Will Fitzgibbon and Peter Goodman’s rigorous series, “The Poisonous Lead Trade,” an investigation by The Examination and The New York Times, has won the 2026 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting.
The annual award, one of the foremost honors in investigative journalism, has been presented by the USC Annenberg School of Journalism for 37 years. The $50,000 prize honors investigative journalism that informs the public about major problems and corruption and yields concrete results.
“In this moment of global complexity and rapid misinformation, the role of investigative journalism in uncovering truth and holding power to account is more essential than ever,” said USC Annenberg Dean Willow Bay. “This year’s winners demonstrate extraordinary rigor, collaboration and moral clarity in tracing a public health crisis from a town in Nigeria to boardrooms and factories in the United States. We are honored to partner once again with the Ring Foundation to recognize reporting that not only informs the public, but drives real-world change, protects vulnerable communities and advances justice across borders.”
The reporters commissioned a nonprofit research organization in Nigeria to conduct the country’s most comprehensive study of lead poisoning and lead contamination, involving 70 people and about 50 soil samples, revealing that 70% of people evaluated living near and working in Ogijo’s lead recycling facilities had lead poisoning. More than half the children tested had lead in their blood at levels associated with lifelong brain damage; soil testing showed contamination near schools, markets and homes.
“What we saw up close in Ogijo was horrifying and shocking by itself,” Goodman said. “But from the beginning, we understood that we had a greater responsibility than simply bringing that to light. We had to expose the connections to companies in the United States and Europe that were effectively tolerating the mass poisoning of entire communities as the cost of doing business.”
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