More Laurels for Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

This morning's edition of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that three members of its staff have won National Headliner Awards. How big is this? Perhaps not as big as the Pulitzer the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel won last year for community reporting. But considering that only one other daily in the last 10 years has won three NHAs, this might be even bigger.

At a time when publishers are struggling, laying off veteran journalists and cutting page counts, the Journal-Sentinel is among that shrinking number of perseverant dailies that are finding ways to uphold the most exemplary tenets of good journalism and engage in that enterprising, investigative strain of reporting that may be discomforting but is essential to the health of our republic and its citizens.

At a time when journalists find themselves listed with lobbyists, attorneys, politicians and car salespeople among the most reviled professions, it is reassuring to see skilled and devoted journalists like Dan Egan, Jan Uebelherr and Dan Bice get their due.

Egan, who has been distinguishing himself on the Journal-Sentinel's Great Lakes beat, was recognized by the NHA judges in the environmental reporting category for his "Great Lakes, Great Peril" series. In my view, Egan's work in reporting issues related to ratification of the Great Lakes Compact and the rising tide of invasive species merits consideration for a Pulitzer and any other award that might be appropriate to bestow. His efforts to render clear and understandable some of the most complex problems confronting the Great Lakes -- and to report these stories in a fair and balanced and thorough manner -- has been that exemplary. So has the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's willingness, at a time when it has been under financial distress, to extend whatever money and time Egan needs to do such fine work.

I missed Uebelherr's series, but there's a link to it on the Journal-Sentinel's website and I look forward to savoring it. And Bice, who took the trophy for Local Interest Column, well, Bice, the Journal-Sentinel's "No Quarter" columnist, is a journalist in the tradition of those great gritty 19th and 20th-century muckrakers who have dedicated themselves to afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. Bice is the kind of journalist that people unschooled in their civic responsibility to maintain themeselves as informed citizens love to hate. Contemporary journalism needs more columnists and reporters like Bice.

The item in this morning's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel goes on to note that these are but three laurels among a cascade of recent awards that have been bestowed on the paper.

Such awards are secondary, of course, to the work itself. If they are an endorsement or recognition of effort and skill and quality, and reflect well on the employer as well as the person employed, each such award is destined to gather dust or occupy one or two lines in a journalist's c.v. Once an award is announced, it is on to the next assignment. Applause and bravos and congratulations are nevertheless due, along with gratitude from a Madison subscriber who appreciates the delivery each morning of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.