Tim Carpenter

Background

About Tim Carpenter

Where there's smoke, there's usually fire. Three decades of journalism experience have taught me that looking for smoke signals, digging for information, and reporting on the findings can stop a conflagration. The need for strong government, political and investigative reporting has never waned. But perhaps in this time of media uncertainty, it has never been more important. Over the course of my career, my work – both individually and as a team member – has generated significant recognition from my peers. Six times I've received the Kansas Press Association Victor Murdock Award. The Kansas City Press Club has twice honored me with its Journalist of the Year Award and more recently bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award. The William Allen White Foundation has honored me four times with its Burton Marvin News Enterprise Award. The Morris Communications chain has presented me with The William S. Morris Dedication Award, based on a body of work, and the Morris Journalism Excellence Award for Community Service. Editor and Publisher selected one of my stories, along with stories from five other reporters across the nation, and called it "Best Investigative/Enterprise Feature on a Website with under 1 million unique monthly visitors." This recognition is nice, wonderful even, but it would all be for nothing if my work didn't bring about meaningful redress for citizens and taxpayers. I've never shied away from challenging situations, even when it meant a one-on-one with elusive political hopefuls: http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/25/business/la-fi-mh-topeka-20140225 My stories have resulted in high-ranking elected and appointed officials stepping down from statewide office. My reporting has spurred investigations and led to criminal charges. My articles have prompted new laws to be enacted. Perhaps most important, my work has shone light on corruption and secrecy that adversely affected and in some cases physically harmed individuals simply trying to live.