Three Wichita Eagle staffers win prestigious Polk journalism award
Three Wichita Eagle staff members won one of the nation’s top journalism awards for work that included investigations into how former Mayor Jeff Longwell steered a lucrative city contract to friends and supporters.
The George Polk Award for political reporting was shared by Chance Swaim, Jonathan Shorman and Dion Lefler of The Eagle and Luke Broadwater of The Baltimore Sun, it was announced Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The reporters were cited “for turning journalistic intuition into deep dives into public records that revealed municipal misconduct,” according to a news release.
This is the first time The Eagle has won a Polk Award. The awards, which are conferred annually by Long Island University, “place a premium on investigative and enterprising reporting that gains attention and achieves results,” the news release said.
The awards were established in 1949 in memory of George Polk, a CBS correspondent who was murdered in 1948 while covering a civil war in Greece.
The 2019 award for political reporting recognized an Eagle investigation that showed former Wichita mayor Jeff Longwell steered a $524 million contract for a water treatment plant to friends and political supporters, rejecting the unanimous choice of a selection panel.
The award also recognized an Eagle investigation of a campaign smear ad that falsely connected Longwell’s opponent to sexual harassment allegations, and a report that found that Wichita has one of the loosest ethical codes governing elected officials’ conduct.
“I’m incredibly proud of the work that Chance, Dion and Jonathan performed, and I’m thrilled that an award as prestigious as the Polk recognized the importance of local journalism and how it serves communities,” said Michael Roehrman, the Eagle’s executive editor.
Other publications receiving Polk Awards on Wednesday included The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bloomberg News, Politico and ProPublica.
Four staff members of The Seattle Times were honored in the business reporting category for first exposing cooperative arrangements between Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration that led to approval of design changes in 737 Max jets blamed for two crashes.
Winners of the 2019 awards will be honored at a luncheon ceremony in New York City in early April.
