1981 duPont-Columbia Award Winners
In a special program, the duPont-Columbia University Awards announced 12 winners and 12 Special Citation recipients.
The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage ABC News
The season's big story was unquestionably Iran and the taking of the American hostages. Although all three networks gave this disturbing event exhaustive coverage, ABC was the one that chose to extend its network schedule to accommodate unprecedented public concern. Furthermore, after the Iran story subsided, the late-evening time slot was retained for a half-hour news program, the first major advance in evening newscasting on the commercial networks in nearly two decades.
The Battle of Westlands - KTEH-TV
The takeover of the American family farm by agribusiness is one of recent history’s most significant and disturbing stories. "The Battle of Westlands" described this highly charged confrontation between the large and the small and its broader human and governmental ramifications with admirable fairness and clarity.
Blacks in America: With All Deliberate Speed? - CBS News
Twenty-five years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, "CBS Reports" sent reporter Ed Bradley to Mississippi and to his home town of Philadelphia to investigate the current status of desegregation in the north and south. The resulting two prime-time hours, "Blacks in America: With All Deliberate Speed?" were distinguished and disturbing television.
I-Team Investigations - Group W and KYW-TV, Philadephia | WBZ-TV, Boston | WJZ-TV
Three years ago, Group W’s Pat Polillo established his first I-Team at WBZ-TV, Boston. The "I" stood for "investigative" and the "I-Team’s first effort on political skullduggery in the Bay state took six months to research and occupied 36 minutes at the top of the local newscast. Since then group W has established I-Teams at all five of its stations. This year the submissions from I-Teams at KYW-TV, Philadelphia, and WJZ-TV, Baltimore, as well as those from WBZ-TV, Boston, earned them all Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.
William Faulkner: A Life on Paper -Mississippi Center for Educational Television
To capture the intensely private life of a great writer is a task that filmmakers have frequently set themselves and rarely accomplished. An outstanding exception was "William Faulkner: A Life on Paper."
All Things Considered and Morning Edition - NPR
To its exemplary early evening series, "All Things Considered," National Public Radio has added "Morning Edition," a two-hour program equally imaginative and resourceful in its handling of news and public affairs. This three-and-a-half-hour daily commitment to quality journalism, the most intensive in network broadcasting, has earned National Public Radio its second Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.
Picasso: A Painter's Diary | Perry Miller Adato & WNET-TV
Part 1 of Picasso: A Painter’s Diary profiles the life and work of Pablo Picasso from the age of fourteen when he qualified for advanced classes at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, through his influence by the post-impressionists in Paris at nineteen, to the somber Blue Period and finally to the more lyrical Rose Period. Observances and remembrances are offered from friends, family, and Picasso himself. Part 2: The personal and professional life of Pablo Picasso, shown through his work and his own comments and those of his family and friends. Part 3: Covers Picasso career from his Paris paintings on the eve of World War II through his construction sculpture after the liberation to the works he created up to the end of his life. He comments on his prodigious output: "I love art as the only end of my life."
Joan Robinson: One Woman's Story - Red Cloud Productions & WGBY-TV
Death and dying, until recently virtually taboo as subjects for journalists, are now commonplace in print and on the air. There was nothing commonplace, however, about "Joan Robinson: One Woman’s Story," an unflinching two-and-a-half-hour account of one woman’s heroic battle with cancer.
CBS Reports: Teddy - Roger Mudd & CBS News
Because of the equal time requirements of broadcast law, important political profiles are seldom put on the air. Last season, on the eve of Senator Edward Kennedy’s presidential campaign, "CBS Reports" broadcast a full-scale portrait which had incalculable effect on the ensuing primary battles. Roger Mudd’s central interview was unusually effective and revealing television.
White Paper: If Japan Can... Why Can't We? - Reuven Frank & NBC News
Given the fact that America is the greatest industrial nation in history, the number of network documentaries addressing the business of big business has remained remarkably low. One program which took on the U.S. economy and some of its shortcomings -- and made of them fascinating TV fare -- was, "If Japan Can ... Why Can't We?"
Perspectives - Walter Jacobson and WBBM-TV
Editorial comment has a long and distinguished tradition on radio and TV, although in recent seasons the individual commentator seems to have gone into eclipse. One eloquent and outspoken exception is Walter Jacobson, whose acid pronouncements are heard regularly on WBBM-TV, Chicago.
The Accident Swindlers - WLS-TV & the Chicago Sun-Times
It is not often that the news department of a TV station joins hands with its local print competition to research a major story. One such partnership which paid off brilliantly was that between WLS-TV and the Chicago Sun-Times resulting in "The Accidental Swindlers," an expose of insurance racketeers which had both local and national significance.
Special Citations
The Moore Report, WCCO-TV, Minneapolis
In the past dozen years, WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, has been voted three awards and one citation by the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University jurors for its documentaries, including its long-lived monthly documentary series, "The Moore Report." This year, WCCO-TV has been singled out for the fifth time and the "Moore Report" for the third for a season which included outstanding reports on such wide-ranging subjects as food conglomerates and religious cults.
Downhill Dollars, WAST-TV Albany
Covering the Olympics is a story the national networks do every four years and, when the political situation permits, do magnificently. What goes on behind the scenes has received less attention. Last season, WAST-TV, Albany, went to Lake Placid to look into the backstage management of the 1980 winter Olympics. The resulting story, "Downhill Dollars," was a prime example of local broadcast journalism initiative, investigation and expertise.
Kelly Air Force Base, WFAA-TV Dallas
One of the largest Air Force Installations in the country, the Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, will probably never be the same thanks to an 11-part series which aired on WFAA in the fall of 1980. Health and safety hazards, discrimination, inadequate security — all were addressed and upgraded following WFAA's wide-ranging investigation.
Denise, WCVB-TV, Needham
We have been told often that a brutal and heartbreaking childhood leads to brutality and heartbreak in subsequent adult life. Seldom has this grim lesson been more vividly conveyed than in the tragic story of Denise Gallison.
Nova: A Plague on Our Children, WGBH-TV, Boston
Humanity's on-again, off-again romance with chemistry and its unpredictable results has turned out to be one of the cliff-hangers of the century. A particularly lucid and compelling account of the mixed blessings delivered by our modern technology was Robert Richter's and WGBH-TV, Boston's, "Nova: A Plague on Our Children."
Independent Focus: With Babies and Banners
The juxtaposition of historic footage with the real-life participants half a century later is a technique that has been used by TV documentarians, but seldom with more rousing effect than in WNET/13, New York's, "Independent Focus" Production of Lorraine Gray's "With Babies and Banners," a spirited recollection of the great General Motors strike of 1936 and the Women's Emergency Brigade.
Baby Formula: The Hidden Dangers, WRC-TV, Washington
Each year there are a few fortunate broadcast journalists who have the satisfaction of seeing their work have an immediate and positive effect. This year, reporter Lea Thompson was one who accomplished the miracle of moving a sluggish bureaucracy to fast action.
KKK: The Wizards at Odds, WSM-TV, Nashville
The recent resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan is a nationwide phenomenon, and one that can only be viewed with alarm. One of the first local broadcasters to recognize its significance and report on it at length was WSM-TV, Nashville. For their level-headed treatment of an incendiary subject, the jurors voted a special citation to Alan Griggs and WSM-TV, Nashville, for "KKK: The Wizards at Odds."
Directions, ABC-TV
Marcos and the Philippines, pre-revolutionary Honduras, a gentle Mexican bishop, the Jews of Danzig -- the scope of ABC-TV's Directions is broad, its probing deep. This Sunday half hour is one of the oldest continuous public affairs series on the air and one of the bravest and best.
Closeup: This Shattered Land, ABC-TV
The saga of Cambodia in the last decade is one of the most painful and complex in recent history. For its astute portrayal of cynical politics and the resulting human agony, the jurors voted a citation of excellence to ABC's "Closeup: This Shattered Land."
Campaign '80, CBS-TV
The campaign was just revving u when the judging for this year's awards began, but already CBS' "Campaign '80" had distinguished itself by its wry and persistent pursuit of primary campaigners and their shenanigans.
CBS Magazine, CBS-TV
Traditionally, daytime network television has been the haunt of soap operas and game shows. A distinguished exception is one of the first and certainly one of the best TV magazines on the air. Broadcast since 1974, "CBS Magazine" delivers consistently challenging TV essays to its late morning audiences.