The Berger Award, named after the late New York Times reporter Meyer “Mike” Berger, is awarded to a reporter(s) for an outstanding example of in-depth, human interest reporting.
2023 Mike Berger Award Winner
2023 Berger Award Jurors’ Citation:
Lynzy Billing is the winner of the 2023 Meyer “Mike” Berger Award for her ProPublica story entitled, “The Night Raids,” about CIA-directed death squads called “Zero Units” in Afghanistan that killed countless hundreds. Often raids were based on staggeringly flawed intelligence and resulted in scores of executions--farmers, students, and teachers with no connection to the Taliban. For over three years, working solo for most of them, Billing did diligent shoe-leather reporting across dangerous swaths of Afghanistan.
She takes the reader into the shadows of the U.S. war on terrorism that accomplished the opposite of what was intended. “You go on night raids, make more enemies, then you gotta go on more night raids for the more enemies you now have to kill,” a member of the U.S. special operations forces told Billing, about his regularly going out with Zero Units.
It began as a personal quest. Billing’s mother and twin sister were killed thirty years earlier in a night raid in the civil war that followed the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Her father later died in the conflict. She soon learned about the Zero Units, and visited the sites of 30 raids. She interviewed doctors, forensic examiners, eyewitnesses, and family members of civilians shot point-blank. She gained the trust of Afghan commandos who questioned their actions, and interviewed the former Afghan spy chief who admitted to raids being conducted on flawed intelligence. Billing’s gripping and powerfully written story echoes the CIA-spawned “Phoenix Program” during the Vietnam War that also killed innocents. “The Night Raids” should be read by U.S. citizens so they know what is being done in their name, as well as everyone at the CIA’s Langley, Virginia, headquarters.
Read the full announcement.
How to Enter
The Berger Award is now closed for nominations.
About
Members of the faculty of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism judge the entries. The award, which consists of a certificate from Columbia and a $1,500 prize, is conferred annually at the School’s Journalism Day ceremony in May.
Berger won a 1950 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for his story on a veteran who went on a shooting spree in Camden, New Jersey, killing several residents. He then reintroduced the newspaper’s “About New York” column in the early 1950s, setting the standard for evocative and eloquent human interest reporting. Berger passed away in 1959. Louis Schweitzer, a New York industrialist who admired Berger’s work, created the Berger Award in 1960.
Past Winners
See past winners:
|
Year |
Name |
Organization |
Work |
Judges |
| 2021 | Joe Sexton | ProPublica | “He’d Waited Decades to Argue His Innocence" | Joanne Faryon, Meg Kissinger, Dale Maharidge |
| 2020 | Thomas Curwen and Francine Orr | Los Angeles Times | “The Street Within,” an immersive series that followed eight residents of a homeless encampment who were fast-tracked to apartments in South Los Angeles. | Joanne Faryon, Meg Kissinger, Dale Maharidge |
| 2019 | Terrence McCoy | The Washington Post | A series on Americans who were challenged in deeply personal ways by some of the most significant political and social issues of the day including the opioid crisis and immigration: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | Joanne Faryon, Meg Kissinger, Dale Maharidge |
| 2018 | John Woodrow Cox | The Washington Post | A series on children affected by gun violence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | David Hajdu, Meg Kissinger, Karen Stabiner |
| 2017 | Eli Saslow | The Washington Post | A series showcasing pockets of suffering in white America: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | David Hajdu, Dale Maharidge, Paula Span |
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2016 |
Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller |
The Marshall Project and ProPublica |
David Hajdu, Dale Maharidge and Ruth Padawer |
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2015 |
Joanne Faryon and Brad Racino |
inewsource |
“An Impossible Choice: Deciding When a Life is No Longer Worth Living” |
Andie Tucher, David Hajdu and Dale Maharidge |
|
2014 |
Julia O’Malley |
Anchorage Daily News |
Andie Tucher, David Hajdu and Jonathan Weiner |
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2013 |
Sheri Fink |
Freelance |
A series of pieces exploring the catastrophic consequences of bureaucratic, structural, and political failures during the deadly hurricane season of 2012. |
David Hajdu, Michael Shapiro and Andie Tucher |
|
2012 |
John Branch |
New York Times |
Sheila Coronel, Andie Tucher and Dale Maharidge |
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2011 |
Anne Barnard |
New York Times |
Columbia Journalism School Faculty |
|
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2010 |
Joanna Connors |
The Plain Dealer |
Columbia Journalism School Faculty |
|
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2009 |
Brendan McCarthy |
Times-Picayune |
Columbia Journalism School Faculty |
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2008 |
Michael Paulson |
The Boston Globe |
Columbia Journalism School Faculty |
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2007 |
Abigail Tucker |
The Baltimore Sun |
2006 Reporting |
Columbia Journalism School Faculty |
For a full list of past recipients, click here (PDF).
Judges
The Berger Award is judged by Columbia Journalism School faculty.
Contact
212-854-6468
[email protected]
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