Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Raw Story Investigates reporter wins investigative reporting award.

Congrats to Raw Story!!!

Long before Blackwater became the topic du jour for the mainstream media, Raw Story's Investigative team was on the march.

Raw Story is proud to announce Raw Story Investigates' Miriam Raftery won third prize in the San Diego Press Club's annual reporting for daily newspapers and websites in the category of investigative reporting.
Raftery won for an article she wrote on Blackwater, "
Massive security contractor faces growing protest in rural California town over 824-acre base."

The article, published in April, detailed Blackwater's effort to build a massive training base in a town outside San Diego on a former chicken ranch and protected agricultural preserve. It tied for third prize with a piece in a San Diego daily.

"If private security contractor Blackwater USA gets its way, this 850-strong community will soon host an 824-acre military training base, replacing the erstwhile chicken ranch with fifteen firing ranges and an emergency vehicle operator’s course the length of ten football fields," Raftery wrote.

Raw Story's investigation led to the removal of a lawyer connected to the project from a local planning board. Lori Spar — listed with the California Bar Association as an attorney with a law firm representing Blackwater in 2006 — surfaced as a land use/environmental planner for the Department of Planning and Land Use for the country, and was removed by the Department after Raftery's inquiries.

The investigation also revealed that former Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) was a client of the firm.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Raw_Story_Investigates_reporter_wins_investigative_1113.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As usual, you can always get the same old trash on the news, but once an important story picks up steam that's when it his mainline news. Raw Story obviously not relying on American news sources.