2024 Pulitzer Prize Remarks: Investigative Reporting

KIRSTEN DANIS:

Got upstaged by a six week old here. Thank you, Joe.

It's a joy to have an opportunity to talk about Hannah, who is the nicest assassin I know.

She is relentless in tracking down a story. She doesn't stop at finding three sources, or even 30; she finds 300. She calls people again and again, asking just one more question, checking just one more fact. She stays one more day at the scene. She convinces one more person to sit down and talk.

All the while, she is smiling and laughing, and being kind and empathetic.

She never loses sight of the people at the heart of her work.

I watched with admiration and frankly, in awe, as she patiently and sensitively spoke with children living in incredibly challenging circumstances throughout the country, while also building sources in the White House and at corporations, among law enforcement and lawyers and social workers.

She thought deeply about how best to tell these stories, and how to weave her hard-hitting findings with beautiful narratives.

Her work, along with the work of the people across departments and desks, made a difference that could come only from the power of clear, independent journalism.

There are so many people to thank, and I'll leave most of that to Hannah. But we're profoundly grateful to A.G. and the Suzlberger family; to Joe, Carolyn, Marc and the rest of the masthead; and to Meredith and her team, for their unwavering commitment to, and support for, this kind of work.

Thank you to our colleagues on the Investigations Desk for everything you do, every day. And as always, thank you to Matt Purdy for your wisdom, sense of humor and extraordinary instincts and guidance.

My grandmother left school at age 13 to work in the textile mills of Fall River, Massachusetts. She sewed curtains. Just two generations later, I have the privilege of working here, with all of you.

That is the promise of education, and the promise this country made in 1938 when it said children would no longer spend long hours working in factories, slaughter houses and mines.

I am so proud of The New York Times, and most especially proud of Hannah, for holding the country to that promise - for all children.

It is my honor to introduce Hannah Dreier.

HANNAH DREIER:

So first I want to clear something up because I think people have been asking. I did report that children were making chewy bars on brutal overnight shifts. But no, I don't think that that's why they mysteriously disappeared from our kitchenettes last spring.

This time last year, I was reporting in a Virginia trailer park called Dreamland. It was in a tiny town with two slaughterhouses and not much else. I was asking immigrant meatpacking workers about child labor, and when pulled out his phone. He showed me a photo I'll never forget.

It was the arm of a 14 year old Guatemalan boy that had been torn apart by a deboning machine. The man had taken it at two in the morning during the overnight shift.

The whole town seemed to know about this gruesome accident, but kids kept working at the slaughterhouse, and pretty much everyone kept looking the other way.

It turned out that migrant child labor was an open secret in a lot of towns and cities across the country. I found children working this kind of dangerous job in all 50 states. They were making Fruit of the Loom socks, Gerber baby food, Cheerios, and, yes, Chewy Bars.

Hundreds of these kids opened up to me about their fears and their loneliness. They didn't think that anything would really change as a result of coming forward, but they wanted to at least warn other children who are thinking of making the journey what it was like here.

When we started publishing, though, things did change. The Biden administration started giving these kids way more support. The Department of Labor stepped up its enforcement. Companies started finally monitoring their night shifts.

The impact that these stories have had is a validation to me that, well, that many people in this country do care and that they're not willing to look the other way and live with a shameful, open secret.

My name is on this prize and I'm so grateful for it. But really, it's the community of journalists here at the Times that made this reporting possible.

Thank you to A.G. Sulzberger and to Joe Kahn, Carolyn Ryan, Marc Lacey, the rest of the masthead, and especially my close reader Sam Dolnick who encouraged me to tell these stories across platforms and formats.

In my first year and a half here, I got to work with what felt like every part of the newsroom. From the magazine, to video, to audio, and graphics. And because of this, I really have a lot of people to thank today.

I especially want to thank the wonderful Matt Purdy, whose brilliance and calm improved each one of these stories immensely.

I'm grateful to Phil Corbett and Susan Wessling in standards. David McCraw for, among many other things, suing the federal government and winning.

The other reporters who worked with me Brent McDonald, Nicole Salazar, Annie Correal, Carson Kessler, Eli Murray, Marcela Valdes, Michael Keller, Ana Ley, Luke Broadwater, Andrew Fischer, Rebecca Lai, Seamus Hughes, Josh Keller and Julie Tate, among so many others. And our great photography team Kirsten Luce, Meridith Kohut, Ruth Fremson and Beth Flynn.

Thank you Lanie Shapiro and Rory Tolan and all my colleagues and investigations led of course, by Dean and Rebecca. I could not have done this without your support.

Thank you to the amazing team at the magazine. Jake Silverstein, Jessica Lustig, Kathy Ryan, and Amy Kellner, and especially to the fantastic legendary features editor Ilena Silverman, who always encouraged me to drop the nuance in these stories.

Kirsten Danis, It is one of the great strokes of luck of my life to get to work with you. Kirsten saw this story from the beginning. She kept pushing me to go deeper and deeper, to find the 12 year olds and the 13 year olds. And when it came time to write she elevated that process to. So many of the best lines in these pieces are actually hers.

My partner Jonathan and our brand new baby girl Sylvie are here. Jonathan read each piece before anyone and saved me from my worst instincts, and he encouraged me flying around the country and doing so many Midnight Factory stakeouts while very pregnant.

Like I said, this reporting was possible only because of the bravery of migrant children who took huge risks to share their experiences.

There are hundreds of thousands of these kids in the country. Some are still working dangerous, grueling jobs, and I dedicate this prize to them.

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