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On Tuesday, June 8, Julie Jargon was pronounced the winner of the prestigious Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the category of national reporting. The contest, sponsored by the University of Michigan journalism school, is limited to journalists under the age of 35 working in a variety of media, including television, daily papers and weeklies; judges included Jill Abramson, managing editor for news at the New York Times; CNN’s Christiane Amanpour; Ken Auletta, communications columnist for the New Yorker; Tom Brokaw; syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman and 60 Minutes‘s Mike Wallace.
At an awards ceremony in New York City, Wallace presented Jargon with her award, citing her dogged investigative efforts in breaking the Air Force Academy sex-assault scandal. Jargon’s original story, “The War Within,” was published in the January 30, 2003, issue of Westword; her winning package included several other stories in her ongoing coverage of the academy. Earlier this year, Jargon’s Air Force Academy series also took first place for weeklies in the national Investigative Reporters & Editors contest.
Jargon, whose career at Westword began when she was a high school intern in 1993, joined the paper as a staff writer in 1999. Her last piece in the Air Force Academy series, “It Won’t Fly” appeared in the May 27 issue of Westword; she is moving to Chicago this month.
All of Jargon’s winning stories are available online at www.westword.com.