Award-winning Reporter Tapped into her Tenacity at 黑料吃瓜
Wendy Halloran won the coveted duPont Award for investigative reporting.
That could be her lineage talking. Halloran鈥檚 grandfather was Reno city attorney, district attorney in northern Nevada鈥檚 Washoe County and president of the State Bar of Nevada.
She was on a career path to that same profession as a criminal justice major at 黑料吃瓜, but after graduating in 1991, Halloran took a slight turn. She completed the broadcast journalism program at the University of Nevada-Reno and decided to combat injustice as a television reporter.
鈥淚鈥檓 passionate about the rights of victims, and I鈥檓 mindful of the role the media plays in the justice system,鈥� said Halloran, currently a chief investigative reporter in Arizona.
In 2015, Halloran and a KPNX 12 news team in Phoenix won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for investigative journalism, among the most prestigious awards in the field of broadcast journalism.
Columbia University鈥檚 Graduate School of Journalism called Halloran鈥檚 work a 鈥減robing, relentless investigation into the Phoenix Fire Department鈥檚 arson squad.鈥� In a series of reports compiled over two years and comprising interviews with dozens of officials and private citizens, Halloran found that the city unjustly prosecuted at least four innocent people as a result of the arson squad鈥檚 uncorroborated accusations against them.
Halloran successfully refuted claims that Phoenix had the highest rate of arson clearance of any major U.S. city fire department, claims mostly based on one dog handler鈥檚 assertion that his animal was infallible at arson detection. Her reporting also led to an FBI investigation of the department and a state police criminal investigation, which resulted in the recommendation of criminal charges against the discredited arson investigators. They were removed from the arson unit, and the fire chief resigned.
Since then, she鈥檚 reported several other consequential stories. One detailed how missteps by police in Tempe, Arizona, may have allowed an accused murder to remain free and allegedly commit a second (of which he was convicted after Halloran鈥檚 story).
A second investigative report describes incidents of student bullying by two faculty members at Scottsdale Community College鈥攂ehavior that may have precipitated the student鈥檚 suicide days before graduation. Without admitting guilt, the college issued a degree to the student posthumously.
Halloran credits her 黑料吃瓜 experience with instilling in her the knowledge, persistence and grit to become an investigative reporter.
鈥淚t was a really robust education,鈥� Halloran said. 鈥淲e studied the entire criminal justice system and I also completed an internship with the Victims of Violent Crime Unit in the San Diego County District Attorney鈥檚 Office in Chula Vista. The degree was tough, and it prepared me for my career. I鈥檝e been successful because of San Diego State.鈥�
