The winner of the 2020 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting was “Copy. Paste. Legislate” by the staffs of The Arizona Republic, USA TODAY, and the Center for Public Integrity. The collaborative reporting team conducted unprecedented computer analysis of legislation in all 50 states to reveal 10,000 bills that were copied nearly word-for-word from text written by industry groups, lobbyists and political activists, often to benefit big business at consumers’ expense. Two tools built as part of the project are helping citizens and local reporters track these copycat bills in their own communities.
Breathless and Burdened: Dying from Black Lung, Buried by Law and Medicine
A year-long investigation by The Center for Public Integrity, in partnership with the ABC News Brian Ross investigative unit, examined how doctors and lawyers, working at the behest of the coal industry, helped defeat benefit claims of coal miners who were sick and dying of black lung disease. The team explored thousands of previously classified legal filings and created an original database of medical evidence that showed how prominent lawyers withheld key evidence and doctors at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, hired by the coal industry, consistently denied the existence of advanced black lung on X-rays. Following the online and network news reports, Johns Hopkins suspended its black lung program, U.S. senators began crafting reform legislation and members of Congress called for a federal investigation.
State Integrity Investigation
The State Integrity Investigation created a tool that is being used by news organizations all over the nation to hold government accountable. The collaboration was a data-driven analysis of every state’s laws and practices that deter corruption and promote accountability and openness, thus providing local news organizations a means of investigating what is happening in their state. The results include accelerated reform in government and an increase in disclosure requirements in many states.
Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities
“Poisoned Places” exposed the regulatory failures and political forces that cause millions of Americas to continue breathing unsafe air and, for the first time, publicly revealed the EPA’s internal “watch list” of the nation’s most troublesome air polluters. This report triggered immediate enforcement action in two states, a push for openness by the EPA and an avalanche of coverage across the U.S.
