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Announcing the 2019 Hillman Prize winners
From: The Sidney Hillman Foundation
To: Michael Wolff
Date: Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 2:45 PM
Congratulations to the 2019 Hillman Prize recipients!
Sidney Hillman Foundation Names Winners of 2019 Prizes
for Journalism in Service of the Common Good
Reuters, NBC News and MSNBC, ProPublica Receive Honors; Adam Serwer to
receive Opinion & Analysis Prize
NEW YORK — The Sidney Hillman Foundation announced Tuesday winners of the 69th annual
Hillman Prizes, recognizing a Reuters expose of slum-like living conditions on U.S military
bases, the Miami Herald's investigation into Labor Secretary Alex Acosta's sweetheart deal with
serial sex abuser, Jeffrey Epstein, and NBC News and MSNBC's reporting on the Trump
Administration's family separation policy, among other standout reporting in service of the
common good.
Hannah Dreier of ProPublica won a Hillman Prize for reporting that showed how the
government's bungled crackdown on MS-13 has torn apart the lives of Latino immigrants. The
Atlantic's Adam Serwer, who has emerged as a defining voice of the Trump era, won for his
essays on racism and Trump's political movement, and Anna Clark won for her book on the
Flint water crisis.
This year's prizes were judged by writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, the New Yorker's Jelani Cobb,
Reuters' Al Freedman, the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg, the American Prospect's Harold
Meyerson and The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel.
The 2019 winners of the Hillman Prizes are:
• Newspaper — Miami Herald, Julie K. Brown and Emily Michot: Perversion of Justice
• Magazine — ProPublica with New York magazine, Newsday, This American Life, New
York Times Magazine, Hannah Dreier: Trapped in Gangland
• Web — Reuters, Joshua Schneyer, Michael Pell, Andrea Januta, Deborah Nelson:
Ambushed at Home
• Broadcast — NBC News and MSNBC, Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley: Torn Apart: Crisis at the Border
• Opinion & Analysis — Adam Serwer, The Atlantic
• Book — Anna Clark: The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy, Metropolitan Books
Reporting by this year's prize winners has had significant positive impact, including:
• Reversal of the Trump administration's "Zero Tolerance" family separation policy
• Three federal investigations, new legislation, widespread repairs, and a $386 million
emergency program to inspect military housing for hazards
• The exposure of pervasive bias and negligence by Long Island police, leading to federal
and local investigations and reforms
This year's honorees follow in the trailblazing tradition of past winners ranging from Murray
Kempton in 1950 for his articles on labor in the south and Edward R. Murrow in 1954 for his
critical reports on civil liberties and Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Red Scare; to 2017
newspaper winner, David Fahrenthold, for exposing Donald Trump's sexual harassment and
mismanagement of his foundation.
The Hillman Prizes are open to journalists and subjects globally for any work widely accessible
to a U.S. audience. Winners will be awarded a $5,000 prize at the Hillman Foundation's annual
ceremony in New York City on May 7.