Phillips' investigation into how a convicted murderer could purchase personal information about children, triggered national legislation and earned her the Bill Stout MemorialAward for enterprise reporting.
Eastwood's victory makes him, at 74, the oldest person ever to win a best director Oscar, and caps a hat-trick of statuettes (he previously won for Unforgiven in 1993 and was given the Irving G Thalberg memorialaward two years later).
Besides Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, anomalies such as Jim Konstanty and Willie Hernandez have had their names etched on the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award.
He sent an oblique warning to his superiors that President George W. Bush should delete mention of enemy fire from his remarks, when presenting the award to Tillman's family at his memorial service.