Salem Reporter wins regional journalism awards for Bush Park shooting coverage
Salem Reporter’s coverage last year of the deadly shooting of a teen in Bush’s Pasture Park has earned the news organization two top awards in regional journalism competition.
Reporters for the Salem news organization also took top honors for excellence with stories about a special program cut at the Salem library and the profile of a state judge handling mental illness cases.
In all, the locally-owned Salem Reporter was cited for eight awards by Society of Professional Journalist’s Region 10. The judging evaluated work from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
“Our team comes to work every day with the ambition to provide Salem deeply-reported news that can be counted on to be accurate and fair,” said Editor Les Zaitz. “This recognition validates our adherence to the highest professional standards in our service to the community.”
The news team is lead daily by Managing Editor Rachel Alexander and now includes reporters Abbey McDonald, Ardeshir Tabrizian, Joe Siess and Madeleine Moore.
Zaitz and Larry Tokarski, president of Mountain West Investment Corp., founded Salem Reporter in 2018. The news organization has consistently been honored by peers for its journalism.
Salem Reporter won first place in breaking news coverage for its account of the March 2024 park shooting. The work was done by Alexander, McDonald and Tabrizian.
Hours after the daytime shooting, the team provided the community a detailed report. That included an account of a doctor who happened upon the scene and worked to save the South Salem High School student. As the story reported:
“I kept saying, ‘Stay with me. Stay with me,’” she recalled. “He lost consciousness, and then we lost a pulse.”
In evaluating the story, a judge wrote: “In my opinion, the Salem Reporter ran away with it. It’s a boots-on-the-ground, breaking news report from a team that obviously knows their community.”
Alexander won first place in education reporting for her account of the scene at South Salem High School after the shooting.
The journalism judge wrote, “Excellent! Just amazing what happened and how well this was told.”
The other awards for Salem Reporter include:
•First place in hard feature news to Tabrizian for his in-depth profile of Marion County Circuit Court Judge Audrey Broyles. She described the challenge facing judges in dealing with mentally ill defendants. One remark from her in that story:
“We just have a lot of people in places that we probably wouldn’t authorize otherwise, but we’re desperate to have some kind of supervision of them.”
Journalism judge’s comment: “These are the kinds of cases that keep me up at night,” a judge says in this Salem Reporter story. Readers will feel the same after reading about this thorny, potentially deadly and heartbreaking problem.”
•First place in arts and culture reporting to McDonald for her account of the end of a program to deliver books to senior citizens.
Journalism judge’s comment: “Operation Bookshelf may have been under the radar but this story explores why it was essential for some home-bound seniors. It reminds readers that not everyone can roam the library stacks looking for that perfect book and how librarians admirably served these special patrons … until the program fell victim to budget and time constraints.”
•Second place in crime and law enforcement reporting to Tabrizian for his investigation of drug trafficking at the Marion County Jail.
Journalism judge’s comment: “Tragic story laid out in detail through excellent reporting and writing. This could have been a for-the-record story but it goes well beyond that.”
•Second place in investigative reporting to Tabrizian for his three-part series tracing the life of a 16-year-old boy who died in a shootout with Salem police.
Journalism judge’s comment: “The writing of this tragic story is so good that it vaulted ahead of other entries. The mark of a good story is reading it from top-to-bottom and getting to the end and wanting more. This is that kind of story. Nice work.”
•Second place in poverty and homeless reporting to McDonald for her account of life at a Salem micro shelter in bitter winter cold.
Journalism judge’s comment: “This story is true, responsive to the community, solid local journalism. There was an issue and the reporting produced by this newsroom prompted real change in the community. These reporters got a tip, and they acted on it. I feel like this type of local journalism is often underrated. It matters.”
•Second place in soft feature news to McDonald for her account of a volunteer who shows up at Valentine’s Day weddings to provide balloon art.
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