EACH YEAR SINCE 1999, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism has given out the Paul Tobenkin Award for reporting that “fosters coherent, authentic coverage of race reporting.”
But the award isn't just another pat on the back for reporters. It's given out as part of a workshop, “Let's Do It Better! Workshop on Journalism, Race and Ethnicity,” sponsored by the Ford Foundation, that seeks to educate news managers, educators and students who want to improve their performance on covering, editing and teaching about race.
“The workshop ... is designed as a safe place for journalists and educators to examine the work — including the flaws — that appear in almost every story, and to allow them to deal honestly with the fears surrounding the tension and backlash that these stories engender,” said Arlene Morgan, associate dean and director of the workshop program.
The Denver Post, led by reporter Mike Riley, was named the 2008 Tobenkin Award winner for “writing courageously about racial discrimination in 'Lawless Lands,' a series that investigates how a dysfunctional federal justice system allows serious American Indian reservation crimes to go unpunished.”
Riley received the citation — the school's highest honor for race reporting — at the 10th annual workshop in May. The award was established in 1959 in memory of the late Paul Tobenkin, a New York Herald Tribune reporter who held a strong commitment to writing about racial and religious discrimination. *