CSI Associate Professor of Sociology Thomas Volscho has recently won an Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting for his work on the ABC Radio News podcast Truth and Lies: Jeffrey Epstein. The Award is presented by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).
Volscho’s reporting for the podcast, especially Episodes 3 and 4, working closely with Mark Remillard and Senior Producer James Hill of ABC News, won him the award. In addition, he also did reporting and on-camera interviews for two episodes of the ABC News television program 20/20, one on Epstein and the other on Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate.
“I worked on investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s finances and how he accumulated his fortune,” Volscho explained. “We found that Epstein began accumulating his real estate, airplanes, island, and other things shortly after selling stock on behalf of his billionaire client Leslie Wexner. I also reported on Epstein’s time as a teacher at the Dalton School and how he was dismissed, contrary to what he told people.”
Volscho is currently writing a manuscript for a criminology book titled Sexual Predator, Master Manipulator: How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich and Became the Most Prolific Child Sex Predator in American History. He said, “The reporting overlaps with parts of the book because for the book I had to investigate how he got rich. His fortune made his sexual abuse crimes possible.”
According to RTDNA Website, “Since 1971, RTDNA has been honoring outstanding achievements in broadcast and digital journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards. Among the most prestigious in news, the Murrow Awards recognize local and national news stories that uphold the RTDNA Code of Ethics, demonstrate technical expertise and exemplify the importance and impact of journalism as a service to the community. Murrow Award winning work demonstrates the excellence that Edward R. Murrow made a standard for the broadcast news profession.”
By Terry Mares
