1974 duPont-Columbia Award Winners
In a special program, the duPont-Columbia University Awards announced 9 winners.
Inquiry: Chile: Experiment in Red - ABC News
Arthur Holch and ABC News’ “Chile: Experiment in Red,” according to the jurors, examined a “then neglected and very timely subject with thoroughness and objectivity. Unfolding events proved the 60-minute examination of the South American nation an accurate background for the chaos which descended a few weeks after the program was put on the air.”
CBS News Reports: You and the Commercial - CBS News
Of “You and the Commercial” from Iva Drasnin and CBS News, the jurors commented: “In sixty carefully balanced minutes (without commercial interruption) the program asked searching questions about the motives and the manners of TV’s principal backers, the advertisers of America. What resulted was not only an exceptionally well-made, entertaining and illuminating show, but possibly the bravest network documentary of the year.”
And the Rich Shall Inherit the Earth - Group W
Of Dick Hubert and Group W’s “And the Rich Shall Inherit the Earth” the jurors said: “The definitive treatment of the growth of the big agricultural conglomerates and the tragically rapid disappearance of the small family farm in America. The program’s selection and presentation of illustrative detail to tell its sad story was impeccable – the result of the unbeatable conjunction of experience and concern.”
Death of a Slideshow - KGW-TV, Portland
“Death of Sideshow,” a 90-minute program on Portland’s skid row, was produced by the news staff of KGW-TV over a period of 16 months. The jurors’ comment: “Perhaps the year’s most successful example of presenting the totally rejected as worthy of the average American viewer’s attention…proving what a small, hard pressed news staff with a small budget can do to stir up and inform its own community.”
Editorials on important community issues KNX Radio, Los Angeles
Of KNX Radio, Los Angeles, the jurors said: “their editorials not only spoke out daily on important community issues, but reached out to bring in voices in the community who could speak with equal authority and conviction on matters of controversy and concern.”
NBC Reports: The Sins of the Fathers NBC News
About Robert Northshield and NBC News’ “The Sins of the Fathers” the jurors said: “Of a sure-fire subject, the orphaned and abandoned children of the Vietnamese war, Northshield made an essay which went beyond predictability and established him as the media’s unquestioned poet of the youthful innocent adrift in the violent and heartless grown-up world.”
Thirty Minutes With... - National Public Affairs Center for Television
Of Elizabeth Drew and NPACT’s “Thirty Minutes With…” the jurors said: “An admirable series of interview portraits… TV interrogation at its most informed and incisive.”
The Rape of Paulette - WBBM-TV, Chicago
Of WBBM-TV’s “The Rape of Paulette” the jurors said: “An unflinching look at the crime of rape which enlisted the cooperation of a number of attractive and articulate women who had been victims of some repellently brutal attacks. The women spoke out on a subject which has too long been distorted by inverted social taboos and male hang-ups and on police and legal practices which frequently punish the victims much more severely than the perpetrators of the crime.”
The Nine-Year-Old in Norfolk Prison WTIC-TV, Hartford, Connecticut
WTIC-TV Hartford’s “The Nine-Year-Old in Norfolk Prison” was the work of two young investigative reporters Jean Sablon, black, and Brad Davis, white, who had a particularly impressive record for the season. The jurors chose from among several of their first-class investigative reports the hour-long program, “an inquiry into the justice of the conviction of a mentally retarded 28-year-old black man for murder. Under persistent examination, the evidence slowly eroded and a vivid picture of legal haste and callousness appeared.”