The White House Correspondents’ Association has announced its 2015 award winners.
WHCA president Christi Parsons: “For the Aldo Beckman Memorial Award, which recognizes repeated excellence in White House coverage, the winner is Peter Baker of The New York Times. Baker won the Merriman Smith Memorial Award in 2014.
“Baker’s pieces are written with depth, insight and authority. He uses his longevity on the beat to give his stories the historic context that lifts them beyond the crush of daily coverage. Strong reporting makes for good writing, as Baker shows time and again. Iraq, he writes, is the ‘graveyard of American ambition.’
“The Merriman Smith Memorial Award, which recognizes deadline work in both print and broadcast, goes to Josh Lederman of the Associated Press [‘Fence Jumper’] and Jim Avila of ABC News [‘Cuba/Alan Gross’].
“The Edgar A. Poe Award, which recognizes coverage of news of national or regional significance, is shared by Carol A. Leonnig of The Washington Post [Secret Service], and The Wall Street Journal team of Gary Fields, John R. Emshwiller, Rob Barry and Coulter Jones [‘America’s Rap Sheet’ series].”
Special mention to Scott Horsley of National Public Radio for his creative coverage of White House policies and politics.