The reporters who broke the domestic spy program story in December picked up Goldsmith awards for investigative journalism from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy yesterday evening.

In their controversial story on the secret National Security Agency spying program, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times revealed that the Bush administration had used illegal wiretaps to monitor the nation’s phone lines for terrorist activity. The Bush administration has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in the matter.

“[The Goldsmith Awards] encourage a more insightful, spirited debate about public policy, government, and the press,” said Alex S. Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center.

Yesterday’s awards ceremony, held at the JFK Forum at the Kennedy School of Government, featured a special award presented to New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof ’81, a former Crimson editor, for his reporting on the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Many of Kristof’s columns on the crisis, which began appearing in the fall of 2004, exposed the crimes committed in Darfur through personal accounts from Sudanese refugees who had been forced to flee their homes.

Jim Lehrer, the host of The News Hour on Public Broadcasting Service and ten-time presidential debate moderator, was also honored yesterday with a career award for excellence in journalism.

In his acceptance speech last night, Lehrer said that traditional journalism is in “a moment that in many ways is a moment of absolute panic.” Lehrer cited the rise of internet-based media like blogs and the loss of public trust as potential threats to the news business.

But Lehrer stressed that the current crisis was “fixable” with more transparency and “a little humanity.”

“It may mean leaving the profits to the search engines, the shouting to the shouters, and the entertainment to the clowns,” he said.

But, he added, “there is a business case to be made for good journalism.”

Kristof, however, seemed less optimistic.

“I hope [Lehrer] is right,” he said after the ceremony. “But I’m afraid networks don’t think it’s good business to cover things like Darfur.”

In response to a question about ending the genocide, Kristof said that, “We need more political pressure from this country, especially from the [political] Right.”

Other finalists in the investigative reporting category included Washington Post writer Dana Priest, who wrote on the secret prisons outside the U.S. that the Central Intelligence Agency used to detain and interrogate terrorist suspects.

Susan Schmidt, James V. Grimaldi, and R. Jeffrey Smith, also of The Washington Post, were nominated for revealing details about lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s network and ties to then-House Majority Leader Tom Delay.

Risen and Lichtblau, who beat out three more teams of reporters from The Los Angeles Times, Copley News Service, and The Toledo Blade, will receive a $25,000 prize.

“All six of these [nominated] stories were stories that powerful people did not want the public to know,” Risen said yesterday after accepting his award.

Rahul Prabhakar ’09, who had come to see Kristof, was pleased with the committee’s selection of Risen and Lichtblau’s story.

“It refocused the nation’s debate onto the war on terror when it was so focused on other issues,” he said.

The Goldsmith awards honor journalism that promotes more ethical conduct of government.