New York City’s 1200-seat grand ballroom at Gotham Hall, one of the city’s most elegant venues, was overflowing with hope, humor and celebration Monday night as the non-profit Investigative Reporters and Editors organization celebrated 50 years of training and supporting journalism.
IRE honored 20 journalists who, over six decades, uncovered criminal activities at the highest levels, covering everything from unsafe products to wars, natural disasters, school shootings, and much more. IRE also honored Michael Keaton, dubbing him a “Champion of Investigative Journalism” for his role as Walter “Robby” Robinson in the 2015 Oscar-winning biographical film “Spotlight,” which dramatized the story of the Boston Globe’s award-winning investigative team that exposed child molestation by priests and its cover-up by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
Among the honorees was journalist Melvin Claxton, whose 10-part series “Virgin Island Crime: Who’s to Blame?” was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1995. He was handed the award by Judy Woodruff, yet another public-spirited reporter and trailblazer dedicated to building unity while fearlessly exposing the demons of divisiveness along the road.
Another series by Claxton, this time on the criminal justice system in Detroit, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003. Claxton, born and raised in Antigua, attended the now-University of the Virgin Islands in the 1970s at a time when it was known as the College of the Virgin Islands, has won a number of national reporting awards and his work has been honored several times by the Associated Press.
The IRE anniversary celebration, hosted by CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, divided the evening’s honorees into five decades in which their work changed the playing field, even as the field’s parameters expanded.
The decades were segmented by brief intermissions and a variety of presenters, including Woodruff, Paul Sagan, chair of ProPublica and A/G.Sulzberger, publisher and chairman of The New York Times. Each honoree was introduced before taking the stage by a short pre-recorded video highlighting their most notable works and made their remarks in advance of the celebration.
Here is the breakdown of these esteemed guardians of democracy, with links to detailed information about their accomplishments, along with their bios.
The 1970s: The Birth of Modern Investigative Reporting:
Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward, Renee Ferguson, Lowell Bergman
1980s: The Emergence of Data and Consumer Investigations:
Brant Houston, James B. Steele, Lea Thompson
1990s: “David vs Goliath”:
Melvin Claxton, Alexandra Xanic, Phil Williams
2000s The Growth of Nonprofit Investigative Journalism:
Sheila Coronel, Alberto Ibargüen, Paul Steiger
2010s: Investigating sexual assault and a sparking a cultural reckoning
Julie K. Brown, Jodi Kantor, Marisa Kwiatkowski, Megan Twohey
2020s: Collaborations Speaking Truth to Power:
Ken Armstrong, Randy Aronson-Rath, Manny Garcia
After five decades of prize-winning reporters and editors being deliciously served up by the bevy of equally resolute journalism icons, dinner was served, after which an auction was held before what might be called the Headliner was introduced to the stage by the real-life reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, who was played by Rachel McAdams in “Spotlight,” the film.
Keaton admitted that as a kid, he wanted to be a reporter. “Sports,” he said. Though a different role was to be his ultimate calling, he was fulfilled by portraying the real-life heroes he was honored alongside Monday night. Along with Globe editor, Walter “Robby” Robinson, Keaton played another real-life newsman, Robert Weiner, in the 2002 HBO docudrama “Live from Bagdad,” which was based on Weiner’s book by the same name. The story recounts Weiner’s experiences as the producer of the CNN team in Baghdad, the only Western journalists in Iraq during the Gulf War, covering the crisis and the war itself from inside the enemy capital.
In 1994, Keaton played Henry Hackett, the fictional editor of a struggling New York tabloid, in “The Paper,” a comedy covering the reality of 24-hour print deadlines to “get the story out,” before the days of the internet.
As he began his acceptance speech, Keaton said, “As much as I might have disagreed with him … well, actually did disagree with him…you have to remember two things, “Charlie Kirk had a wife,” he said holding up one finger and “two children,” he added holding up two fingers.
Later, he would go on to address the importance of laughter at a time when journalism is figuratively and literally under fire across the globe.
Before the humor, though, Keaton spoke of the 1970 Kent State massacre, when National Guardsmen opened fire on unarmed students protesting the war in Vietnam, killing four and wounding nine, which deeply affected him and other students who attended the Ohio University. Keaton entered Kent State a year after the shattering event, where he majored in journalism and speech.
He followed the Kent State reference masterfully, underscoring our common humanity with a story about hitchhiking “back in the days when you could” from Ohio to Washington to attend another peace rally. “A guy picked me up and we talked guy stuff,” he said, “probably girls and music and stuff.” As he was getting out of the car, he asked the driver why he had come to D.C., “I’m a National Guardsman.”
“He was going down to keep the peace, and I was going down to march for peace… We weren’t that different really.”
He ended his remarks, saying, “Follow the funny people,” referring to the late night comedy talk show hosts like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, “while they’re still there” he trailed off, clearly referring to Colbert being canceled as the FCC was approving a heretofore unheard of merger between three media giants, including CBS, all owned by Larry Ellison, considered to be one of the top three wealthiest men in the world.
Keaton said, there’s nothing worse for a dictator than to be laughed at, making a reference to “Springtime for Hitler,” a fictional musical play within a play in Mel Brooks’ 1967 Oscar-winning satirical comedy, “The Producers.”
“They are powerless to do anything about it, being laughed at,” Keaton said with a relatively straight face.
Between the sponsorships and the auction, including a matching grant of up to $150,000 from the Knight Foundation for direct donations during the event, the first-ever IRE anniversary gala raised $1.5 million for the non-profit.
In a chance moment before the official opening of the gala, this reporter was able to catch Pelley, as he was making his way to the makeshift backstage before offering his opening remarks.
“What are you going to do?” I asked without any further introduction as I caught up with him and stuck out my hand.
He grabbed my outstretched hand and met my eyes.
“We are going to launch our season,” he said, as a grim look of determination erased the bright smile he had briefly greeted me with, “and see what happens.”
Table 12, where I was seated with Claxton, was also graced by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, host and later co-host for 35 years of “The Situation Room.” Along with many other notable journalism accomplishments.
When I asked him, among other things, “What are we going to do?” he answered, “Keep reporting.”
As for Claxton, who was the reason I was at Gotham Hall on Monday, he said he was looking forward to getting back to Detroit in the morning to put the final touches on his latest writing project: The Itty Bitty Book app, which enables children and young people from five to 17 to write, illustrate and publish their own books. After years in the making, the finish line is in sight.
And after that, I asked.
“We’ll see what happens,” he answered.
At the very least, every child on the planet will have the opportunity and means to tell their stories, and to sell them through an online bookstore Claxton should have open in the next month or so, thanks to his efforts to give literacy, storytelling, and peace a chance.
