AUSTIN, Texas — KVUE and the Austin American-Statesman's Tony Plohetski has been selected as one of two journalists to be honored with one of the School of Journalism and Media at the Moody College of Communication's inaugural Dan Rather Medals.
This annual competition at The University of Texas at Austin aims to recognize professional and collegiate journalists for courage in their reporting.
Plohetski was selected for his work in reporting developments in the case of Javier Ambler, a man who died at the hands of Williamson County deputies after leading them on a chase, crashing his car, and then being tased after stating that he could not breathe.
Madeleine Davison, a recent Syracuse University graduate, was also selected for her story "Care and Capital."
"The medals are designed to lift up journalists who risk it all to tell tough truths. These award winners are the walking definition of courage in reporting and have set a very high bar for putting it all on the line in their work," Rather said. "I hope that other journalists will join me in celebrating Tony Plohetski and Madeleine Davison and be inspired to dig deep for their own courage. There has never been a more important time for our democracy to have both news and guts."
The judges commended Plohetski's on three stories related to Ambler as a "great example of dogged reporting." Through his "extraordinary" reporting, they said he created a "compelling, rich narrative that strikes just the right tone between sorrow and outrage."
“Dan Rather was a fixture in our house when I was growing up. His authentic, direct style influenced my understanding of what journalism should be and the positive societal changes it can create,” Plohetski said. “A reality is that we must often surface stories of tremendous pain and potential injustice. Such reporting is only possible when people place their trust in us as the family of Javier Ambler II and others did.”
The professional judges panel included Barbara Allen (Poynter), Tom Bettag (University of Maryland), Kathleen McElroy (University of Texas), Earnest L. Perry (University of Missouri) and James Rada (Ithaca College).
The collegiate judges panel included: Tristan Ahtone (Texas Observer), Jeff Cohen (Arnold Ventures), Sonni Efron (National Press Foundation), Rosa Flores (CNN) and Courtney Norris (PBS Newshour).
This year's competition was open to content produced in 2020. There was no fee to enter and collegiate and professional winners were awarded $5,000 each. They were selected from a pool of four finalists in each category.
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