WASHINGTON -- The White House Correspondents Association presented the annual Merriman Smith Memorial Award Saturday night to John Palmer of NBC-TV for journalistic excellence under deadline pressure.
The first prize of $500 was given to Palmer for his reporting of the aborted U.S. rescue attempt of the American hostages in Iran.
Edward Walsh of The Washington Post received the second prize of $250 for a well-written report under deadline pressure of President Carter's appearance before his supporters in a Washington hotel last November to concede defeat.
The association, during its annual dinner, also presented its first Aldo Beckman Memorial Award to Frank Cormier of the Associated Press for excellent reporting on the presidency during the last 20 years. He received $500.
Three reporters were co-recipients of the Worth Bingham Memorial Award, a $1,000 prize. Ralph Soda of the Washington bureau of the Gannett News Service won for his seven-month inquiry into the manipulation of the world silver market, and Jonathan Neumann and Ted Gup of The Washington Post won for their five-part series on a conflict of interest and waste in the federal contract-making process.
Nicholas Lemann, former reporter for the Washington Post, won the Raymond Clapper Memorial Award for a series of stories outlining the plight of a family on welfare, and John J. Fialka of the Washington Star was awarded second prize for his series of stories on the readiness of the all-volunteer Army. Lemann won $1,500 and Fialka $500.
