May 27, 2004

Newsday team receives Medill Medal for Courage

A Newsday reporter and photographer team have received the 2003 Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism and three graduates of the Medill School of Journalism were inducted into the school’s Hall of Achievement at a special ceremony last month in the McCormick Tribune Center Forum.

Nan Robertson, former New York Times reporter, 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner and Medill graduate, presented the first Medill Medal to Newsday reporter Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman for “Eight Days in an Iraqi Prison.” In that piece, McAllester documented their 2003 imprisonment by Iraqi officials at Abu Ghraib, a prison known as a site of torture and death.

McAllester detailed their living conditions and state of mind during the incarceration, as well as their interaction with their captors and determination to accurately depict modern-day Iraq. The Medill Medal is given to the individual or journalism team working for a U.S.-based media outlet that best displays moral, ethical or physical courage in the pursuit of a story.

Medill School alumni Christine Brennan, Richard Threlkeld and John Christensen were inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement.

Established in 1997, it honors Medill alumni with distinctive careers that have positive impacts on their fields. It currently has 105 members.

Brennan is a sports writer, author and sports analyst who reports on international sports, women’s athletics and athletic issues. Her regular column in USA Today makes her the most widely read female sports columnist in the nation. She broke the judging scandal in the pairs figure skating at the 2002 Olympics. Her column on the Augusta National Golf Club’s exclusion of women members prompted national debate. A winner of many journalism awards, Brennan was named by Associated Press in 2001 as one of the nation’s top 10 sports columnists.

Threlkeld, author of “Dispatches from the Former Evil Empire,” was a CBS writer, reporter, anchor and bureau chief before retiring in 1999. He was a regular contributor to many CBS broadcasts, including the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and Sunday Morning. An experienced combat reporter, he covered the Vietnam War and Persian Gulf War, as well as the U.S. invasions of Panama and Grenada. The winner of numerous awards for broadcasting, he covered the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the Patty Hearst kidnapping case and major political campaigns.

Christensen founded Christensen Advertising (chrisad), a California-based dental practice marketing agency after completing a master’s degree in advertising and marketing from Medill. He has directed advertising and public affairs for the National Guard in the states of Washington and California and managed political campaigns. He is the author of two books on dental and practice marketing.