Sarasota Herald-Tribune Staff Report
October 19, 2017
The Herald-Tribune’s “Bias on the Bench” series is a finalist for two national EPPY Awards from Editor and Publisher.
The project by reporters Josh Salman, Emily Le Coz and Elizabeth Johnson — which found judges throughout Florida sentence black defendants to harsher punishments than whites charged with the same crimes under similar circumstances — is a finalist for “Best Investigative/Enterprise Feature on a Website with under 1 million unique monthly visitors” and for “Best Use of Data/Infographics with under 1 million unique monthly visitors.”
Web developer Dak Le, design editor Jennifer Borresen and former deputy managing editor for innovation Tony Elkins collaborated on the project’s digital presentation.
Last year, the Herald-Tribune won an EPPY for its series “Shortcut to the American Dream” on the federal government’s EB-5 program. The six-part series won for “Best Business Reporting on a website with fewer than 1 million unique monthly visitors.” Another Salman project, “Selling Hope,” won the same award in 2015.
This week, Salman and investigations editor Michael Braga were in Tallahassee collecting the Florida Bar’s top media award for “Bias on the Bench.” The previous week, Salman and Le Coz were in Washington, D.C., to receive the American Society of News Editors’ Batten Medal. The series also was a finalist for ASNE’s Dori J. Maynard Award for Diversity in Journalism. [READ MORE]