(Almost) Everyone is a Winner!

The Society of Professional Journalists awarded its Dateline awards on Tuesday night. The Dateline Awards for Excellence recognize local reporting and examples of journalism ideals. 177 entries from 17 regional news organizations were submitted. It seems like it wasn't hard to walk away with a recognition, however. There were 88 "awards" (1st, 2nd, 3rd and even a "Special Certificate") meaning you had a 50 percent chance of winning at least something so long as you submitted an entry. And it seems like those publications that submitted the most entries were the ones who walked home the big winners (many categories even received zero entries). Most categories were dominated by one particular news organization. In the newspaper category, the Washington Times cleaned up (and the Post didn't get any, and apparently didn't submit any either). It was all Washingtonian magazine in the magazine category. For radio, WTOP took home most of the awards. A full list of winners when you click below. DAILY General News First Place, Jim McElhatton, Washington Times, "DC Truancy" Third Place, S.A. Miller and Brian DeBose, Washington Times, Steele candidacy Second Place, Matt Cella, Washington Times, "Fire Official Hits Boy" Special Certificate: Phil Dine, St. Louis Dispatch, BRAC Process Investigative Reporting First Place: Thomas Hargrove, Scripps Howard, "Missing: Children at Risk" Second Place: Phil Dine, St. Louis Dispatch, "Lambert Airport and Screeners" Third Place: Jim McElhatton, Washington Times, "How a DC business empire crumbles" Correspondent First Place: Tammy Lytle, Orlando Sentinel; the Florida beat Features First Place: Cathy Dyson, Free-Lance Star, "Legacy of Grief" Second Place: Gabriella Boston, Washington Times, "Degree in Debt" Third Place: Karen Goldberg Goff, Washington Times, "11th hour pregnancy" Editorial First Place: Debbie Simmons, Washington Times, for her commentary on DC schools. Second Place: Adrienne T. Washington, Washington Times, Street-renaming proposal ignores DC residents Business First Place: Chris Baker, Washington Times, "WUSA Charged DC for Promos" Second Place: Patrice Hill, Washington Times, "Income Gap Grows" Third Place: Jeffery Sparshott, Washington Times, "The Hidden Cost of Free Trade" Sports First Place: Adam Himmelsbach, Free-Lance Star, "State's False Start: Steroids" Second Place: Jon Siegel, Washington Times, "Big Train Rolls On" Third Place: David Elfin, Washington Times, "A Model Dad" Arts Criticism First Place: Deborah Dietsch, Washington Times, "Time to Rethink 'Star-chitecture'" Second Place: Daniel Wattenberg, Washington Times, "To Sir, With Love" Third Place: Jayne Blanchard, Washington Times, "Nature of love stews in 'Goat'" Photojournalism First Place: Astrid Riecken, Washington Times, "Unveiling Mata Hari" Second Place: Daniel Rosenbaum, Washington Times, "Rusty Fielding" Third Place: Joseph Silverman, Washington Times, "Line Dive" Special Certificate: Astrid Riecken, Washington Times, "A Christmas Angel" WEEKLIES Arts Criticism First Place: Murray White, Legal Times, "Chandler's Eye on Life" Second Place: Peter Gutmann, Legal Times, "Back to the future with Carmina Burana" Third Place: David Cannon, Montgomery Co. Sentinel, "James and the Giant Peach with a Slightly Darker Humor" Business First Place, Neil Adler, Washington Business Journal, Greater Southeast Second Place: Sean Madigan, Washington Business Journal, Abdo Third Place: Jim Snyder, The Hill, "Lobby bids offer peek behind K St. curtain" Special Certificate: Josephine Hearn, The Hill, Lobbying Day Editorial First Place: Emily Pierce, Roll Call, "Roadmap to Social Security" Second Place: James Johnston, Legal Times, "Lessons of History" Third Place: Beth Hunt, Washington Business Journal, "Teach Them to Fly" Special Certificate: Roger Hughlett, Washington Business Journal, "What Difference a Day Laborer Makes" Features First Place: Bob Cusack, The Hill, "The Night the Clocks, Scoreboard Stood Still" Second Place: Bree Hocking, Roll Call, "Reporters Who Don't Grab Headlines" and "Making of the Congressional Record" Third Place: TR Goldman, Legal Times, "The Man with the Iron Gavel" Special Certificate: Jonathan Allen, The Hill, "Fellow Torture Victim Splits with McCain" General News First Place: Tony Mauro, Legal Times, "Is John Roberts the Next Justice?" Second Place: Jennifer Yachnin, Roll Call, "Capitol Hill Gets the Lead Out" Third Place: Sarah Kelly, Legal Times, "Sympathy of the Devil" Special Certificate: Neil Adler, Washington Business Journal, "Need a New Drug?" Investigative Reporting First Place: Tony Mauro, Tony, Legal Times, "Jay Sekulow's Golden Ticket" Second Place: Jason McLure, Jason, Legal Times, "How a Contractor Cashed In" Third Place: Ryan Gallagher, Helen Hocknell, Jacki Ruttimann and Joe Palazzolo, Montgomery Co. Sentinel, "Students Tell of Terror" Special Certificate: Tom Schoenberg, Legal Times, "From Witness to Target" Spot News First Place: Jason McLure, Legal Times, "Ukraine's Test" Second Place: Sean Coombs, Eleni Kretikos, Tim Lemke, Beth Hunt and John McCallan, Washington Business Journal, "Eminent Domain" MAGAZINES Arts Criticism First Place: Susan Baer, Washingtonian, "Painting the Town" Second Place: Stephen Wigler, Washingtonian, "Sound and the Glory" Third Place: Leslie Milk, Washingtonian, "I'm a Survivor" Business First Place: Kim Isaac Eisler Washingtonian, "Blackberry Blues" Second Place: Sherri Dalphonse, "Great Places to Work" Third Place: Harry Jaffe, Washingtonian, "The Anatomy of the Deal" Special Certificate: Garrett Graff, Washingtonian, "Where BB King gets the Blues" Editorial First Place: John Kester, Washingtonian, "Taking Aim at Rumsfeld" Second Place Jack Germond, Washingtonian, "40 Lessons" Third Place: Howard Means, Washingtonian, "Books that Changed Us" Magazines First Place: Brooke Lea Foster, Washingtonian, "This Is Not Real Life" Second Place: Brooke Lea Foster, Washingtonian, "Do They Want Me?" Third Place: Cindy Rich, Washingtonian, "How Many People Did You Kill?" Special Certificate: Brooke Lea Foster, Washingtonian, "The Girl Who Knows Too Much" General News First Place: John Pekkanen, Washingtonian, "Looking for the Best Hospitals" Second Place, David Lamb, Washingtonian, "After the Fall" Third Place: Joanne Kenen, Washingtonian, "To Save Someone Else's Child" Investigative Reporting First Place: Michael Patrick Carney, Washingtonian, "Don't Hurt Me, I'm Just a Kid" Second Place: Harry Jaffe and Ann Limpert, Washingtonian, "Love or Murder" Third Place: CJ Vogel, Washingtonian, "X Rated" Photojournalism First Place: David Deal, Washingtonian, "I'm the Law," "There She Is," and "What Can I Get You, Hon?" Second Place: Matthew Girard, Washingtonian, "True Believers" Sports First Place: Hugh Price, Washingtonian, "Jackie and Me." Second Place: John Mulligan, Washingtonian, "The Girls of Summer" ONLINE Washington Story First Place: Elaine Grossman, InsideDefense.com, "Riling Hawks: A Top US Commander Seeks Fresh Military Tack on China." Second Place: Jason Sherman, InsideDefense.com, "Cracking Open the Quadrennial Defense Review" Local Story First Place, Neil Adler, Washington Business Journal, DC General Hospital coverage. NEWSLETTER First Place: Steven Gibb with contributions from Doug Obey, Inside EPA, "Draft EPA Risk Assessment Labels MTBE as 'Likely' Human Carcinogen" Second Place (tie): Anna Palmer, Influence, "Fleishman-Hillard Still finding its Footing" Second Place: Christopher Castelli, Inside the Navy, War on Terrorism series Special Certificate: Paul Goldberg and Kirsten Boyd Goldberg, Cancer Letter, "The Making of a Cancer Czar" LEWIS AWARD And, finally, the Robert D.G. Lewis Watchdog Award goes to an applicant in any award classification whose entry best exemplifies journalism aimed at protecting the public from abuses by those who would betray the public trust. Mr. Lewis has served SPJ over the years in many roles, including national president and chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee. He served as the chairman of the board of governors of the National Press Club and is retired from Newhouse Newspapers. This yearâ€™s Lewis Award goes to writer Thomas Hargrove and Scripps Howard News Service for their sweeping investigation of the handling of missing-child reports across the country. Missing: Children at Risk is a five-part series investigating the failings of multiple police departments around to country to adequately report missing children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in violation of the federal National Child Search Assistance Act. The work resulted for the study of computer records on the 37,665 missing children reported to the center between 2000-2004. According to the stories, "dozens of police departments across the nation failed to report at least 4,498 runaway, lost and abducted children, in violation [of the law]." Of those unreported cases, 17 children are now dead and 131 remain missing. The report resulted in the Detroit, Honolulu and US Navy Criminal Investigative Service rewriting their missing children policies. (Prior to the report, Honolulu reported 10 missing children, but made "2,791 arrests of runaway children," and the Navy police in Norfolk reported almost none of their 54 missing children cases). The series also address how the misuse of "Amber Alerts" is jeopardizing the system; the national media's over-coverage (proportionally) of white children that go missing; and the underreporting of unidentified bodies. BROADCAST CATEGORIES â€“ IN TELEVISION General News First -- Gordon Peterson, Pete Hakel and Andrea McCarren - WJLA - Prince George's County Police Investigation -- Efforts to document whether Prince George's County police resources were being misallocated led to reporter McCarren and photojournalist Hakel being swarmed by police cruisers and officers with guns drawn. Mysteriously, the dashboard camera tape from all nine police cars is unavailable. The WJLA team documented the underlying story and the police activity it spawned. Investigative Reporting First -- Andrea McCarren, Pete Hakel, Michael Fuhr - WJLA - Who did the Army hire to make ID cards at a suburban Washington military base? A man with multiple criminal convictions, including ID fraud. So what did he do? He made fake ID cards allowing access to any U.S. military base in the world and sold them to foreign nationals. Not only was the piece well-documented, the man confessed on camera. Feature First -- Andrea McCarren, Pete Hakel and Michael Fuhr -- WJLA - Brother Identity Theft -- A man repeatedly gets in trouble with the law but uses his brother's name when caught. The WJLA team tells the story from the perspective of both brothers and embarrasses Maryland authorities into clearing the record of the innocent brother. Sports -- No entries Editorial/Commentary -- no entries Business/Financial Reporting -- no entries Arts Criticism -- no entries Photojournalism -- no entries NOW FOR THE RADIO AWARDS: Radio Correspondent - No entries Spot News Second -- WTOP News Staff -- Capitol Chaos -- Capitol and White House evacuated when small plane enters restricted airspace. First - WTOP News Staff -- Tanker Explosion - Excellent on-scene coverage very early in the morning, including an interview with the driver of a tank truck that burned and blocked I-95 on the day before thanksgiving. General News Second - Neal Augenstein - WTOP - Hunting Fugitives. First - WTOP News Staff -- Troubled Waters - a FIFTY-part series on why the waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay are polluted. Investigative Reporting First -- Mark Segraves - WTOP - Baseball Bilking -- Utilizing a massive Freedom of Information Act request, Segraves found city officials broke the law and misled the public in efforts to bring baseball back to D.C. Features Second -- Mitchell Miller -- WTOP - Scary Clown. Some people have a fear of clowns. Who knew? First -- Hillary Howard -- WTOP -- Real Estate Roulette -- An extremely well-written, well-produced and well-researched piece that unearthed the stupid human tricks brought on by Washington's real estate delirium. Sports Second -- Brennan Haselton - WTOP - Curling Mania -- Chasing a slippery stone around a skating rink is not as easy as it looks -- especially when you're trying to record yourself doing it. First -- Mitchell Miller -- WTOP - Poor Sports -- An exhaustive search for archive tape, well mixed with interviews of local experts asks and answers -- "what happened to sportsmanship?" Commentary - No award Business/Financial -No entries Arts Criticism - No entries

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(Almost) Everyone is a Winner!

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