1985 duPont-Columbia Award Winners
In a special program, the duPont-Columbia University Awards announced 11 winners and 8 Special Citation recipients.
Nightline - ABC News
"Nightline" continues in its tradition of comprehensive coverage of topics as varied as selling of organs for transplants, nuclear winter, divorce, and the Beirut Marine attack.
US-USSR: A Balance of Powers - ABC News
An even-handed and intelligently presented 10-part series that succeeded in providing viewers with a better understanding of the half-century of complex relations between the two superpowers.
Outstanding Investigative Reporting by Brian Ross and Ira Silverman for NBC News
For 10 years, uncovering corruption and covering breaking news stories have been the steady diet of this enterprising duo, whose journalistic coup this year was the expose' of millionaire financier Robert Vesco’s drug trafficking in the Caribbean.
60 Minutes: Lenell Geter's in Jail - CBS News
Once again, America’s favorite newsmagazine has demonstrated the importance of substantive investigative journalism and the influential power of the electronic media in this story of a man serving a life sentence for a robbery he did not commit.
Hillside: A Desegregation Story - Suburban Cablevision
This examination of the implementation of a school desegregation plan is distinguished by refreshingly candid on-camera interviews with parents and students and a closeup look at the economics of integration.
Selling the Public Spectrum - KOSU Radio
Looking for a place to profit and proselytize, two ultraconservative religious broadcasting networks threaten to dominate the limited FM frequencies set aside by Congress 50 years ago for noncommercial educational broadcasting. This story, too controversial for many media outlets, was investigated and reported by students at Oklahoma State University's radio station, proving that broadcast excellence depends more on courage and commitment than money and manpower.
If you have more information about this reporting, please contact the duPont-Columbia Awards.
Frontline: Mind of a Murderer -Documentary Consortium & PBS
Frontline in its first two years has given us week after week some of the very best in documentary television, tackling subjects ranging from black politics in Birmingham to the psychology of a murderer, simultaneously providing a showcase for the important work of independent filmmakers.
Vietnam: A Television History - WGBH-TV & PBS
These 13 hours of spellbinding, journalistically exemplary television have deservedly been called a landmark in American broadcast journalism and the most important and most compelling documentary series ever made.
The Smell of Money - WJXT-TV
This series of reports about odor pollution in Jacksonville was a call to action, spurring for the first time odor control legislation by city government, the mayor and the Environmental Protection Board.
Baby Boom: The Pig in the Python - WJZ-TV
This documentary, produced by Baby Boomers, is a humorous and enlightening hour of television about how the 76 million babies born between 1946 and 1964 changed America.
The First Fifty Years: Reflections on US-Soviet Relations - Quest Productions & PBS
This masterfully edited hour interweaving rare archival footage and interviews with American diplomats who made history negotiating with the Soviets, is a judiciously delivered, stimulating history lesson of 50 years of relations between the two superpowers.
Special Citations
The Blizzard of '84, KFGO, Fargo, ND
The KFGO radio staff met the challenge of an unexpected weekend snowstorm, later named eastern North Dakota's worst blizzard in 40 years, with round-the-clock, open-phone-line coverage, providing essential information from law enforcement agencies and the National Weather Service, life-saving survival tips to stranded motorists and news of the safety of family and friends to those at home.
The Phone Mess, WCBS, New York, NY
This 10-part series of reports demystifying the divestiture of AT&T, a corporate break-up that has affected us all, is distinguished by the clarity and humor with which vast amounts of information are eloquently delivered.
Emergency Call for Help, KDFW-TV, Dallas, TX
These first exclusive reports of the mishandling of a Dallas citizen's call for an ambulance that might have saved his mother's life if his plea had been answered quickly reminded the nation that an emergency medical service call should always be treated as an emergency.
Elevator Rip-Off, Pamela Zekman and WBBM-TV, Chicago, IL
Leading the WBBM investigative unit, Ms. Zekman has once again uncovered systemic corruption, this year by exposing the "loafing" and "payroll cheating" of elevator repair crews and supervisors supposedly working in Chicago Housing Authority buildings where lives have been lost as a result of negligence and monies misspent for 10 years. The reports forced an overall revision of maintenance management.
I-Team, WBZ-TV, Boston, MA
Whether documenting Statehouse shenanigans or the plight of homeless Salvadorans, the WBZ investigative unit informs with intelligence and warmth and sparks corrective action.
Outstanding Metropolitan Reporting, Gabe Pressman, WNBC-TV, New York, NY
Recognized in New York's broadcast journalism community as the "reporter's reporter," Mr. Presman in his more than 30 years as a television newsman has compiled a peerless record of investigative reporting in politics and social issues. His reports, such as this year's "Asylum in the Streets," continue to sensitize viewers through incisive, informative accounts of city life.
Patterns of Practice, WCAX-TV, Burlington, VT
The complicated and hard-to-visualize story of a national problem -- rising medical-care costs -- was given an impressive and interesting local treatment through extensive research and concise writing.
First Camera: Leader LaRouche, NBC News
This portrait of Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. -- the far left-winger turned right-winger -- gives new insight into the political force that one man can wield. Through its well-written, thoroughly researched reporting, it stands out as one of the year's best newsmagazine segments.