Walter Lippmann knew that powerful politicians, big business, and other institutions in our society could create perceptions that people might mistake for reality. That is why, especially today, we need tenacious investigative journalists to pierce the veil of misleading, and often deceptive, information to reveal the truth.
The Selden Ring Award is a jewel of recognition for top journalists. The $50,000 award recognizes published investigative reporting that has brought results — such as the series by 2016 award recipients at The Associated Press which documented how seafood sold in U.S. grocery stores and restaurants had been produced by slaves.
2018 Selden Ring winner
Mike Baker and Justin Mayo of the Seattle Times have won the 2018 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for their series “Quantity of Care.”
“Quantity of Care” involved two years of reporting and published in four parts, beginning in February 2017. Baker, an investigative reporter, and Mayo, a data journalist, revealed that a prominent Seattle-area neuroscience institute was growing rapidly and attracting patients nationwide while staff members were expressing alarm, internally, about patient care.
Selden Ring judges wrote, “The reporters’ meticulous work showed Swedish Medical Center, a revered local institution, and one of its star surgeons were putting profits ahead of patient care and safety — and trying to silence anyone who sounded alarms.”
