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Hello and

this is Thursday, September 12th, 2024,

and this is a special episode of the excerpt.

In 2023, Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolf was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for

reporting that exposed how a former Mississippi governor used his office to

steer millions of dollars from a welfare fund to his family and friends including

former NFL quarterback Brett Farve. Polzer is the most prestigious award in American journalism.

She now risked jail time for refusing to reveal her sources for the story.

Being able to protect the confidentiality of sources can be critical to a reporter's ability to provide the public with information

they both need and deserve to know. Here to discuss the impact of this case on local journalism is Kelly McBride, Senior Vice President

and Chair of Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at the Pointer Institute.

Thanks for being on the excerpt, Kelly.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Let's begin with the series of stories written by Anna Wolf.

She discovered that the state of Mississippi was rejecting more than 90% of welfare applicants.

That discovery led to her award-winning reporting on Mississippi's welfare fraud scandal.

What were some of the key components of that story and his

ability to tell it? I mean she was able to show that the people who needed health were really not able to access it.

They were being rejected.

And then she was able to follow the money and she found a series of documents and other information that demonstrated that

...