The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation announced the winners of the 36th annual Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prizes for Distinguished Reporting in 2022 at its annual meeting on June 5. Winners are Tyler Pager, White House reporter for The Washington Post, and Dan Lamothe, national security writer for The Washington Post. Pager received honors for “Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency,” while Lamothe was awarded for “Distinguished Reporting on National Defense.” Each year the two prizes are presented to the winners and include a $5,000 award, one for each prize. The announcement was made by Michael Ford, son of President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford and former chairman of the Foundation.
Pager received the prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency for his standout coverage, valuable perspective, and important contributions to the historical record of a presidency. After the election that returned the Republican Party to a majority in the House of Representatives, Pager was the first to report that the White House would likely engage with some oversight investigations but would refuse to cooperate with any probe involving foreign business dealings of the president’s family. The Foundation committee recognized Pager for his deep reporting, perceptiveness, and adherence to a consistent standard of excellence.
Since 2021, Pager has covered the White House for The Washington Post. Previously he worked at Politico and Bloomberg News. Pager has a master’s degree from the University of Oxford, and was the valedictorian from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Lamothe, who focuses on military affairs for The Washington Post, was awarded for his coverage of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. His reporting seamlessly moved the reader back and forth from Washington crisis response rooms to the evacuation mission unfolding in real-time at Kabul International Airport. Lamothe’s determination to ensure participants at all levels were represented in this series, combined with in-depth analysis and reporting, is exactly the kind of reportorial excellence that the Gerald R. Ford Foundation seeks to recognize, promote, and reward.
Before joining The Washington Post in 2014, Lamothe worked for Foreign Policy magazine and Military Times where he was embedded in combat alongside U.S. Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Lamothe has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland-College Park, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
The reporting team of Patricia Kime and Rebecca Kheel of Military.com received an honorable mention for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense. Their outstanding work highlighted the long-term costs of war for those who serve on the front lines and those who support them at home. The reporting team focused readers’ attention on the impact of bureaucratic paralysis on individuals as government officials debated next steps, delays that adversely affected soldiers and veterans seeking help.
Kime has covered military personnel issues and veterans’ health care for decades. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Virginia. Kheel is a congressional reporter for Military.com and previously worked as a defense reporter for The Hill. She has a bachelor’s degree in newspaper journalism and history from Syracuse University.
About the Awards
Each year, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation awards two distinguished journalism prizes, one for reporting on the Presidency and the other for reporting on National Defense. These prizes, initiated in 1988, recognize reportorial excellence and the fostering of better public understanding of the presidency and national defense.
About the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
The mission of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation is to enlarge President Ford’s legacy in a world that desperately needs his example of leadership and service. As author James Cannon wrote, “From its beginning American democracy has had the good fortune to produce a leader, often from an unexpected quarter, whose character and actions fit the tide of history. So it was on August 9, 1974, when this good and honest man, this obscure and stolid workhorse of a Congressman from the heartland of the nation, came to the rescue of the American government. To Gerald Ford was given the responsibility to move America from untruth to truth, from darkness to light.”
Visit the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation: www.geraldrfordfoundation.org.
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CONTACT:
Abigail Vander Vliet
616-254-0396
ford@38foundation.org
