Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson received the Dao Prize for investigative journalism on Wednesday from the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation in recognition of his dogged work breaking the news and reporting the story about how Chinese organized crime infiltrated Maine’s medical marijuana market.
Launched in tandem with the Young America’s Foundation’s National Journalism Center (NJC), the Dao Prize honors “excellence in investigative journalism … that stands out for accuracy and courage.”
Immigrants from communist China, Dao Feng He and Angela He created the award several years ago after they “observed that in the United States, investigative journalists face increasing constraints around political correctness, and because of this, are discouraged from tackling certain investigations and reporting the truth,” the foundation notes.
Robinson and Maine Wire digital editor Graham Pollard accepted the award at a ceremony in Washington, DC marking a two-year long pursuit of the truth about how the Chinese Triad, a criminal organization, systematically exploited Maine’s lax oversight of its medical marijuana market to push legitimate cannabis operators out of business.
The documentary they produced was later broadcast on the Tucker Carlson Network, whose namesake championed the cause on the national stage through the release of High Crimes: The Chinese Mafia’s Takeover of Rural Maine earlier this year.
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) attended the ceremony to congratulate the Maine Wire for its reporting, on the basis of which she has pressed federal authorities for answers on how such a scheme could operate without detection and scrutiny by law enforcement.
Other award recipients included former Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi who worked extensively on the Twitter files.
