Maybe there is some justice in this world after all. "The Insurance Hoax"--a pure hatchet job in the September 2007 issue of "Bloomberg Markets" that indicted the entire insurance industry for its claims-handling practices--did not win the prestigious Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting, given out by the New York City Deadline Club--an affiliate of The Society Of Professional Journalists.
When I heard about this flawed and biased piece being nominated (click here for my blog about it on April 3), I filed a formal letter of protest with the Deadline Club, to which I belong. The Insurance Information Institute also wrote to complain about how the industry's side of the story was given short-shrift, and how numerous errors in the article were pointed out, yet a correction or clarification was never published.
At the very least, the publication should have offered Bob Hartwig, president of the Institute, or some other industry spokesperson an opportunity to write a counterpoint article, but Bloomberg just didn't seem to be interested in fairness or objectivity here. They didn't want to let the facts get in the way of a juicy story.
Had this article won the award, it would have reemphasized all that is wrong with journalism today. Although it was a shame that this article was even a finalist for an award named in honor of Daniel Pearl, who died in his courageous practice of investigative journalism, at least Bloomberg's effort was not rewarded further.
In case you are interested, the winner was the New York Daily News for its investigative story, “School Bus Disgrace.” Congratulations to them.
