IC News

The Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College has announced that this year’s Izzy Award “for outstanding achievement in independent media” will be shared by a publication and three journalists who undertook path-breaking and in-depth reporting in 2018. Earth Island Journal highlighted the connections between environmental degradation, women and indigenous peoples; Laura Flanders provided progressive and internationalist perspectives to American audiences; Dave Lindorff uncovered the opaqueness of Pentagon accounts and bloated military budgets; and Aaron Maté exposed the hollowness and hyperbole of the so-called Russiagate scandal.

The presentation of the Izzy Awards will take place on Monday, April 15, at 7 p.m. in Emerson Suites. The event is free and open to the public.

Earth Island Journal
The Autumn 2018 issue of Earth Island Journal on Women and the Environment brought to light the often-overlooked connections between environmental rights and women’s rights. The Journal published hard-hitting articles on the impact of fracking “man camps” on indigenous women; the grave threats faced by female environmental defenders in South America; the tireless efforts of behind-the-scenes female climate advocates, scientists and policymakers; and the grassroots struggles to address systemic harassment and violence within the U.S. food system.

“Earth Island’s special issue on women in the environmental movement was a breath of fresh air,” said the Izzy judges. “It presented a rare showcase of the powerful influence of women leaders and activists around the globe. More importantly, it brought disturbing attention to the gendered obstacles and dangers these women continually confront on a scale that men in the movement don’t face. Earth Island’s concentrated focus on these women’s stories is not only exceptional but unparalleled.”

Earth Island Journal is edited by Maureen Nandini Mitra and Zoe Loftus Farren.

Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders has been producing on a regular basis forward-looking media that investigate policies that drive racism, sexism and economic exclusion. The author of six books and the host and executive producer of her own syndicated television show, she has explored alternative models and movements that could shift the economy, culture and political terrain often overlooked by mainstream media. Among other topics, in 2018 “The Laura Flanders Show” presented special video reports on community wealth building and the rise of the Labour Party in the UK. Her show’s motto: “The place where the people who say it can’t be done take a backseat to the people who are doing it.”

“Laura Flanders’ TV shows have always been filled with the kind of stimulating analyses and insights missing in so much other media coverage,” noted the judges. “But what she’s been especially good at recently is fleshing out the narratives around grassroots-driven solutions to our economy and politics. Her reporting on how Britain’s Preston Model of community wealth building is influencing American activists, along with the British Labour Party’s transformation into a more modern, U.S.-influenced populist movement, spotlights the globalization of ordinary people rising to take control of their political and economic lives.”

Dave Lindorff
Dave Lindorff spent months investigating the Pentagon’s annual financial reports and funding requests to Congress, and found it has been simply making up the numbers, thereby making Pentagon expenditures opaque and misleading. His detailed report for The Nation was cited by politicians and academics in 2018, and provides a solid basis for public debate around the issue.

“Amid federal cuts to vital social programs,” said the judges, “Dave Lindorff’s exposé revealed that not only is the Pentagon budget bloated, but it’s also unaccountable — apparently by design. His in-depth report on the Defense Department’s shady accounting practices raised questions about ever-increasing military spending, fostered by bookkeeping too muddled to be reliably audited.”

Lindorff has been an investigative journalist for 47 years and is the founder of the collectively run, journalist-owned alternative news site This Can’t be Happening!