Award to Trib reporters for Tax Credit/STO series

by David Safier
Ryan Gabrielson and Michelle Reese have received much deserved praise for their series in the East Valley Tribune, Rigged Privilege, about the misuse of tuition tax credits and improper behavior by the STOs that manage and disburse the funds. Now they've received an award and a little bit of extra cash for their efforts.

The Sidney Hillman Foundation have given the two reporters its Sidney Award for Social Justice Journalism. The award comes with $500.

This isn't the first such award for Gabrielson. He was awarded a Pulitzer along with Paul Giblin for their five-part investigative series about Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Ironically, Giblin was downsized out of his Trib job because of budget cuts and is now on the staff of the Arizona Guardian, which offers web-only coverage of the legislative scene in Phoenix and is giving the Capitol Times a run for its money. For all its money problems, the Trib deserves a great deal of credit for giving its reporters the time to do national quality investigative reporting.

About a month ago, Gabrielson emailed me to say, "I leave in a week for an investigative reporting fellowship at UC-Berkeley." Well deserved. We need more people like the Gabrielson, Reese and Giblin who are willing to do the digging and have the talent and energy to uncover important stories. That kind of reporting makes a real difference, and it doesn't happen nearly as often as it should.