Harvard center announces reporting prize finalists

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The sponsors of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting announced six finalists Wednesday.

They are print, television, radio and online journalists, the sponsors said.

"Powerful investigative reporting is one of the nation's greatest resources, and it is heartening to see such journalism, produced at the highest level, over so many platforms," said Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, which awards the prize.

The winner will receive a $25,000 award at a ceremony March 6. The other finalists win $10,000.

The finalists are:

— Associated Press reporters Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley for reporting that exposed the New York Police Department's work with the CIA to spy on the daily lives of Muslims.

— ABC News' "20/20," for an investigation that uncovered a failure to protect Peace Corps volunteers who fell victim to sex abuse and that prompted a new law.

— The Center for Public Integrity and National Public Radio, for revealing a government watch list of the nation's worst air polluters that sparked enforcement action in two states.

— The CBS affiliate in Houston, KHOU-TV, for uncovering extreme contamination in Texas drinking water and finding that radiation lab test results were lowered wrongfully.

— The New York Times, for an effort revealing state workers who beat or sexually abused developmentally disabled people kept their jobs, leading New York's governor to force out two top state officials.

— ProPublica and The Washington Post, for an analysis of the Justice Department's presidential pardon recommendations during George W. Bush's administration that showed racial bias and other problems.

The judges also recognized Bloomberg News with a separate citation for an effort that revealed how the Federal Reserve gave a trillion dollars in bailout loans to Wall Street's biggest banks.

The Shorenstein Center is a research center dedicated to "exploring and illuminating the intersection of press, politics and public policy," according to its website. The Goldsmith Awards Program was launched in 1991.