Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism

In April 2012, the Nieman Foundation presented The Los Angeles Times with the 45th annual Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism for its six-part series “Billions to Spend.” In researching the reports, the paper conducted a meticulous 18-month investigation “The Times committed 18 months to a team of journalists who tackled an unglamorous, often-overlooked topic, resulting in devastating findings that led to significant reform.”
- James Neffthat exposed waste, abuse and favoritism in a $5.7 billion program to rebuild Los Angeles’ community colleges.

Lead reporters for the Times series, Michael Finnegan and Gale Holland, accepted the award in Cambridge. They produced their stories with assistance from investigative reporter Paul Pringle, data specialists Doug Smith, Sandra Poindexter and Ben Welsh and graphics producer Raul Ranoa. The reporters interviewed more than 200 people and reviewed thousands of pages of documents that included contracts, payrolls, inspection reports and emails.

In its online presentation, the Times included a searchable database of campaign donations and construction contracts, a vidoetaped interview with the reporters and graphics that illustrate how substandard construction put students at risk.

Bingham judge and 2012 Nieman Fellow Raquel Rutledge noted, “This story was absolutely outrageous... The findings were astonishing: not just shoddy construction — ramps for the disabled too steep for wheelchairs, doors that didn’t shut, a showpiece clock that tilted to the side — but nepotism, waste and corruption that cost taxpayers millions and short-shrifted tens of
Michael Finnegan


Gale Hollandthousands of students. I’m thrilled to honor this series with the Worth Bingham Prize.”

Bingham judge James Neff added, “The Times committed 18 months to a team of journalists who tackled an unglamorous, often-overlooked topic, resulting in devastating findings that led to significant reform.”

The Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism honors investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is being ill-served. Judges are guided by such factors as obstacles overcome in getting information, accuracy, clarity of analysis and writing style, magnitude of the situation, and impact on the public, including any reforms that may have resulted.

Judges for this year’s prize were James Neff, investigations editor at The Seattle Times, who oversaw the series “Seniors for Sale: Exploiting the aged and frail in Washington's adult family homes,” which won the 2010 Bingham Prize; Walter Robinson, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University who spent more than 30 years at The Boston Globe as both a reporter and editor and led the investigative team at the Globe that won the 2002 Bingham Prize for “Abuse in the Catholic Church”; and Raquel Rutledge, an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a 2012 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University who won the 2009 Bingham Prize for her series “Cashing in on Kids.”

2012 Nieman Fellow Kristen Lombardi, a staff writer for the Center for Public Integrity, and 2012 Nieman affiliate John Diedrich, a reporter who covers federal courts for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, assisted the Bingham judges in the selection process.

Bingham Prize award ceremony is made possible each year by the generous support of Joan and Clara Bingham, Worth Bingham’s wife and daughter.