2013 Investigative Reporting for Print/Online (Large Staff) Second Prize: The Boston Globe Staff

Evan Dobelle (TIE)

Judges’ Comments

“Well executed. The detail about him leaving his subordinate at the hotel while he went out and partied in San Francisco did it for me. The reporters stuck to the facts and didn’t get caught up in this guy’s diversion tactics (“The police chief wants to do me in!”). I also think this series was really thorough….not only did they give a run-down of the botched hiring process, the board’s lack of accountability and the dude’s shenanigans, they followed through all the way until he resigned. They kept going after him.”

“Well-written pieces about a state university president gone rogue. But the series went further than writing strictly about Dobelle’s fantastic spending patterns to point out flaws in state oversight of university spending and the poor vetting of Dobelle by university trustees — who somehow were confident enough in their choice to overlook another university’s firing in the hiring process. Proper due diligence might have saved Westfield from a lot of trouble.”