best of nashville 2021 media and politics

We wish that we weren’t able to give The Tennessean’s Brett Kelman an award for the second year in a row for his coverage of an ongoing public health crisis. But here we are. Kelman’s reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and its myriad effects on health care in the state has been vital. This year he has broken several stories about how pressure from Republican lawmakers led to significant changes in the Tennessee Department of Health’s approach to promoting vaccination among teenagers, a fiasco that spawned several other scandals. At the same time he continued to provide regular coverage of a pandemic that appeared to be waning until the Delta variant brought it roaring back. For his sake and ours, we hope he has a harder time finding things to write about next year.

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