1980 duPont-Columbia Award Winners
In a special program, the duPont-Columbia University Awards announced 11 winners and 12 Special Citation recipients.
Closeup - ABC News
From what they considered the season’s most outstanding documentary series, ABC News’s "Closeup," the jurors selected their eloquent presentation of one community’s struggle with a growing nationwide problem. Others in this winning sequence included "The Shooting of Big Man," "The Killing Ground" and "Asbestos: the Way to Dusty Death," all compelling treatments of important subjects.
Outstanding Reporting by Bill Moyers for CBS News & WNET-TV
This year, which Bill Moyers split between CBS and Public Television with equally distinguished results in both camps, convinced the jurors that the time had come again to honor a highly effective and scrupulously honest broadcast journalist. A duPont Award is given to Bill Moyers with particular attention to his splendid work for "CBS Reports," his news specials on WNET-TV and his own weekly "Bill Moyers’ Journal."
60 Minutes: The Boat People - CBS News
In its continuing struggle just to keep up, TV’s memory sometimes seems distressingly short. In contrast to that general forgetfulness was the moving follow-up to the "Living Room War" contained in "CBS Reports-The Boat People."
Do I Look Like I Want to Die? - KCTS-TV
The arguments for nuclear power, pro and con, are familiar media fare. To get a new perspective, KCTS, Seattle, went to Hanford, Wash., a town dependent on the nuclear age for its living, and staged a no-holds-barred debate between nuclear antagonists Ralph Nader and Dr. Ralph Lapp. The result: "Do I Look Like I Want to Die?" was voted a duPont-Columbia Award.
Clouds of Doubt | KUTV-TV
Thanks to the events at Three Mile Island, the hazards of the nuclear age stood out in sharp relief as never before. No one caught these details with more clarity and justified concern than KUTV, Salt Lake City, in its documentary on the long-term effects of atom testing in its own region.
The Air Space - How Safe? - KXL Radio
Disasters in San Diego and Chicago focused attention on the nation’s air transport and those responsible for its safe conduct. In the broadcast coverage that followed, KXL Radio, Portland, Ore., in a 25-part series not only described the peril in its own community but prompted action to correct it.
World/Inside Europe: F-16 Sale of the Century - WGBH-TV
Big business, particularly of the multi-national variety, seldom gets more than cursory attention from the broadcast media. An outstanding exception was "Inside Europe: F-16 Sale of the Century," a detailed, clear-cut delineation of one of the biggest, most inscrutable businesses of them all, the global traffic in arms.
An American Ism: Joe McCarthy - WHA-TV, Madison | Catalyst Films | Wisconsin Educational Television Network
For bringing new understanding and significance to a man who had received more than his share of notoriety and who to some may have seemed better forgotten.
KDFW-TV, Dallas for investigative Reporting
Outstanding series on "Illegal Aliens," "Children Having Children" and "Who Is Raising the Kids?" were just a few of the many excellent investigations aired during the past year by KDFW-TV, Dallas. For the consistently high quality of these reports and their sensitivity to the needs of the community the jurors have voted a duPont-Columbia Award.
Second to None? - ABC News
Stuffing a hundred pounds of news into a one-pound sack, as Walter Cronkite has put it, continues the common daily lot of the network TV newscasts. ABC’s "World News Tonight" bucked the trend by allotting 11 substantial segments to its outstanding examination of Salt II, its background and its prospects, entitled "Second to None?"
60 Minutes - CBS News
In the judgement of the duPont-Columbia jurors, "60 Minutes" has maintained the high standards it set for itself 11 years ago and has earned the praise and has established itself as the most successful non-entertainment program in TV history. For the third time the jurors have voted honors to CBS New's distinguished series "60 minutes".
Special Citations
Northwest Illustrated, KOIN-TV, Portland
Of the dozens of local magazine shows which have sprouted up in recent years from coast to coast, the duPont jurors would like to cite KOIN-TV's "Northwest Illustrated" for the breadth and depth of the features it presents to its viewers in Portland, Ore.
Tattooed Tears, KQED-TV, San Francisco
In some instances crime is accompanied by punishment. How appropriate are the punishments imposed by modern American justice was a question that was pursued with unwavering realism by Joan Churchill, Nicholas Broomfield and KQED-TV, San Francisco, whose "Tattooed Tears was voted a special citation.
Power Play, KTCA/KTCI-TV, St. Paul
The jurors voted a special citation to KTCA/KTCI-TV, St. Paul, for its "Power Play," a vivid picture of high-voltage power lines, another of the mixed blessings an advancing technology has bestowed on the American people.
Three Mile Island: Seven Days of Fear, KYW Radio, Philadelphia
For its evenhanded, yet deeply perceptive treatment of one of the year's most difficult subjects, a special citation goes to KYW Radio, Philadelphia, for "Three Mile Island: Seven Days of Fear."
Investigative Reporting by KYW-TV, Philadelphia and the I Team
Much of the nation's crime has nothing to do with violence and death. For its indefatigable pursuit of the less lurid but even more prevalent type of workaday wrongdoing that victimizes us all, a special citation was voted by the jurors to the KYW-TV, Philadelphia I Team.
A Death in the Family, WCCO-TV, Minneapolis
For one of those rare TV programs that tells TV viewers a few disquieting truths about their addiction, a citation goes to WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, for "A Death in the Family."
Epitaph for Mom, WHIO-TV, Dayton
The death of a parent is a universal experience which in every instance is unique. For catching that double quality with gentleness and accuracy, the jurors voted a citation to Martha Dunsky and WHIO-TV, Dayton for "Epitaph for Mom"
Word is Out, WNET-TV, New York & Mariposa Film Group
Presenting a minority without condescension or special pleading, sentimentality or defiance is a difficult feat that was achieved with distinction in "Word is Out," a head-on encounter with the nation's gay community.
Politics of Paranoia: Jim Jones and the People's Temple, WNET-TV, New York
Sometimes it is required of broadcast newspeople to speak about the unspeakable. For its expert handling of such a subject in, "Politics of Paranoia: Jim Jones and the People's Temple," the jurors voted a citation to D.I.R. Broadcasting.
What If You Couldn't Read?, Dorothy Tod and the Vermont Council on the Humanities and Public Issues
One man's quiet, courageous fight against a humiliating handicap, illiteracy, was beautifully portrayed by "What If You Couldn't Read?" the jurors have voted a citation to Dorothy Tod and the Vermont Council on the Humanities and Public Issues.
1968, CBS News
A citation to CBS News for "1968," a painful and important year, which was evoked and put into unflinching perspective in two crackling hours.
Sunday Morning, CBS News
A new series came on the air late in the period under consideration but nonetheless managed in a few weeks to bring liveliness, imagination, thoroughness and originality to a whole new corner of the TV schedule. For its enthusiasm, thoughfulness and catholicity of taste, the duPont jurors have voted a citation to CBS' "Sunday Morning."