Seymour Hersh, Tim Russert, others win National Press Foundation awards

WASHINGTON (AP) _ New Yorker writer Seymour Hersh, Boston Globe editor Martin Baron and NBC's ``Meet the Press'' host Tim Russert are winners of this year's National Press Foundation awards.

Monday, December 6th 2004, 12:23 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ New Yorker writer Seymour Hersh, Boston Globe editor Martin Baron and NBC's ``Meet the Press'' host Tim Russert are winners of this year's National Press Foundation awards.

Hersh, who is credited with uncovering the Abu Ghraib prison scandal last spring, received the W.M. Kiplinger Award for Distinguished Contributions to Journalism, the group announced Monday. Baron was named editor of the year and Russert was honored for broadcasting excellence.

Also winning awards, among the top honors in journalism, are Julie Rovner of National Public Radio and Paul Kane of Roll Call. They won The Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Coverage of Congress.

John Sherffius, a self-syndicated artist, was designated cartoonist of the year. CNN.com was honored for excellence in online journalism and Al Fitzpatrick, a retired editor at Gannett Newspapers, won the Chairman's Citation for Overall Excellence in Journalism.

Hersh, being honored for his entire body of work, has gained a reputation for tough, investigative reporting culminating in several books and articles for The New Yorker since 1992. He also wrote for The New York Times and The Associated Press. Hersh was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for uncovering the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War.

The awards will be presented on Feb. 17 at a black-tie fund-raising dinner in Washington.