Romenesko Misc.
Dana Bash and Wall Street Journal reporters Brody Mullins and T.W. Farnam have won the 2010 Dirksen Awards for Distinguished Coverage of Congress. Bash was cited for her report on Congressional earmarks and Senatorial “holds,” while the Journal reporters received the award for their articles on Congressional travel.
National Press Foundation release
Dana Bash of CNN; Brody Mullins & T.W. Farnam Win Dirksen Awards for Coverage of Congress
Washington: Dana Bash, senior Congressional correspondent for CNN and reporters Brody Mullins and T.W. Farnam of The Wall Street Journal have won the 2010 Dirksen Awards for Distinguished Coverage of Congress, the National Press Foundation has announced.
Bash was cited for her report on Congressional earmarks and Senatorial “holds” – the practice in which a single Senator can put a stop to the approval process for a presidential appointee in order to obtain leverage in unrelated negotiations.
Mullins and Farnam were honored for articles on Congressional travel – for example, to a golf resort in Scotland. Farnam is now at the Washington Post. Elizabeth Johnson of Capitol News Connection was given an Honorable Mention for her on-air reporting from the Hill.
“These reporters produced good, tight coverage of members of Congress. Their work informed the public about how the system works,” the judges said. “They are all to be congratulated.”
The awards, which carry cash prizes, will be presented at the 28th annual NPF Awards Dinner, March 1, 2011, at the Hilton Washington. The funds come out of NPF’s operational funds and a contribution from the Freedom Forum.
The awards are named in honor of the late Illinois Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen and have been presented since 1980. The judges this year were Cissy Baker, independent broadcast producer and granddaughter of Sen. Dirksen; Peter Copeland, Washington bureau chief for Scripps Howard News Service; Kathy Gest, New Democracy Institute; Susan Swain, C-SPAN; Charles J. Lewis, Washington correspondent for Hearst Newspapers, and Bob Meyers, NPF president.
Other awardees at this year’s dinner include Andrea Mitchell, NBC News and MSNBC; Gilbert Grosvenor, board chairman of the National Geographic Society; and Mark Silverman, editor of the Tennessean.
