Zach Dorfman and Jenna McLaughlin of Yahoo! News have been named recipients of the 32nd annual Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting in 2018.
Dorfman, a senior fellow at Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and contributor for Yahoo! News, and McLaughlin, who reports on national security for Yahoo! News, received the Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense in recognition of their reporting about a security compromise within a key intelligence communications system, which detailed the immense human, technical, and resource costs of failure while maintaining the integrity of efforts to close vulnerabilities.
"Their stories on the challenges U.S. defense and intelligence agencies face in maintaining technological leadership at a time when cybersecurity threats change by the day, illuminated the need for creativity and perseverance in an era when state and non-state adversaries can inflict great harm to U.S. personnel and interests at levels below direct armed conflict," the judges said. "Their efforts challenge readers to evaluate and weigh the consequences of activity in an often unseen realm of national security and force us to consider the commitments required to safeguard the values of free societies."
Dorfman's prize-winning stories include:
"The CIA's communications suffered a catastrophic compromise. It started in Iran," co-written with Jenna McLaughlin for Yahoo! News, November 2018
"Botched CIA Communications System Helped Blow Cover of Chinese Agents," Foreign Policy, August 2018
"The Disappeared: China's global kidnapping campaign has gone on for years. Now it may be reaching inside U.S. borders," Foreign Policy, March 2018
Zach Dorfman is a senior fellow at Carnegie Council and a freelance writer and editor, with a focus on U.S. foreign policy, terrorism, espionage, and the Middle East.
His work has appeared in Yahoo! News, Politico Magazine, The Atlantic, Atavist Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, and The Nation, among other publications.
Previously, he was a full-time senior editor at Ethics & International Affairs, Carnegie Council's quarterly journal, where he commissioned features, essays, and reviews on issues of war and peace, the environment, international institutions, foreign policy, and more.
About the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation fosters increased awareness of the life, career, values, and legacy of America's 38th President. It does so through activities designed to promote the high ideals of integrity, honesty, and candor that defined President Ford's extraordinary career of public service. The Foundation promotes the ideas, values, commitment to public service and historical legacy of President Gerald R. Ford and further promotes greater civic engagement and recognition of integrity wherever it exists in the public arena. It supports permanent and changing exhibits designed to promote historical literacy; conferences; educational outreach and other programs, both scholarly and popular, including at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.
About Carnegie Council
Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1914, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is an educational, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that produces lectures, publications, and multimedia materials on the ethical challenges of living in a globalized world.
