See Why Freep Team Earns Praise From Prominent Journalism Review

For newspaper keyboard tappers, this is sort of like getting a Sundance Film Festival prize or Grammy nomination -- but without a financial reward. 

The Columbia Journalism Review, a source of professional validation affiliated with the New York graduate school sharing two words in its name, heaps praise on Detroit Free Press coverage of a U.S. House candidate with a no-media-access firewall -- Kerry Bentivolio of Oakland County's 11th Congressional District. The paper is praised for "stepping away from the campaign trail to dig into Bentivolio’s background and his sources of support." CJR singled out politics reporter Kathleen Gray and editorial page editor Stephen Henderson.

Among local journalists, Gray, the Free Press staff writer, has done the most impressive and enterprising reporting. In late August, she used Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act to obtain Bentivolio’s teaching records and delivered an investigation that revealed how, just months before the GOP primary, Bentivolio was forced out of his high school teaching position after allegedly bullying students.

In her Sunday [Oct. 14] feature, Gray took a similar approach, digging up court records and interviewing Bentivolio’s old acquaintances.