Examiner wins six Dateline Awards

The Washington Examiner won six 2010 Dateline Awards for excellence in journalism at the D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists ceremony Tuesday night. Editorial writer Barbara Hollingsworth won two awards for her commentary writing. She received a first place for “Big Con on Virginia’s ‘Big Day'” and second place for “States Reassert Their Sovereignty.” Crime reporters Scott McCabe and Freeman Klopott won first place in the general news reporting category for “Most Wanted,” a look at the region’s most dangerous and hard-to-capture criminal suspects, and for the newspaper’s series that has helped lead to the capture of numerous fugitives. In the news feature-writing category, sports writer Brian McNally won first place for three Sunday cover stories on Washington Capitals hockey player Alex Ovechkin, Washington Nationals first baseman Adam Dunn and Ted Lerner’s struggle to make the Nationals a competitive baseball team. Staff writer Alan Suderman received a second place in investigative reporting for “Tuition Assistance,” a series of stories revealing how county employees used taxpayer dollars to buy guns and take yoga classes, sailing lessons and Spanish courses in Costa Rica. David Sherfinski, Alan Suderman and Teddy Kahn received third place in business/financial reporting for “Foreclosure Fallout,” an examination of how depressed home prices hurt area residents. Dateline awards were given for print, radio and television journalism, as well as for blogs and online journalism — a first for the SPJ. Washingtonian writer John Pekkanen won the Robert D.G. Lewis Watchdog Award, and the accompanying $1,000 prize, for an article about the problems with the D.C. 911 system.

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