1982 duPont-Columbia Award Winners
In a special program, the duPont-Columbia University Awards announced 12 winners and 9 Special Citation recipients.
America Held Hostage: The Secret Negotiations - ABC News
In over a year of massive media coverage no treatment was more comprehensive or revealing of the events in Tehran than this unprecedented three-hour investigative report, aired twice in the week following the release of the U.S. hostages in Iran.
Sunday Morning - CBS News and Charles Kuralt
In 1980, the jurors voted a special citation to a remarkable new program just beginning its weekly run. Once again, they would like to honor this program which is second to none in style, intelligence, imagination, and humanity.
CBS Reports: The Defense of the United States - CBS News and Dan Rather
The most expensive documentary project in CBS history may also be its pravest and most important. Presented in prime time on five consecutive nights in June 1981, "The Defense of the U.S." faced squarely the problems that Oppenheimer's invention and an unprecedented trillion-dollar military budget have made paramount to the American people.
CLOSEUP: Can't It Be Anyone Else? - ABC News
In the daily fare of TV one sees occasional flashes of great courage in the face of accident and disaster, but seldom has grace under pressure been more vividly illustrated without sentimentality or sensationalism than by the three children afflicted with leukemia who are profiled in the remarkable ABC "Closeup: Can't It Be Anyone Else?"
Hard Choices - KCTS-TV and Dr. Willard Gaylin
Seldom if ever has such a television series set out to consider six such difficult subjects as KCTS Seattle's "Hard Choices". Sex selection, genetic screening, human experimentation, behavior control, death and dying, justice in health care - each topic was considered at length and with remarkable honesty and astuteness. The result was a demonstration of how effective and helpful television can be in the treatment of complex and controversial subjects.
Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown - National Public Radio
One of the most remarkable programs of [1982] or any year was NPR's chilling 90-minute "Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown". Expertly culled by writer James Reston Jr. from over 900 hours of tapes found in the Guyana jungle after the mass murder and suicide of cult leader Jim Jones's followers, the documentary was aired even as NPR was threatened with drastic cutbacks in government funding. It gave one more demonstration of the value of this small, intensely dedicated organization to the nation's journalism.
Six O'Clock and All's Well - Robert Spencer and WWTW-TV Chicago, IL
Probing behind the scenes at the top-rated New York City news program, this documentary examines the processes and values of contemporary broadcast journalism. Through interviews with station staff and dissections of story coverage, a candid portrait emerges of America's primary news source, the `Six O'Clock News' program.
Election Night Coverage - WBBM-TV, Chicago
Knowledgable, alert, resourceful, intelligent, humorous - all these adjectives could be applied to the election night coverage of Bill Kurtis, Walter Jacobson and the team at WBBM-TV Chicago. It was another example of the quality attention paid to news and public affairs by one of the nation's foremost news stations.
The Moore Report - WCCO-TV, Minneapolis
Now in its fourth year, the WCOO-TV, Minneapolis, "Moore Report" can seem to do very little wrong. Among the outstanding hours presented during the 1980-81 season were "The Quiet Crisis" concerning water quality in "the land of 10,000 lakes", "You've Come a Long Way, Maybe" on women's rights, "Fear and Present Danger" on crime and the survivalist movement, and particularly "One Nation Under God" which tellingly delineated the disquieting implications of the combination of politics and fundamentalist Christianity.
World - WGBH-TV, Boston
In its fourth season WGBH's "World" aired such outstanding segments as "The Red Army", a comparison of U.S. and Russian military might, "No More Mountains: The Story of Hmong", an examination of Laos tribesmen transplanted to the U.S., and "Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban Odyssey", a remarkable essay on the 1980 exodus from Castro's Cuba.
The Billion Dollar Ghetto - WPLG-TV, Miami
In the fall of 1980 the I-Team of station WPLG-TV Miami aired a 10-part series which revealed to its viewers how in a brief decade a billion dollars in federal funds intended to benefit local minorities had been frittered away. The 10 segments aired on a nightly newscast totaled 90 minutes and were a remarkable example of reportorial enterprise and management commitment.
The Day After Trinity - KTEH-TV, San Jose and John Else
Since 1945 the central fact of modern warfare has been the atomic bomb. How this terrible weapon came to be and what its creation meant to its makers, most notably J. Robert Oppenheimer, is conveyed with fascinating precision by Jon Else's 90-minute documentary "The Day After Trinity".
Special Citations
The Deadly Winds of War, KUED-TV Salt Lake City
Just 12 years ago the jurors voted an award to NBC's pioneering TV magazine "First Tuesday" for its stinging essay on chemical biological warfare. Over a decade later a local station, KUED, Salt Lake City, returned to the same subject with telling and disturbing results.
Vengeance or Justice, WHAS Radio, Louisville
The U.S. system of justive had reeceived its share of criticism, most of it deserved. In "Vengeance or Justice?" radio station WHAS, Louisville, whittled matters down to the case of one black man in a small Kentucky town and how he happened to get a two-year jail sentence for a minor offense. An unusual and admirable example of attention to the single citizen whose case has larger implications.
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 secuirty, all were addressed and upgraded following WFAA's wide-ranging investigation.
Until We Say Goodbye, Paul and Holly Fine and WJLA-TV, Washington, D.C.
Death and dying have been given increasing attention on radio and television in recent years. However, there have been few programs as sensitive and eloquent in the treatment of this forbidding subject than WJLA's "Until We Say Goodbye," 90 minutes dealing with the hospice movement in the U.S. and abroad.
I Remember Harlem, William Miles and WNET-TV New York
To catch the authentic spirit and voice, the look, sound and feel of a place is a challenge to any artist. William Miles in his four-part essay, "I Remember Harlem," succeeded in bringing a unique community to vibrant life.
The First Amendment Project, WCBS-TV New York
For three weeks in June 1981, WCBS, New York City turned its attention and resources to a consideration of the First Amendment. Through a series of editorials and special features it spotlighted such current and compelling concerns as shield laws, book banning, confidential sources and the regulation of journalists.
Gorilla, National Geographic Society and WQED-TV, Pittsburgh
Wars and power plays are not the only reasons for broadcast journalists to go abroad. Occasionally, as in the fascinating National Geographic Special, "Gorilla," there is a gentler but no less interesting story to be told. For examining the present and possible future of one of nature's most magnificent and appealing creatures with great sensitivity and understanding, the jurors have voted a special citation to The National Geographic Society and Pittsburgh's WQED-TV.
CBS Reports: The Saudis, CBS-TV
Saudi Arabia has long seemed an inscrutable, sometimes shocking and exasperating place to Americans. CBS's remarkable documentary, "The Saudis" penetrated and illuminated withot simplifying one of the most important and poorly understood nations in the modern world."
Inside Afghanistan, NBC-TV
Even more difficult of access and more important to the immediate policies of the U.S. than Arabia was the embattled mountain kingdom of Afghanistan. Betsy Aaron leaped a double barrier, as a woman and an American, when she crossed with producer Joe DeCola forbidden frontiers and entered this primitive macho nation.