Seattle Times Wins 5 CB Blethen Awards

A warm Inquisitr congratulations goes to The Seattle Times. The newspaper yesterday won no less than five C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Newspaper Reporting, three of which were first-place awards.

The paper won the top gongs for investigative reporting, enterprise reporting, and consumer-affairs reporting, and came second for feature writing and coverage of diversity. Only The Oregonian in Portland could match five awards; in total, awards were given to writers from a dozen daily newspapers in the region.

Seattle Times reporters Ken Armstrong and Jonathan Martin won the enterprise reporting prize for a series called “The Other Side of Mercy,” an account of the fatal shootings of four Lakewood police officers in 2009. Awarding the duo the top prize, the judges noted, “This is a story that could only be told with first-rate journalists given the space they need to go long.”

Meanwhile, reporter Christine Willmsen received the Debby Lowman Award for distinguished reporting of consumer affairs for her revealing piece on so-called ‘loan wolf’ Emiel Kandi, titled “Lender of Last Resort: I am a Wolf.”

Finally, the investigative reporting award was clinched by reporter Michael J. Berens for his six-part series, “Seniors for Sale,” an exposé of problems in Seattle’s adult family homes. Judges noted the impact of the piece: “Caregivers were sentenced to jail time, government-agency heads were fired and the legislature passed new laws to better monitor adult homes and regulate referral agencies.”

The annual awards were established in 1977 in honor of C.B. Blethen, publisher of The Seattle Times from 1915 to 1941.