AHCJ member Michael Berens and Ken Armstrong, reporters at The Seattle Times, received the 2012 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for a three-part series called “Methadone and the Politics of Pain.”
The University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism awards the $35,000 prize every year for investigative coverage.
Judges congratulated Berens and Armstrong for their “thorough and groundbreaking reporting on how more than 2,000 people in Washington state have fatally overdosed on the painkiller methadone.”
Following publication, state officials issued warnings against methadone’s use as a pain management drug and indicated for the first time that it should be used only as a last resort.
