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The Arizona Mirror took home eight awards in the inaugural Arizona Media Association Better Newspapers Contest, leading its division in the number of honors in 2024.
The Mirror, which has been covering Arizona politics and government since 2018, took home awards for its coverage of abortion, Kari Lake’s election challenge, homelessness, Indigenous victims of Medicaid fraud, extremism and disparate pay at the state Capitol.
“It’s an honor to see the Arizona Mirror’s great work recognized, but it’s no surprise,” Chris Fitzsimon, publisher of States Newsroom, said. “Our reporters and editors at the Mirror, and at all of our States Newsroom outlets, work tirelessly to cover the local news that matters most to readers.”
Arizona Mirror is a member of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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Jerod MacDonald-Evoy won top honors for best news story for his dogged reporting on the money Arizona State University spent providing security for a white nationalist who spoke on campus in 2022.
More than a year after the event, ASU finally provided MacDonald-Evoy with public records showing that the school spent more than $11,000 on equipment, police and outside security firms to ensure that white nationalist Jared Taylor and the Republican student group that invited him to campus were kept safe amid protests of the event.
Mirror Editor in Chief Jim Small also took home a first place award for best column writing for a series of commentaries he wrote in early 2024 about the response from Republican lawmakers to the Arizona Supreme Court reinstating an 1864 near-total abortion ban. The columns were about GOP ecstacy about suddenly halting abortion in the Grand Canyon State, the easy-to-foresee health consequences of Republicans dragging their feet to repeal the Civil War-era law and the political consequences of abortion being thrust front-and-center in voters’ minds during an election year.
Small also won third place for a collection of columns on a variety of subjects, including the politics behind Gov. Katie Hobbs’ proposed budget, how the fealty of Republicans to Donald Trump doomed needed immigration reforms and a detailed look at why U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema wasn’t going to seek reelection in 2024.
Caitlin Sievers, the Mirror’s deputy editor, earned a second place in the best sustained coverage category for her in-depth coverage of Kari Lake’s second trial in her unsuccessful bid to overturn her 2022 election loss. Sievers both covered the blow-by-blow of the trial and explained complex legal issues to readers, including how Lake’s attorneys were unprepared to argue her case and how her legal arguments all but guaranteed she wouldn’t be able to win.
And Shondiin Silversmith, who covers Indigenous affairs, also was awarded a second place in the best narrative writing category for her powerful reporting on Operation Rainbow Bridge, the Navajo Nation’s outreach effort to tribal members who were victimized by sober living home fraudsters. Silversmith shadowed Navajo Nation police officers as they scoured the Valley for victims so they could provide them with needed services and, in many cases, help reunite them with their families.
Gloria Rebecca Gomez’s coverage of the reinstatement of the 1864 abortion ban, its impact on health care providers and patients, and the resulting political fallout at the state Capitol and on the campaign trail, took home a third place for best sustained coverage.
Her reporting detailed the repeated and concerted efforts by Republican lawmakers to defend the Civil War-era law and block an effort — which was ultimately successful — to repeal it. Gomez also wrote about how the court ruling, and the GOP resistance to ensure Arizonans maintained access to reproductive health care, spurred political action and protests.
MacDonald-Evoy also was awarded with a third place in the enterprise reporting category for his deep dive into the Valley’s homelessness crisis in a story that profiled a man who assists the unhoused and a veteran who turned her life around after he helped her.
And Small’s analysis of legislative pay that found a massive disparity in payments to lawmakers who live in Maricopa County and those who don’t won a third place in the investigative reporting category.
The Mirror’s eight awards were tied for first in its division in the contest, equaling the journalism honors received by the Casa Grande Dispatch.