Winner – CNN Business: Uber sexual assault investigation
- Contributors – Sara Ashley O’Brien, Nelli Black, Curt Devine, Drew Griffin
- Judges’ Comments – Over seven months of stories, reporter Sara Ashley O’Brien and her CNN Business colleagues documented and exposed that 103 Uber drivers and 18 Lyft drivers in 20 major U.S. cities had been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing their passengers over a four-year period. By documenting the cases so thoroughly, this series of articles not only exposed the threat to passenger safety but also prompted responses from Uber and others. Nine members of Congress requested details about protocols related to reporting such attacks and training drivers. Uber also plans to publish a safety transparency report regarding incidents that occur with its network, including the types of sexual assaults the reporting documented and fatal car accidents.
Honorable Mention – The Seattle Times: Stolen Horizon passenger jet crashes outside Seattle
- Contributors – Matt Day, Evan Bush, Hal Bernton, Lewis Kamb, Christine Clarridge, Daniel Beekman, Argueda Pacheco-Flores, Ellen Banner
- Judges’ Comments – The Seattle Times’ teams’ coverage of a “joyride gone terribly wrong,” when a Horizon Air baggage handler stole a plane from Sea-Tac Airport, was impressive as both a local and a national story. By talking to eyewitnesses and passengers on other planes, along with reviewing air traffic control recordings, reporter Matthew Day was able to provide a tick-tock of how events unfolded. The air traffic control audio recordings and video of the flight put the reader right into the story. Beyond the vivid tale of the flight, reporters Hal Bernton, Dominic Gates and Daniel Beekman explored what the breach means for airport security controls at Sea-Tac and across the U.S. Lewis Kamb’s story on how the same baggage handler had possibly been planning the theft for a year or more and how earlier reported security breaches were seemingly not followed up before the theft occurred added to the overall impact.
