The Ridenhour Prizes
Encyclopedia
The Ridenhour Prizes comprise awards in three categories given annually in recognition of those "who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society." The awards are presented by The Nation Institute and The Fertel Foundation in recognition of Ron Ridenhour, the Vietnam War
veteran who exposed the massacre at My Lai. Each Prize carries a $10,000 stipend. The Prizes were first awarded in 2004.
The prize categories include:
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran who exposed the massacre at My Lai. Each Prize carries a $10,000 stipend. The Prizes were first awarded in 2004.
The prize categories include:
- The Ridenhour Courage Prize
- The Ridenhour Book Prize
- The Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize
The Ridenhour Courage Prize
- 2004 - Daniel EllsbergDaniel EllsbergDaniel Ellsberg, PhD, is a former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War,...
- 2005 - Seymour HershSeymour HershSeymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
- 2006 - Gloria SteinemGloria SteinemGloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
- 2007 - Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
- 2008 - Bill MoyersBill MoyersBill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
- 2009 - Bob HerbertBob HerbertRobert “Bob” Herbert is an American journalist op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times. His column was syndicated to other newspapers around the country. Herbert frequently writes on poverty, the Iraq war, racism and American political apathy towards race issues...
The Ridenhour Book Prize
- 2004 - Deborah ScrogginsDeborah ScrogginsDeborah Scroggins is an American journalist and author. A graduate of Tulane University and Columbia University, she was a reporter and editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1987 to 1998...
, for Emma's War: An Aid Worker, Radical Islam, and the Politics of Oil – A True Story of Love and Death in the Sudan - 2005 - Adrian Nicole LeBlancAdrian Nicole LeBlancAdrian Nicole LeBlanc is an American journalist whose works focus on the marginalized members of society: adolescents living in poverty, prostitutes, women in prison, etc. She is best known for her 2003 non-fiction book Random Family...
, for Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx - 2006 - Anthony ShadidAnthony ShadidAnthony Shadid is a foreign correspondent for The New York Times based in Baghdad and Beirut. He has won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010.-Career:...
, for Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War - 2007 - Rajiv ChandrasekaranRajiv ChandrasekaranRajiv Chandrasekaran is an Indian-American journalist. He is currently the National Editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1994...
, for Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, - 2008 - James ScurlockJames ScurlockJames Duncan Scurlock is an American director, producer, writer and financial adviser. He is probably best-known for his critically acclaimed documentary Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders and his award winning book, Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy...
, for Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit - 2009 - Jane MayerJane MayerJane Mayer is an American investigative journalist who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1995...
, for The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into A War on American Ideals
The Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize
- 2004 - Joseph WilsonJoseph C. WilsonJoseph Charles Wilson IV is a former United States diplomat best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium; his New York Times op-ed piece, "What I Didn't Find in Africa"; and the subsequent "outing" of his wife...
- 2005 - Kristen BreitweiserKristen BreitweiserKristen Breitweiser is a lawyer and one of the Jersey Girls, four women from New Jersey who were widowed when their husbands were killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks and subsequently researched the policy and intelligence failures that led up to the attacks. She was a member of the Family...
- 2006 - Rick S. PiltzRick S. PiltzRick Piltz is a former senior associate in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. In March 2005, he resigned over political interference in the program's climate change reports. In June 2005, the New York Times exposed the role of Philip Cooney in editing government documents on climate change to...
- 2007 - Donald VanceDonald VanceDonald Vance is an American Navy veteran who was held in detention at Camp Cropper, the United States military's maximum-security detention site in Baghdad for 97 days beginning in April 2006. On December 18, 2006, Vance filed suit against the US government and the former US Secretary of Defense,...
- 2008 - Matthew DiazMatthew DiazMatthew Mark Diaz is a former active-duty Lieutenant Commander and Judge Advocate General's Corps officer in the United States Navy. In mid-to-late 2004, Diaz served a six month tour of duty in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as deputy director of the detention center's legal office...
- 2009 - Thomas TammThomas TammThomas Tamm is a former lawyer in the United States Department of Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review during the period in 2004 when senior Justice officials fought against the widening scope of warrantless NSA surveillance—and was the anonymous initial whistleblower to The...
- 2010 - Matthew Hoh
- 2011 - Thomas Andrews DrakeThomas Andrews DrakeThomas Andrews Drake is a former senior official of the U.S. National Security Agency , decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, computer software expert, linguist, management and leadership specialist, and whistleblower. In 2010 the government alleged that he 'mishandled'...