Winners Announced in Newhouse’s 11th Annual Mirror Awards Competition

Winners in the 11th annual Mirror Awards competition honoring excellence in media industry reporting were announced Tuesday, June 13, at a ceremony in New York City, hosted by the Newhouse School of Public Communications. “Today” show contributing correspondent Jenna Bush Hager emceed the luncheon event, which was held at Cipriani 42^nd Street.

Fred Dressler Leadership Award winner Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric at the Mirror Awards luncheon

The winners, chosen by a group of journalists and journalism educators, are:

Best Profile:

Sarah Esther Maslin, “A light in the underworld” for Columbia Journalism Review

Best Single Story:

Soraya Chemaly and Catherine Buni, “The secret rules of the internet” for The Verge

Best Commentary:

Eric Alterman, “How False Equivalence Is Distorting the 2016 Election Coverage” for The Nation

John M. Higgins Award for Best In-Depth/Enterprise Reporting:

Gabriel Sherman for New York magazine

• “The Revenge of Roger’s Angels”
• “Former Fox News Booker Says She Was Sexually Harassed and ‘Psychologically Tortured’ by Roger Ailes for More than 20 Years”
• “Sources: Megyn Kelly Told Murdoch Investigators that Roger Ailes Sexually Harassed Her”

In addition, the Newhouse School honored legendary journalist Tom Brokaw of NBC with the Fred Dressler Leadership Award. Andrew Lack, chairman of NBC News and MSNBC, presented the award. A tribute video honoring Brokaw included remarks by Steven Spielberg, Katie Couric, Lester Holt, Ken Auletta, Bob Costas ’74, Matt Lauer, Anderson Cooper, Dan Rather and Bob Dotson G’69, among others.

The school presented the i-3 award for impact, innovation and influence to The New York Times. Executive editor Dean Baquet offered remarks; the award was accepted by Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company and publisher of The New York Times.

Luncheon co-chairs were John D. Miller ’72, chief marketing officer for NBC Olympics and chair of NBCUniversal Marketing Council, and Dana Zimmer ’92, president of distribution for Tribune Media.

The Mirror Awards are the most important awards for recognizing excellence in media industry reporting. Established by the Newhouse School in 2006, the awards honor the reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public’s benefit.

Photos from the event will be posted at mirrorawards.com. For more information, contact Wendy Loughlin at 315.412.4522 or wsloughl@syr.edu.