April
20, 2007
Wren wins 2007 Taylor-Tomlin
Award for Investigative Journalism
The School of Journalism and Mass Communication presented
David Wren of The Sun News the 2007 Taylor-Tomlin
Award for Investigative Journalism for "Investigating
Five Rivers Community Department Corp.," at the annual
Honors and Awards Night, April 19.
Wren's five-article series detailed corrupt practices by
the Five Rivers Community Department Corp., a nonprofit agency
that was designed to help low-income residents of Georgetown
County, S.C., find jobs and buy homes. Instead, the series
revealed, executives at the nonprofit agency did little more
than help themselves to taxpayers' money.
 “The newspaper’s investigation will have long-lasting
and wide-ranging impact in at least two ways. First, it saved
taxpayers an untold amount of public money that would have
been misspent had Five Rivers continued to operate without
public scrutiny. Also, dozens of nonprofit agencies in the
Myrtle Beach, S.C., area took notice of Five Rivers’ problems
by reviewing—and often changing—their own financial
and management practices, saving taxpayers money and helping
to ensure that funds reach the needy people those nonprofits
are meant to serve,” said Trisha O’Connor, Editor
and Vice President, The Sun News.
Wren has been an investigative reporter at The
Sun News since February 2004. He has also served as business
editor at The Sun News and assistant business editor at the Rocky
Mountain News, Denver, Colorado. Wren is the recipient
of several other awards, including the McClatchy Company’s
2007 President’s Award, for the Five Rivers investigative
series, the 2006 South Carolina Press Association Public
Service Award, the 2004 South Carolina Press Association
Public Service Award, the 2004 South Carolina Press Association
Freedom of Information Award, and the 2004 Associated Press
Managing Editor’s Freedom of Information Award. Wren
was selected as a Knight Ridder Fellow at Duke University
in 1999.
The Taylor-Tomlin Award for Investigative Journalism recognizes
enterprising, perceptive and beneficial reporting by journalists
whose work is published in a South Carolina daily or weekly
newspaper or wire service. The award seeks to stimulate and
honor the work of investigative journalists who ask the extra
question, see more than the tip of the iceberg and probe
beyond superficiality.
South Carolina businessmen Joe E. Taylor Jr. and Donald
R. Tomlin Jr. created the Taylor-Tomlin Award for Investigative
Journalism in 2005. The School of Journalism and Mass Communications
administers the annual prize and the South Carolina Press
Association coordinates the judging. The 2006 recipients
were Ron Menchaca and Glenn Smith of The
Post and Courier for “Tarnished
Badges.”
See more photos from Honors and Awards Night>> |
