Three Wall Street Journal reporters have won the Merriman Smith Memorial Award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure for Print from the White House Correspondents Association.
Alan Cullison, Rebecca Ballhaus and Dustin Volz won for their story, “Trump Repeatedly Pressed Ukraine to Investigate Biden’s Son.”
The judges wrote, “As described by the New York Times three months later, the Journal’s ‘explosive’ story was the final straw for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Within days the once-reluctant Pelosi initiated an impeachment investigation. The story illuminated what until then had been provocative but vague reports of a whistleblower’s complaint about a Trump call with a foreign leader.
“The Journal reporters wrote with context and sweep and made the implications clear from the start: Trump, the lede said, wanted Zelensky to work with Rudy Giuliani ‘on a probe that could hamper Mr. Trump’s potential 2020 opponent.’ The Journal’s relentless reporting broke new ground and gave the public information that the administration had tried to keep under wraps.”
See all of the winners here.
