Evidence technician combs scene where Chauncey Bailey was fatally shot Aug. 2, 2007. (D.RossCameron/OaklandTribune)

Evidence technician combs scene where Chauncey Bailey was fatally shot Aug. 2, 2007. (D.RossCameron/OaklandTribune)

Staff reports, Chauncey Bailey Project

The Chauncey Bailey Project, a consortium of news organizations investigating the August slaying of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, has won a prestigious award from the journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors.

The project won the Tom Renner Award, honoring outstanding reporting covering organized crime or other criminal acts, IRE announced Tuesday.

“This coalition of Bay Area journalists delved into questionable real estate deals and contracts involving the owners of Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland,” IRE said in a statement. “The reporters raised questions about the thoroughness of a police investigation into the group before Bailey’s murder.

“They probed the interrogation and confession of Bailey’s alleged killer,” the statement said. “And they carried on the work that Bailey intended to pursue before his death. These stories would have been difficult to pursue under any circumstances, but it took extreme dedication to get at the truth following the assassination of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey.”

The Bailey Project journalists cited in the award are Bay Area News Group-East Bay staff writers Cecily Burt, Harry Harris, Angela Hill, Thomas Peele, Josh Richman and Paul T. Rosynsky; A.C. Thompson of New America Media; G.W. Schulz of the San Francisco Bay Guardian; and freelance reporters Mary Fricker and Bob Butler.

The award “is a tribute not only to the work of the project but to Chauncey Bailey,” said Robert Rosenthal, executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Bailey Project’s executive editor. “This unique collaboration of journalists from diverse backgrounds and news organizations was not always easy, but the stories and their credibility will stand the test of time.

“This is about hard work commitment and passion – instincts and values that all journalists understand,” he said.

Sponsors of the project, which is ongoing, include New America Media in San Francisco; the Robert Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland; the Bay Area Association of Black Journalists; the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and the journalism program at San Francisco State University.

Students from both programs have contributed to the Bailey Project.

Other participating news organizations include KQED public radio and KTVU television.

The Knight Foundation, The Society of Professional Journalists, The Newspaper Guild and the National Association of Black Journalists have provided grants to fund the project.

For more information on the Bailey Project, contact Dori J. Maynard of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education at (510) 684-3071.