Three-time Loeb winner celebrates 40 years of reporting

Byron Harris, a reporter with WFAA-TV in Dallas and a three-time Gerald Loeb winner, is celebrating 40 years of working for the station.

Jason Trahan of WFAA writes, “Byron Harris won two Peabody awards, four national Edward R. Murrow Awards, and three Gerald Loeb Awards for distinguished business reporting.

“Last year, Harris won his sixth duPont-Columbia Award — the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize — for exposing fraud in Texas’ Medicaid dental system.

“‘I had a great mentor here, Marty Haag, and he shaped my career to a huge extent,’ Harris said Monday, referring to the station’s legendary news director who passed away in 2004. ‘I’ve been very lucky.’

“On Monday, WFAA executives — along with reporters, photographers and producers — gathered in the newsroom to celebrate Harris and his career.

“‘This is the guy, literally, who invented investigative reporting in this industry,’ said investigative reporter and longtime colleague Brett Shipp. ‘And he’s still here, and he’s still passionate.’

“Carolyn Mungo, WFAA’s executive news director, praised the veteran’s enthusiasm for reporting the news.

“‘He runs into my office, ‘I’ve got a great story!” she said, recalling one of their first meetings after she joined WFAA in 2012. ‘I said, ‘Wow. I need 40 people just like Byron Harris.”

Read more here.