Former Tecumseh Herald writer awarded Pulitzer
By MICKEY ALVARADO
“My Two Cents” Herald columnist and reporter Chris Hawley began his career in journalism as a summer intern at the Tecumseh Herald in 1991. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday, April 16, 2012 for being a writer involved in a Associated Press series of stories dealing with how New York police, with the help of a CIA official, created a secretive surveillance program to monitor Muslim neighborhoods, businesses and houses of worship.
Hawley, Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman and Eileen Sullivan, were awarded the Pulitzer on behalf of the Associated Press for Journalism, Investigative Reporting Story. The reporters were cited for their spotlighting of the New York Police Department’s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities, resulting in congressional calls for a federal investigation, and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence gathering.
The same investigative series also won the Goldsmith Award, the Edgar A. Poe, and the Polk award given by the White House Correspondents.
In a video posted on usatoday.com, Associated Press Senior Vice President, Executive Editor, Kathleen Carroll said the reporters pulled the thread of a lead they got during the reporting of another story until everything eventually unraveled and became documented.
“We kept reporting on stories of secret operations that no one in the city of New York or anywhere else knew about,” said Carroll. “They uncovered a secret operation that no one would have known about if it weren’t for the work of these folks. And that is what I’m most proud about.”
Chris Hawley’s father, Wayne, contacted the Tecumseh Herald the day after his son received the distinguished Pulitzer Prize and said, “Thank you for the experience you gave him at the Herald.”
In his first Herald column, June 20, 1991, Chris opened with, “It is a long way from the limitless shoreline of my hometown to the hilly forests of Tecumseh, a long journey of miles and memories. There were roads to travel, remembrances to ponder last Sunday as I shifted my little Renault into high and took the soft curve of the highway south toward a new home.”
Chris moved to the area from Harbor Beach and lived in Chelsea while interning at the Herald through the summer. Chris left for Bowling Green State University in the fall where he received a full academic scholarship.
Chris went on to work for USA Today as the Latin American Bureau Chief and won the 2009 Maria Moors Cabot Prize, a career achievement award for his reporting from abroad.
