Center for Public Integrity Wins IRE Book Award, Named Finalist in Online Reporting

3/20/2003

From: Ann Pincus of the Center for Public Integrity, 202 466-1300, ext. 134

WASHINGTON, March 20 -- The Center for Public Integrity has won the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) national book award for 2002, for Capitol Offenders: How Private Interests Govern Our States, published by Public Integrity Books. Book authors are Diane Renzulli, John Dunbar, Alex Knott, Robert Moore and Leah Rush.

The Center was a finalist in the Online category for Enron's Big Political Donors, written by John Dunbar, Robert Moore and MaryJo Sylwester.

The IRE judges noted about Capitol Offenders, "The scope of this investigation is breathtaking. The Center for Public Integrity gathered information from all 7,400 state legislators in America to focus on a crucial, overlooked issue. Many legislators seek committee assignments allowing them to enhance their private financial interests, often at the expense of their constituents. The book demonstrates that vested interests are influencing legislators' decisions on education, health care, insurance, public safety and the environment."

Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center, said, "We are so pleased to be recognized in this way. We have been looking at conflicts of interest in state legislatures nationwide now for the past eight years, and Capitol Offenders was the culmination of all of that work. I think this is the first book ever written about legal corruption in the state legislatures nationwide. My hat is off to the wonderful states team, led by Diane Renzulli and now Leah Rush, and writers John Dunbar, Alex Knott and Robert Moore. Managing editor Bill Allison oversaw and edited the book."

Lewis noted that one of the results of Enron's Big Political Donors, released on the Center's online newsletter, the Public i, was that Attorney General John Ashcroft had to recuse himself from the Enron criminal investigation within hours of the publication of the report, which was heavily covered by the national news media.

This is the second national IRE book award the Center has won in the past four years. Center for Public Integrity reports have been honored 13 times since 1996 by the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) or Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE).

The Center for Public Integrity conducts investigative research to uncover corruption and abuse of power by governments, corporations, and individuals involved in the political process. The findings of our investigations focus on issues that pose potential conflicts of interest among power brokers and governments.

The Center's findings are published as reports and studies on the web, and in book form and distributed to the widest possible audience.

The Center, which is a non-profit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization, was founded in 1989 by Charles Lewis, a former producer with the CBS television program, "60 Minutes."