The News Tribune (Woolbridge, NJ)
Articles revealing the existence of unexploded munitions and contamination from mustard gas and cyanide at an old Army arsenal, a site proposed for a waterfront development.

Magazine

Stephanie Abarbanel
Family Circle
A story on toxic contamination at EPA Superfund sites in Jacksonville, Ark.

Jacqueline Sharkey
Common Cause
Story analyzing how the Bush administration spent $12 million helping Violeta Chamorro win the presidency of Nicaragua despite congressional restrictions on involvement.

Book

David Burham
Random House and Vintage Books
A Law Unto Itself: Power, Politics and the IRS
The inside story of political influence, bribery, administrative failings and poor congressional oversight of the tax collecting agency.

Francis Dealy, Jr.
Birch Lane Press
Win at Any Cost: The Sell Out of College Athletics
A study of corruption in college athletics focusing on campus rape, drug abuse, recruiting bribes, academic fraud and the exploitation of black athletes.

Television, larger markets

Steve Andrews, Bruce Breslow and Robin Lane-Roane
WFLA-TV (Tampa)
Reports on mistreatment of foster and shelter children by Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services

Robbie Gordon, Eugenia Harvey, Peter Herdrich, Richard N. Kaplan, Ira Rosen, Diane Sawyer and Betsy West
ABC News Primetime Live
An investigation documenting negligence, patient abuse and unsanitary conditions at Veterans Administration hospitals.

Roberta Baskin and Joan Martelli
WJLA-TV (Washington, D.C.)
Stories uncovering inaccuracies and unfairness in the National Football League's drug testing program.

Television, smaller markets

Andrea Austin
KGW-TV (Portland, OR)
A series detailing the poor working and living conditions of migrant farm workers

Winston Dean
WJXT-TV (Jacksonville)
Reports uncovering a conflict of interest involving a local public television station manager, who pocketed proceeds from a charity auction.