David Jackson
Senior Reporter, Injustice Watch
Jackson's news reports have prompted law enforcement indictments and legislative reforms, won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and been cited as Pulitzer finalists four times.
After losing a campaign to find a civic-minded owner for the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Publishing’s chain of regional newsrooms, in 2020 I joined Chicago's vibrant nonprofit news community. At the Better Government Association, my articles revealed foster children locked in detention because DCFS couldn't place them, Chicago's dearth of programs for young carjacking arrestees, and failures in Illinois’ privatized Medicaid system.
In February 2023, I moved to Injustice Watch, a six-reporter news team that exposes institutional failures in Illinois courts and government agencies.
I have done investigative reporting in the Middle East, Mexico and the Caribbean, and reported extensively from America's capital, but am most honored to have published high-stakes stories in the city where I was born and raised -- revealing Barack Obama's ties to corrupt dealmaker Tony Rezko, for example, or sending the Chicago Housing Authority chief and the city's biggest slumlord to federal prison with separate reports.
The work has taught me deep humility about a world packed with unexpected truths.
I believe that the truest index of a society's moral values is the way it treats its least powerful citizens. Curiosity drew me to this profession, but compassion holds me here.
