WTMJ wins Walter Cronkite Award for pandemic unemployment investigation
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CINCINNATI, June 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For journalism that seeks truth, examines inequities, serves the public and demonstrates the indispensability of a free and trustworthy press, WTMJ, the Milwaukee-based NBC station owned by The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP), has won a Walter Cronkite Award for its 2020 investigative series, "Unemployment System Collapse."
During its monthslong investigation launched in March 2020, the TMJ4 I-Team regularly reported on Wisconsin's overly complicated and neglected unemployment system, which collapsed under the pressure of the pandemic. The team's investigation found that policies implemented years before, coupled with missteps made early in the pandemic, led to thousands of people being stuck waiting for unemployment benefits, some becoming homeless in the process.