Cox Media Group and KFF Health News Accept Feddie Reporting Award

Jodie Fleischer of Cox Media Group accepted the 2024 Feddie Reporting Award at the National Press Foundation's Awards Dinner on Feb. 20, 2025. Cox Media Group and KFF Health News won for their year-long investigation, “Social Security’s Secret,” which revealed that the Social Security Administration mistakenly overpaid millions of Americans and then reduced or suspended their checks even years later. Journalists from eight Cox Media Group TV stations and KFF Health News worked in collaboration to produce more than 150 stories. The journalists are Jodie Fleischer, Josh Wade, Samantha Manning, Alex Fruin and Jon Sonnheim of Cox Media Group; David Hilzenrath and Fred Clasen-Kelly of KFF Health News; Justin Gray and Leah Dunn of WSB; Ted Daniel and Christine Swartz of WFXT; John Bedell of WHIO, Amy Hudak of WPXI, Jesse Jones of KIRO, Shannon Butler of WFTV, Ben Becker of WJAX and Madison Carter of WSOC. Contributing photographers are Kevin Johnson, Ryan Minutello, Octavio Torres, Diar Gilyana, Dan King-Lopes, Erling Moe, David Chase and Jeff Williams. Their investigation was cited in a congressional hearing and ultimately led the SSA to revise their policies and restore benefits. “This project humanized the consequences of a massive failure of federal bureaucracy and forced meaningful change. This series showed with powerful details and hard-won data how lives were shattered by widespread federal clawback polices,” NPF judges said. The $5,000 Feddie Reporting Award was established by the National Press Foundation in 2010 to recognize outstanding reporting about the impact of federal laws and regulations on local communities. NPF is solely responsible for the content. This video was produced within the Evelyn Y. Davis studios.