Following a string of accomplishments from Pulitzer Prize nominations, duPont-Columbia Awards to News and Documentary Emmy wins, a Berkeley Journalism faculty member and four alums have been awarded Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association for remarkable stories that touch on everything from social justice to American history to deadly unintended consequences in interactions with law enforcement officers.
Among the most prestigious in news, the Murrow Awards recognize local and national news stories that uphold ethical standards, demonstrate technical expertise and exemplify the importance and impact of journalism as a service to the community.
Jennifer LaFleur and Steven Rascón
Professor Jennifer LaFleur, who leads Berkeley Journalism’s data reporting, a former senior editor at the Center for Public Integrity, and Steven Rascón (’22), the production manager for the series, were awarded best podcast for Reveal’s “40 Acres and a Lie.” In this groundbreaking collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and Mother Jones, reporters trained artificial intelligence to analyze millions of records from the Reconstruction-era Freedmen’s Bureau, and later they were able to track down dozens of living descendants, several of whom were unaware of their ancestors’ land being taken away. The discovery is significant because it was largely assumed that the 40 Acres and a Mule program created after the Civil War only promised land to Black people, and it affirmed how the government’s action eventually deprived their families of building intergenerational wealth.
The three-episode series aired in June 2024, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the explanatory reporting category, and generated extensive coverage by outside news organizations, including CNN, PBS, and NPR.
Serginho Roosblad and Marian Carrasquero
Serginho Roosblad (’18), a reporter on the Associated Press Global Investigations team and Marian Carrasquero (’19) were part of the AP and PBS “Frontline” teams that won first place for best News Series for “Lethal Restraint,” a three-year investigation documenting how many people in the U.S. die after police officers use restraint tactics not meant to kill.
Read our 2024 interview with Roosblad about the series here.
Lauren Capps
Lauren Capps (’12), was a producer on “The Sing Sing Chronicles,” a four-part docuseries by NBC News Studios and Trilogy Films that won two Murrow Awards — won for best News Series and another for Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
The series is built on two decades of original investigative reporting by Dan Slepian who had unprecedented access to the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, one of America’s most notorious prisons. Crafted from an archive of more than 1,000 hours of footage filmed from 2002 to present day, the series tells the story of a journalist and a man convicted of murder who begin as strangers but in the end become like brothers. Their unlikely connection, forged in the cell blocks of Sing Sing, ignites a search for justice in four unrelated homicide cases.
Read our recent interview with Capps here.
The awards will be presented at the Edward R. Murrow Awards Gala on Oct. 13 in New York City.
