Ithaca College

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Izzy Award, the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College has announced that this year’s award is being shared by four journalists who published path-breaking and in-depth reporting in 2017 that exposed political corruption, environmental hazards and militarism: investigative reporter Lee Fang of The Intercept; Investigative Fund reporting fellow and Intercept journalist Sharon Lerner; Truthout staff reporter Dahr Jamail; and author Todd Miller

The Izzy Award, presented for outstanding achievement in independent media, is named in memory of dissident journalist I.F. “Izzy” Stone. The ceremony is scheduled for April 24 at Ithaca College.  (Full news release here.)  

The judges commented: “Each of this year’s Izzy winners has broken new ground in exposing corporate profiteering and the power of money over public policy. Their breakthrough coverage is made possible by non-corporate outlets such as The Intercept, Truthout and TomDispatch.com, resources such as The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund, and publishers like City Lights Books.”

LEE FANG published 100 original investigative pieces in The Intercept during the first year of the Trump era, including reports on lobbyists and extremists on Team Trump and the crackdown on sanctuary cities and states. “Fang has long been one of the most tenacious reporters on the money and politics beat,” said the Izzy Award judges. “We were impressed by the global reach of his reporting last year, from Germany to Saudi Arabia to Honduras to a jaw-dropping expose on the efforts of a well-funded corporate libertarian network to reshape Latin American politics.”

SHARON LERNER, an Investigative Fund reporting fellow, carved out a beat at The Intercept covering science, health and the environment.  She has reported on reversals at the EPA and the suppression of scientists, and investigated the human cost of Dow Chemical’s decades-long effort to save the toxic pesticide, chlorpyrifos. “In a year of retrenchment at the EPA, Sharon Lerner has been on the journalistic barricades,” said the Izzy judges. “With poignant attention paid to the people affected, her meticulous scientific reporting on environmental toxins and environmental racism has sparked action by state attorneys general and members of Congress.”  

DAHR JAMAIL is known for unvarnished reporting at Truthout on climate change and other environmental assaults, including those caused by the U.S. military. His monthly wrap-ups of the latest climate research and trends – “Climate Disruption Dispatches” – have become an essential resource for scientists and fellow journalists. Commented the judges: “There is an urgency and passion in Dahr Jamail’s reporting that is justified by the literally earth-changing subject matter. And it’s supported by science and on-the-scene sources, whether covering ocean pollution, sea level rise, deafening noise pollution or Fukushima radiation.”

TODD MILLER published the ground-breaking 2017 book “Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security” (City Lights), which focuses in personal terms on “climate refugees” across the globe. The book shows how carbon-producing industrialized nations, especially the United States, seem slower to invest in carbon reduction than in the profitable industry of border security. Said the judges: “Every so often a book comes along that can dramatically change, or elevate, one’s thinking about a global problem. Much like Naomi Klein’s books, Todd Miller’s ‘Storming the Wall’ is such a book and deserves far more attention and discussion.”

The Izzy Award judges for all 10 years have been PCIM Director Jeff Cohen, University of Illinois communications professor and author Robert W. McChesney, and Linda Jue, executive director and editor of the San Francisco-based G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism.

Previous winners of the Izzy Award are Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill, Robert Scheer, City Limits, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Center for Media and Democracy/“ALEC Exposed,” Mother Jones, John Carlos Frey, Nick Turse, Naomi Klein, David Sirota, Jamie Kalven, Brandon Smith, Inside Climate News/“Exxon: The Road Not Taken,” Shane Bauer, Seth Freed Wessler, Ari Berman, and the producers of the “America Divided” series.