Ronnie Polaneczky: In a league of their own: Our Pulitzer Prize duo seized a story andnever let go

AT FIRST, the screams that ricocheted around the newsroom yesterday didn't seem unusual. The TVs are always on in this place, and the Phillies' home-opener was blaring on several screens.

But as the cheers grew more frenetic, everyone looked up from their notes and phone interviews, away from the Internet distractions that keep us from hitting deadlines in a way that would make the bosses happy.

Did Cole Hamels just pitch a no-hitter, or what?

As the bedlam swelled to a pitch that simply would not subside, it became clear what had happened here at the Daily News.

Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman had won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for the investigative journalism that resulted in their "Tainted Justice" series.

And in doing so, they proved, all over again, why the beating heart of the Daily News does, indeed, make it the paper of the people.

 
I think I speak for the newsroom when I say that Barb and Wendy are this paper's most beloved reporting duo: courageous, humble, passionate and kick-ass.

Barb is Barbie-doll fit, blond and gorgeous in a way that would make women hate her, if she weren't also smart, kind, hardworking and so nurturing that cub reporters call her "Mama Laker."

Wendy, a 4-foot-10, 90-pound sparkplug, is so adorable and funny, she routinely makes fools of stuffed shirts who learn - after they read her aggressively reported exposes - that they stupidly mistook her for an easy mark.

It's no wonder. When Wendy sits at her desk, her feet don't touch the ground. So she swings them.

Nothing psychs Barb and Wendy more than venturing into some of the city's roughest neighborhoods, with only their wits and a deep compassion for the disenfranchised citizens who call the Daily News when they have nowhere else to turn.

These folks are off the grid: They're not plugged, in any way, into the network of power that keeps many people in this city from dropping through the cracks of luck or justice when life flips them upside down.

They don't have a brother-in-law who knows someone in City Council who might return their calls when they have a problem they can't resolve.

They don't have a cousin who's a paralegal and knows a lawyer who might listen to the nightmare they're living through.

Sometimes, their drama is of their own making. Sometimes it's not. But when these people call, it's up to this paper's writers and editors - a dwindling but committed crew, in a decimated industry - to sort out the crazies from the real victims.

What puts Barb and Wendy in their own league is a potent blend of patience, doggedness and ferocity fueled by what I can only describe as a maternal instinct to protect the vulnerable and vindicate the wronged.

No matter how unsympathetic the wronged might appear at first glance.

"Tainted Justice" was born when Barb and Wendy chose to truly listen to a police informant who claimed injustice from narcotics officers - some of them respected veterans on the Philadelphia police force.

Barb and Wendy found a band of rogue cops who, the accused allege, were, among other things, pinning drug charges on perps who didn't earn them and terrorizing bodega owners.

The victims in "Tainted Justice" are mostly poor. Some have records; some probably ought to. And some were innocently trying to make a go of it in neighborhoods where they hoped the cops would protect them, not menace them.

The cops, it's claimed, didn't do something that Barb and Wendy - and good cops everywhere - do every day: They allegedly didn't take the time to discern the good guys from the bad.

And eventually, they would seem to have lost whatever heart might've gotten them into policing in the first place.

The Pulitzer, of course, is the big megillah in journalism. But the screams of joy in the newsroom yesterday were not just an acknowledgment of the inspired work Barb and Wendy did on behalf of citizens who needed someone to take their stories seriously.

It was vindication that what we try to do here at the Daily News every day still matters.

It's not that we give voice to the voiceless, because our readers already have voices. What we try to do is listen.

Which is what Barb and Wendy do, every day - beautifully and with righteous hearts.

We couldn't be more proud.

E-mail polaner@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2217. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/polaneczky. Read Ronnie's blog at http://go.philly.com/ ronnieblog.