WFAA is being nationally recognized in the news industry for its investigative team’s work uncovering the criminal pasts of countless nursing home caretakers in Texas.
The “Criminal Caretakers” series on Tuesday earned a National Edward R. Murrow Award, recognizing it as the single best investigative television report in the country by a large-market station over the past year.
A total of 89 news organizations were given Murrow Awards in 16 categories by the Radio Television Digital News Association.
“Winning an RTDNA National Edward R. Murrow Award means that a news organization has provided exemplary public service to its viewers, listeners and readers,” said RTDNA Executive Director Dan Shelley. “These honorees truly represent the very best in broadcast and digital journalism around the world.”
“Criminal caretakers” unearthed serious and violent felony offenses on the criminal records of hundreds of nurse aides in North Texas. Despite their troubled pasts, all of them were certified by state regulators, and all of them maintained active certificates.
Most of them were working in Texas nursing homes, often alone and unsupervised, unbeknownst to the residents’ families who trusted their loved ones were in safe hands.
WFAA built an exclusive database of the nurse aide criminal offenders and found that Texas’ nursing home care was among the worst in the country.
The station’s work got the attention of lawmakers, who began to work with the state regulators to tighten and improve background checks, including making sure aides are re-screened routinely for serious and violent crimes.
Already, a number of nurse aides have been decertified, and no longer employable in nursing homes.
Edward R. Murrow is widely regarded as a news industry titan. He rose to prominence with his reporting as a war correspondent with CBS Radio during World War II, and later became a network executive and television broadcaster.
The RTDNA has given Murrow Awards for excellence in journalism annually since 1971.
Watch WFAA's award-winning series of reports below. To watch WFAA’s entry for the Murrow Awards, go here.
