The Marshall Project has been awarded a national Edward R. Murrow Award for “Overall Excellence” for a small digital newsroom. The organization was also the recipient of three regional Edward R. Murrow prizes earlier in the year in the categories “Excellence in Video” (for “We Are Witnesses”); News Documentary (for “Cooking Them to Death: The Lethal Toll of Hot Prisons") and “Overall Excellence.”
The breadth and quality of work produced by The Marshall Project in 2017 was being honored. Highlights from the past year include our gripping profile of Michelle Jones; an expose on the widespread practice of charging parents for their kids’ incarceration that led to changes in the law; the ambitious film project “We Are Witnesses”; our data interactive on the interplay between racial bias and “justifiable homicides”; and California’s “pay-to-stay” two-tiered jail system that favors the wealthy.
“The Murrow award for ‘overall excellence’ honors journalism as a team sport,” said Editor-in-Chief Bill Keller. “I could not be prouder of The Marshall Project team, its talent, enterprise and commitment to getting the story right. It is especially gratifying to receive a prize named for a journalist who is best known for standing up to a truth-twisting demagogue.”
The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) has been honoring outstanding achievements in journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971. See a list of all winners of the Edward R. Murrow Awards here.