Brett Blackledge

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Brett J. Blackledge (born 1963) is former editor of

Washington D.C.[citation needed] While working for The Birmingham News, he won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for a series on alleged nepotism and cronyism in Alabama's two-year college system.[citation needed
]

Blackledge was born in

The Mobile Register. He went to work for The Birmingham News in 1998.[1]

While with the News, Blackledge contributed to Alabama AP Managing Editors Association Award-winning stories on the 2003 conviction of Bobby Frank Cherry for the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.[2]

Blackledge's multi-part investigative series on the two-year colleges delved deeply into financial records kept by the system, exposing a number of elected lawmakers on the system's payroll without clear duties.[citation needed] The system's chancellor was fired, federal and state investigations opened, and new safeguards for public accountability promised in the wake of the exposé.[citation needed] The series earned Blackledge a 2006 Alabama Associated Press Association Award.[3] The newspaper entered the multi-part special report for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and it was named a finalist in that category before the committee awarded it the prize for investigative reporting instead.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ "About the Author Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine" page for the Birmingham News special report on Two-Year College Corruption.
  2. ^ "Alabama Associated Press Managing Editors Association 2003 Contest Winners Archived 2011-06-14 at the Wayback Machine".
  3. ^ "2006 Alabama Associated Press Association Award Winners Archived 2011-06-14 at the Wayback Machine"

External links