propublica

此文誤將 pro publica 寫成 propublic 差很大
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Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting: Deadly Choices at Memorial

Few forms of writing are more difficult than the reconstructed narrative. It is hard enough to craft a compelling story when you have observed the events yourself. It is harder still when you must rely on witnesses trying their best to recall what happened. But the greatest challenge arises when a writer seeks to assemble a narrative against the wishes of key figures who face possible legal jeopardy if the truth is revealed.

That was the situation Sheri Fink faced when she set out to tell the story of what happened at a New Orleans hospital cut off by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina.

Fink was unusually qualified to attempt such reporting. A medical doctor who also holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience, she had delivered aid in combat zones and reported on how medical professionals cope with catastrophe in places like war-torn Bosnia.

The experiences of doctors and nurses during Katrina, she recognized, were emerging at the center of a quiet national debate certain to resonate in the decades ahead: What legal and ethical standards must doctors meet in a disaster such as a pandemic flu or terrorist attack? Who should be saved first? Who decides? To understand the pressures doctors and nurses faced, readers needed to know exactly what it felt like to be trapped in a sweltering hospital in a city that had descended into chaos.

When Fink began working on the story, a New Orleans doctor, Anna Pou, was leading a national campaign for laws that would shield medical professionals from legal liability for their conduct in disasters. Pou had been investigated for mercy killing at the hospital, Memorial Medical Center, after a large number of patients died there during the flood. A local grand jury declined to bring charges, and Pou was pressing state lawmakers and the American Medical Association to learn the lessons of Katrina.

But what were those lessons?

Fink tried to interview Pou and others who figured in the investigation. They refused to talk about what had happened, so she set out to find others familiar with events at Memorial. There was an abiding sense among many in New Orleans that Katrina was a miserable experience best left unexamined, complicating the reporting task even more.

Over many months of slow, painstaking pursuit of sources and documents, Fink began to assemble a new account that called into question Pou’s arguments for looser standards as well as her version of what had happened. Several health professionals from Memorial acknowledged that they had deliberately injected severely ill patients with lethal doses of drugs. They described scenes of chaos, in which sleep-deprived doctors and nurses trapped in a building without electricity or running water improvised plans for triage.

Fink reported this story over more than two years, first as a freelancer working as a Kaiser Media Fellow and then as a reporter at ProPublica. She interviewed more than 140 people, most of them multiple times.

On the fourth anniversary of Katrina, the New York Times magazine published “The Deadly Choices at Memorial,’’ a 13,000-word chronicle of what happened when the floodwaters rose, the generators failed, and the hospital was cut off from the world. The article was dramatic yet understated. Fink depicted the deepening confusion that gripped the hospital as it waited for help to arrive, reconstructing the decisions that ended with the injections of ill patients as the helicopters arrived to rescue them.

Remarkable in these days when so many hide behind the shield of anonymity, every source was quoted by name. One doctor, Ewing Cook, acknowledged that he had ordered a nurse to give a lethal dose of morphine to a patient. “It was actually to the point where you were considering that you couldn’t just leave them; the humane thing would be to put ’em out,’’ Cook told Fink.

The article had immediate impact. The New Orleans coroner launched a new investigation of the death of Jannie Burgess, the patient of Cook’s who was given the morphine. Days later, the article went to members of an Institute of Medicine panel who were crafting national guidelines on how to deal with shortages of life-saving equipment in case of a major medical emergency, like a 1918-style flu pandemic. The resulting IOM report, which was widely distributed to local, state and federal officials, included recommendations directly influenced by the article.

新聞網站 奪普立茲獎

愛荷華州「第蒙紀錄報」攝影記者瑪莉．欽德去年7月1日捕捉到一名建築工人，從起重機懸吊而下，拯救一名落河婦女的驚險鏡頭，這張照片讓她榮獲普立茲突發新聞攝影獎。 （路透）

〔編譯魏國金／綜合紐約12日外電報導〕被視為是美國新聞界最高榮譽的「普立茲獎」12日公佈，一如往昔，拿下4項大獎的華盛頓郵報與奪下3個獎項的紐約時報仍是大贏家，然而今年最受矚目的是，網路新聞網站ProPublic首度獲「調查性報導獎」，為新聞界立下新典範。

報導卡崔娜 立下新典範

非營利的ProPublic與紐約時報雜誌合作，以卡崔娜颶風一所紐奧良醫療中心的醫師，臨危做下攸關病患生死決定的故事，記者是薛里．芬克。

位在紐約曼哈頓的ProPublic成軍僅兩年，目前員工32人。ProPublic資金來自慈善基金會，員工則是矢志做調查報導的資深記者，該機構提供許多報導給傳統媒體，且分文不取。

社論漫畫獎作品 也來自網站

社論漫畫獎也創下另一個網路第一，該獎得主是自由供稿漫畫家馬克．費奧芮，其作品發表在舊金山紀事報的網站。

阿帕拉契礦田區一家小報「布里斯托前鋒信使報」，因揭露維吉尼亞地主被剝奪數百萬美元天然氣開採權利金的醜聞，而擊敗眾家新聞集團，勇奪今年的公共服務大獎。

華郵以伊拉克系列報導獲得國際報導獎，並抱走特稿寫作獎、評論獎與批評獎。

委員會也對報紙將觸角延伸至新媒體表示肯定。西雅圖時報在報導4名警員於咖啡廳遭槍殺的同時，利用推特與電郵警示功能，快速報導槍殺案以及隨後40小時的緝凶發展，並利用Google Wave鼓勵讀者參與。該報獲頒突發新聞報導獎。