Times wins investigative award for its articles on Bell

The Los Angeles Times’ uncovering of exorbitant salaries and financial irregularities in the small working-class city of Bell has been awarded Investigative Reporters and Editors' top honor. 

The nonprofit group awarded the IRE Medal for the newspaper's series "Breach of Faith," which involved more than a dozen reporters and editors and resulted in criminal charges against city officials and millions of dollars refunded to taxpayers.

"At a time when many news organizations are pulling back and reducing coverage of outlying cities, the Los Angeles Times uncovered a story of incredible greed in one of the state’s poorest towns, Bell," the award's judges said, noting that the stories' impact has been "far-flung."

Times Editor Russ Stanton said the paper was "honored and humbled to receive this kind of recognition from a formidable organization like IRE."

"We remain committed to providing this kind of in-depth reporting about the public institutions that are vital to our democracy," he said.

The newspaper’s Bell coverage previously received the George Polk Award for local reporting, the American Society of News Editors' distinguished writing award for local accountability reporting and the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting from USC.

The IRE medal also was awarded to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the BBC International News Services for their reporting on the global asbestos trade.

Also a finalist for the medal was another Times series, "Grading the Teachers," about the "value-added" method of analyzing teacher performance, which sparked a national debate on how best to evaluate educators' effectiveness.

The Associated Press, Chicago Tribune and New York Times also were finalists.

-- Victoria Kim

Comments

[Slang]

Good job. Congratulations!

[Cindi Burkey]

It's not often you get 12 reporters working on a story. That's the way to cover news! I hope the Times keeps it up and that management pays you what you're worth.

It's worth a lot to us, this reporting. .......Thank You.

[la joe]

now, can they investigate el segundo.

[Henry]

Very, very very good job.

[TronUI]

The Times isn't perfect, but it has some of the best top-notch journalism! If i'm not wrong, other instances that lead to change include our restaurant grades.

Anyway, I'm in Australia studying, and my time outside has only made me love and appreciate LA-California and all that we have state-side...

[Kent]

Well deserved; an excellent example of investigative reporting.

[BLUEWATER]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! LATIMES!!!
U ROCK MY WORLD!

[Get Planted]

Great job! Now please get to work uncovering corruption in the City of Los Angeles.

[DooTell]

Congrats to the L.A. Times. I wouldn't be surprised if you garnered a P Prize for this series.

This sort of thing is exactly why we need the Fourth Estate...to be the watchdog and reporter of facts...to the people.

Good job, LAT!

[Dave Adams]

Congrats to all who had a hand in this investigation. This affirms the role of responsible journalism in a free democratic society. I was beginning to feel that the concept was dead. KEEP GOING. There are mountains of excrement to excavate.

[J.J.GARCIA, JR.]

L.A. Times, you don't know how much I have enjoyed your investigated reporting on those thugs from Bell. You have so many small communities in LA Metro, that the Times should have a corruption buster unit exclusively targeting these "un holy" politicians in your area.