Times Reporters Win Goldsmith Prize

The prestigious Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting was awarded Wednesday to a team of reporters from the Los Angeles Times for their coverage of large contributions to the Democratic Party by influential Asian donors.

The Times’ “Money from Asia” series triggered numerous investigations, forced the Democrats to return nearly $1.2 million in donations, and sparked a national cry for campaign finance reform. The issue has also spawned a nationwide debate about the fund-raising practices of the Clinton administration.

The Goldsmith Awards Program, launched in 1991, is aimed at encouraging a more insightful, spirited public debate about government, politics and the press.

It carries a $25,000 prize and is administered by Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, which is a wing of the university’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The program also presents a book prize (although no book was singled out this year) and a career award for excellence in journalism that went to Barbara Walters of ABC News.

“Good, solid investigative journalism is alive and well,” said Marvin Kalb, director of the center. “It doesn’t need any subterfuge. It needs only legwork, intelligence and diligence to succeed.”

The Times series was reported by staff writers based in the paper’s national and foreign bureaus, and on the metropolitan and business staffs in Los Angeles.

The principal staff members involved were Alan C. Miller, Glenn F. Bunting, Sara Fritz, Rone Tempest, Maggie Farley, Connie Kang, Evelyn Iritani, Jim Mann and Rich Connell.

Other finalists for the prize were reporters from the Wall Street Journal, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Boston Globe and the Kansas City Star.