2004 Virg Hill Arizona Journalist of the Year

19 entries

Judges:

Michael Sallah, national affairs writer for the Block News

Alliance, won (along with colleague Mitch Weiss) the

2004 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for exposing

atrocities carried out by an elite Army unit in Vietnam covered up by

the military for 36 years. The reporters were also awarded the IRE

Medal and a Sigma Delta Chi first place in investigative reporting

for the series.

John Temple has been editor of the Rocky Mountain News for seven years. During that time, the paper has won its first two Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other national awards. He joined the paper as metro editor in 1992 and became managing editor in 1995, editor in 1998

and added the publisher title in 2001. 

Gregory Favre is a distinguished fellow of journalism values at The Poynter Institute. He was born in New Orleans and grew up working on the family newspaper in Mississippi. He was assistant sports editor at the Atlanta Journal; managing editor at the Dayton Daily News; editor of the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post; news director at WPLG-TV in Miami; editor of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times; managing editor of the Chicago Daily News; and managing editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. He served as executive editor of The Sacramento Bee from 1984 to 1998 and was appointed vice president of news of The McClatchy Company in 1989. He retired from there this year before coming to Poynter.

Virg Hill Arizona Journalist of the Year

Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

Robert Anglen, 37, has been an investigative reporter for more than a decade. He has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, once for exposing Social Security scams among California Death Row inmates that led to a national review of state and federal prisons.

Before coming to The Arizona Republic in 2003 he worked for The Cincinnati Enquirer, where he exposed Pete Rose’s recent tax problems and wrote a series of stories that Rose blamed for keeping him out of the Hall of Fame. In the wake of Cincinnati's 2001 race riots, Anglen conducted an extensive investigation into the police department that was cited by the U.S. Department of Justice.

          Judge John Temple, editor of the Rocky Mountain New, had high praise for Anglen’s “ground-breaking work on a national story in his own back yard” — his articles that exposed the false safety claims of the manufacturer of Taser stun guns.

          “He got the goods, “Temple wrote. “This series was the single strongest public service entry among the submissions.” Judge Gregory Favre, former editor of the Sacramento Bee, called Anglen’s Taser stories  “clearly written and balanced. And the presentation of the information gathered through computer searches added greatly to the overall project.”

Born in Los Angeles, Anglen has worked as a skip tracer, bill collector, cab driver and process server. In addition to his reporting he also writes fiction and his stories have appeared in several magazines and writing anthologies.

Last year, he and his wife became the parents of triplets.

First runner-up

Paul Rubin, Phoenix New Times

       Paul Rubin, 54, has been a staff writer at Phoenix New Times since August 1985. During that time, he has won Arizona Journalist of the Year honors in 1986 and 1997, and has been a finalist six other years. His work also has been honored in numerous national competitions.

          Judge Michael Sallah, winner of the  2004 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, called Rubin “a throwback to a bygone era when reporters relied on public records, interviews and shoe leather. To his credit, he takes on stories either missed by daily newspapers or ignored — the mark of a successful newsweekly writer.” His conclusion: “Con artists in Arizona should feel a little less

comfortable with Rubin around.”

          Temple had a similar reaction to Rubin’s work: “Pity the poor devil who finds himself under his scrutiny.” 

       A University of Arizona graduate, Rubin's first fulltime

journalism job came in April 1981, when the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review hired him as its courts/cops reporter.

       When he’s not muck-raking, Rubin plays fastpitch softball around the nation. Last year, he earned first-team All-American honors

in what gently is called the "master's level."

Second runner-up

Robert Nelson, Phoenix New Times

Robert Nelson, 37, has been a writer for New Times for five years. In that time, he has been first runner-up for the Virg Hill award and has twice won the John Kolbe Government and Politics Writing Award. In 2003, Nelson he the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award for best political commentary.

          Judge Gregory Favre, former editor of the Sacramento Bee, praised the versatility of Nelson’s reporting and writing.

          “The range of his subjects is extremely broad, from hard-edged investigative pieces that bring action to those that touch the readers on a more emotional level,” Favre wrote. “His writing is strong and he lets you know why you should care and what it all means in the place in which his readers live.”

Nelson has three sons and coaches baseball in his spare time, helping lead Chandler National Little League’s 11-year-old All-Stars to the state championship last year. His oldest son, Andrew, is widely considered to be a better baseball player than Paul Rubin.

Arizona Community Journalist of the Year

13 entries

Judge: James C. Sterling is Missouri Chair in Community Newspaper Management at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.