Awards
TO PEOPLE IN PUBLIC MEDIA

George Foster Peabody Awards

The Peabodys for 2008 recognized six programs from public TV and three from NPR.

"Giant Pool of Money," the groundbreaking May 2008 story on the subprime mortgage crisis that was jointly reported by NPR's Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg of Chicago Public Radio's PRI-distributed This American Life, is one of nine pubcasting recipients of 2008 Peabody Awards announced April 1.

NPR won two additional Peabodys: one for its on-the-scene coverage of the earthquake that devastated China's Sichuan province last May and another for a three-part series by Laura Sullivan that questioned the guilt of two inmates in Louisiana's Angola prison (which also won an IRE Award—see below).

Six Peabody-winning programs were presented on PBS during 2008, more than any other network, including HBO.

Two programs that aired on PBS’s Independent Lens won Peabodys: Mosaic Films’ King Corn; and Kartemquin Educational Films’ Mapping Stem Cell Research – Terra Incognita; the award also cited the Independent Television Service and CPB.
           
Peabodys went to three additional docs:

WETA’s Washington Week with Gwen Ifill earned recognition for a series of live events broadcast as part of its 2008 political coverage.

The full list of this year's winners is posted online.

The George Foster Peabody Awards, presented by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in recognition of distinguished achievements and meritorious public service. The awards are routinely described as the most prestigious in electronic journalism, will be given at a ceremony May 18 in New York.

Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards

Pubcasters swept the radio category IRE's investigative awards.

Receiving the certificate was "36 Years of Solitary: Murder, Death and Injustice at Angola," by NPR's Laura Sullivan, Amy Walters and Steven Drummond. It was praised by the judges as a "chilling tale of injustice" told in a "graceful and compelling way." The piece was an in-depth look at the 1972 murder of a prison guard.

Finalists in the radio category:

The annual IRE awards recognize outstanding watchdog journalism. The contest covers 15 categories across media platforms and a range of market sizes. The contest, which began in 1979, received more than 380 entries this year, according to the organization.

Full IRE awards list.

ATAS Television with a Conscience

The Television Academy cited Masterpiece’s Auschwitz  drama for ‘conscience.’

"God on Trial," a Masterpiece Contemporary drama, has garnered a "Television with a Conscience" award from the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The honor celebrates programs "that have used the power of television to enlighten, educate, create awareness and instigate positive change," according to the academy.

The award is a first for PBS. It was selected from more than 150 entries.

The fictional account of Auschwitz prisoners debating the goodness of God is a coproduction of Hat Trick Productions Ltd. and WGBH, Boston. The screenwriter was Frank Cottrell Boyce.

National Headliner Awards

Now wins a Headliner with a look at forest preservation and development issues.

"Fighting Over Forests" received a National Headliner Award from one of the oldest and largest annual competitions in journalism. The piece took first place in Environmental Reporting. Brenda Breslauer, was producer; Maria Hinojosa, correspondent; John Siceloff, e.p.; Ty West, senior producer; Lesley Norman, executive in charge of production; and  Brian Epstein and Mona Iskander, field producers. The first Headliner Awards were presented in 1935. They are administered by the Press Club of Atlantic City.

Christopher Awards

Christopher jurors say Sesame Street’s work affirms humanity’s ‘highest values.’

Sesame Workshop has received a special Christopher Award for Sesame Street that’s presented only in years when the executive panel unanimously identifies worthy achievements. , which honors writers, producers, directors and illustrators in publishing, film and TV whose work "affirms the highest values of the human spirit."

Sesame Street's creative teams were acclaimed for having “redefined the scope of educational TV" since 1969.

Former winners of the Special Award, established in 1949, include American Masters, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Face the Nation, Masterpiece Theatre, CBS News Sunday Morning and The Hallmark Hall of Fame.

The Christophers is a nonprofit organization founded in 1945 by a Maryknoll priest, Father James Keller. The group’s objective "is to encourage people of all ages, and from all walks of life, to use their God-given talents to make a positive difference in the world."

Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Awards

Ken Burns has begun bestowing annual Lifetime Achievement Awards as a benefit for Old Sturbridge Village.

The filmmaker and the  living history museum in Massachusetts gave actress Laura Linney the first Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award on April 3.

The ceremonies provide occasions for fundraising dinners for the museum, which was an early subject of his filmmaking.

Linney was saluted for her work as a First Lady from Massachusetts, Abigail Adams, in HBO’s John Adams.  Linney had already won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors’ Guild award for the role. She and Burns also attended school in the region. On public television Linney was a star of Tales in the City and a host of Masterpiece Theater.

Burns said the award honors persons making a significant impact on the arts through projects related to history.

Parents' Choice Awards

Public TV won more than a dozen Parents’ Choice Foundation awards, including three Gold Awards for programs and two for websites.

Three of the four Gold Awards in the TV category went to public TV, for: African American Lives 2, from WNET; Nature: “The Wolf That Changed America,” also from WNET; and Between the Lions, from WGBH and Mississippi ETV. Six other pubTV shows won Silver Awards; see the full TV list.

WGBH Interactive received two Golds in the website category for Peep and the Big Wide World [the site] (which airs on TLC and Discovery Kids cable channels), and  
Design Squad [the site] on PBS Kids Go!

The game site PBS Kids Play! didn't win a gold or silver Parent's Choice Award in 2008 but did win a “Recommended” citation. The site offers age-appropriate games that promote “a wide array of skills,” Parents’ Choice said.

Parents' Choice Foundation Awards honor the best material for children in books, toys, music and storytelling, magazines, software, videogames, television and websites. Established in 1978, Parents’ Choice is the nation's oldest nonprofit guide to quality children's media and toys, according to the group.

National Awards for Education Reporting

Education Writers Association honored NPR’s Claudio Sanchez and KCET's Angela Shelley.

Sanchez won a first prize in the National Awards for Education Reporting for "The Student Loan Crisis." The August 2008 report on All Things Considered followed Marlo Johnson and Emmanuel Garcia, top students who would be the first in their families to go to college. The family's search for money to pay for tuition reflected an ordeal for many poor and middle-class students.

Shelley won a first prize for "Inside Locke High" on SoCal Connected on KCET in Los Angeles.

A total of 273 entries were received. The Education Writers Association is the national professional organization of education reporters. It was organized in 1947 by a group of newspaper reporters with the intent of improving education reporting to the public.

Send award announcements (complete lists, please, not a single winner) to .

Web page posted April 1, 2009
Copyright 2009 by Current LLC

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public TV and radio in the United States