Dylan Brogan
As part of his coverage on Madison's Black Lives Matter protests, Dylan Brogan reported how Black youth had developed their own system of crowd control at nighttime protests.
Despite massive organizational disruption due to a global pandemic, Isthmus continued its tradition of award-winning journalism, landing seven Milwaukee Press Club awards for 2020 content.
Dylan Brogan brought home two gold awards from the statewide competition, including for his coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests in the category of Best Coverage of a Single News Topic or Event Including Breaking News. He put in countless hours on the street to make sure he got the details right, spoke to multiple sources and produced fair coverage. In case you missed any of the stories, here are some: Peaceful protest, then pepper spray; Who is to blame?; “This is not a riot, this is a revolution”; “Fire Matt Kenny”; Statues toppled, senator punched; “No bad protesters. No good cops”.
Brogan also won the top prize for his story on the last night at Visions, the troubled strip club, which also looked at the history of strip clubs in Madison and whether adult entertainment was facing extinction in the city.
And he won a silver for Best Long Hard Feature Story for his pre-presidential election piece, A swing through divided Wisconsin.
Linda Falkenstein was recognized with a bronze in the Best Multi-Story Coverage of a Single Feature Topic or Event for her coverage of food access during COVID-19. The pandemic exacerbated food insecurity and Linda made sure to chronicle the impacts in the Madison area and how social service organizations were responding to the greater need. Here are some of the pieces she did: The old fashioned way; Sales up for small meat farmers; No surplus; Eating alone; “We will open again”; Crisis has improved the system.
Arts writer Gwendolyn Rice won for Best Critical Review for the second year in a row, this year landing silver for her review of Forward Theater’s Every Brilliant Thing. Erica Krug won bronze for Pretty catchy, her snapshot on the UW-Madison’s fishing team.
And Dave Cieslewicz won a bronze in the Best Long Hard Feature Story category for his profile of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which noted the conservative law firm’s growing influence. It was a prescient piece with critics warning that the group’s goal was to turn back the clock 100 years and overturn the administrative state. Since then WILL has pursued cases on hot-button social issues and recently filed suit against the Biden administration, charging that its COVID relief program for restaurants gives preference to establishments owned by “certain minorities and women, while bumping white males and other minorities to the back of the line.”