A panel of judges with the National Press Foundation has selected WPLN Senior Reporter Meribah Knight and the “Supermajority” podcast to receive the inaugural Reporting on Women in Politics Award.
Knight, in partnership with NPR’s Embedded, followed the story of three conservative mothers determined to pass gun reform laws in their home state of Tennessee following the 2023 shooting at The Covenant School. But the story is about more than guns. It’s about who gets to have a say in politics when these women, all lifelong conservatives, step inside their state capitol for the first time. They assume they’ll be listened to — they’re affluent, white, Christian. Instead, they’re met by a Republican majority unwilling to consider their pleas.
“This series is a tour de force of in-depth reporting — sensitive, unsparing and grippingly told. It’s a morality play about women’s activism and citizens’ political participation, with national implications that are well explained but not overplayed,” NPF judges said. “The human impact of the political process and the stakes of local lawmaking are vividly laid out, with devastating results.”
Knight isn’t just watching three women grapple with their politics; she offers listeners a front row seat to how one-party control can lead to divisions of a different sort — between politicians and constituents of the same political affiliation.
“The mothers’ motives and actions are deeply relatable. But it’s also because the story is told in a nuanced, thoughtful, multidimensional way,” NPF judges said.
The award was established last year by the National Press Foundation in partnership with Pivotal Ventures. It aims to recognize outstanding reporting on women in politics in any medium that demonstrates nuance, context and accuracy. NPF has also released its journalism guidelines for covering women in politics focused on three pillars — sourcing, language and framing — for newsrooms to consider.
Knight has received numerous national awards for her reporting, including the George Foster Peabody Award and the George Polk Award. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the Goldsmith Award and two National Magazine Awards.
She’s the host and creator of the Peabody Award-winning podcast, “The Promise,” as well as “The Kids of Rutherford County” in partnership with Serial, The New York Times and ProPublica.
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