1999

Nightline: Crime & Punishment | ABC News

In this four-part series, Ted Koppel penetrates the myth of high-tech maximum-security prisons. With the cooperation of the prison staff and many inmates in Cell Block C of the Estelle Prison in Huntsville, Alabama, Koppel gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of violent prisoners.

CREDITS

Anchor: Ted Koppel
Executive Producer: Tom Bettag
Senior Producer: Mark Nelson
Producer: Gilliam Parker
Producer: Daniel Morris
Producer: Jay LaMonica
Reporter: Robert Krulwich

Investigation of the International Pharmaceutical Industry | 60 Minutes

This three-part series presents shocking evidence that the international pharmaceutical industry preys on the sick, especially in developing nations. In the first segment, Mike Wallace demonstrates that antifreeze produced in China was mislabeled and became an additive in children’s medicine sold in Haiti, resulting in the death of 88 Haitian children. The second report focuses on how counterfeit and substandard medicines are shipped around the world with the unwitting help of the World Health Organization. The final report examines the blood plasma industry and how companies manipulated a shortage of immunoglobulin to reap higher profits.

CREDITS

Anchor: Mike Wallace

Tombs of the Unknowns | CBS News

In this seven-part series for the CBS Evening News, Eric Engberg and Vince Gonzales broke the story that the Vietnam war hero buried at Arlington National Cemetery was not an unknown soldier. The investigative team pursued two strands of this story: the forensic science that makes it possible identify virtually any soldier’s remains with DNA; and evidence that the Pentagon deliberately obscured forensic reports so that they could enshrine an unknown soldier from the Vietnam War. After 26 years, these reports brought the remains of Sgt. Michael Blassie back to his family.

CREDITS

Anchor: Ed Bradley

Correspondents: Eric Engberg, Vince Gonzales

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Fager

Producers: Dick Meyer, Jim McGlinchy

Scenes from a Transplant | This American Life

This hour-long, independently-produced radio documentary is the autobiographical account of a cancer patient: National Public Radio health reporter Rebecca Perl, who records her treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma. After chemotherapy and radiation fail, she plunges into the rigors of a bone marrow transplant, in an audio diary full of the reporter’s medical expertise and emotional responses. It is an illuminating report on cancer and the ravages of a most radical treatment. It aired on “This American Life,” distributed by Public Radio International.

CREDITS

Writer and Narrator: Rebecca Perl

Field Producer: Tom Jennings

Producer: Dan Collison

Struggles in Steel: A Story of African American Steelworkers | International Television Service

This beautiful one-hour documentary focuses on the role of African-American laborers throughout the history of the steel industry. It is suffused with the filmmaker’s passion for revealing what had been deliberately overlooked: that black laborers most often had the grittiest, most dangerous jobs in the mines and the mills, and they never rose up through the ranks into management. This is independent filmmaking at its very best, simply produced by a retired steelworker with a mission and his filmmaker friend.

CREDITS

John Rice, Billy Jackson, John Bick, Wayne Gaines, Tom Dubensky, Tony Buba, Raymond Henderson, M. Heather Hartley, Gus Samios, Dennis C. Dickerson, Eric Sanchez, Dave Quick, Daria Quick, Greg Lanier, Curtis Reaves, John Hinshaw, Monica Peixoto, Elaine Westbrooks, Kensington Falls, Jennifer Bastion, Stephanie Majowitz, Deborah Lewis, Chris Stroilo, Sean Gilmour, Daryl Unger, Sherri Stocker, Daniele Spisak, Kevin Marsh, Jarrett Buba, Jimmy Sapienza, Greg Lutz, Ed Fraticelli, Ed Dukestein

POV: Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary | PBS

Independent filmmaker and fourth-grade teacher Laura Simón is unabashed in her use of this documentary, her first, to demonstrate a point of view—that California’s Proposition 187, California’s new immigration policy, is turning teachers into a quasi border patrol. The hour-long documentary provides an intense debate on the issue through the opposing views of teachers, students and their parents. The central character, Mayra, leads us through Hoover Elementary, her home and her dilemma. She may be a schoolgirl now, but faced with the deportation of her mother, where will she live and how can she learn?

CREDITS

Executive Producer: Lisa Heller

Producer: Laura Simón

Taken In: The Lives of America’s Foster Children | Thirteen & WNET

This riveting debut documentary by social worker Vanessa Roth is a compassionate look at the troubled system of foster care in New York City. With the intimacy of a hand-held camera, the program examines the lives of a brother and sister, their birth parents, and their foster home. It demonstrates how difficult it is for society to make the choice between birth parents and foster care.

CREDITS

Vanessa Roth, Livio Sanchez, Cynthia Wade, Ferne Perlstein, Sarah Kernochan, Kathy Novak, Ben Shapiro, Caleb Mose, Mark Donovan, Lisa Leeman, Jeffrey Smith, Tahnee Marsh, Linda Roth, Kristin Binning, Jill Schoolman, Roxanne Amiri, Emmanuwell Clay, Brian Reid, Garth O'Donnell, Mark Osborne, Todd Bozung, Cory Livingston, Eric Silvestro, Kathy Yore, Kimon Rephis, Ken Katz, Barbara Spence, Corbis Bettmann, Fred Noriega

Coverage of Congressman William Lipinski Campaign | WBBM-TV

Chicago Reporter Carol Marin is intrepid in her reporting on illegal petitions that favored Democratic Congressman William Lipinski in his last primary campaign. With firm details, she confronts Lipinski and his volunteer precinct workers, who had circulated petitions on behalf of both the Democratic and Republican candidates and nominated a bogus Republican candidate just to weaken Lipinski’s Republican opponent. This three-part series is local reporting at its best.

CREDITS

Dan Moseley, Susan Evans, Carol Marin, Gary Wright, Carolyn Broquet

Final Mission | WEWS-TV

This half-hour documentary chronicles the discovery of the remains of an American fighter plane and its pilot, Wilton Erickson, shot down by German gunfire over Belgium during World War II. Reporter Bill Sheil follows Erickson’s Ohio-based family to Europe to meet the young German who has worked inexorably to locate the wrecked plane and the remains of the airman. The story is restrained and symbolic; the grandson of a German soldier finds closure with the family of a long-lost fighter pilot.

CREDITS

Bill Sheil, Dave Arnold, Lynn Hovis

Strip Searched at O'Hare | WMAQ-TV

Reporter Renee Ferguson uncovers racial discrimination by immigration agents at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Black women were disproportionately targeted for strip-searches by customs agents, who suspected them of carrying drugs. Customs guidelines were vague and contradictory, yet immigration agents inspected black women twice as often as white women and subjected them to degrading and upsetting body checks. 60 women were interviewed in this investigation, none of whom were found to be carrying drugs. WMAQ’s reports stimulated a federal review of customs practices nationwide.

CREDITS

Sarah Stolper, Renee Ferguson, Dennis Sampler, Mable Miller, Paul Nagaro, Suzanne Richter

Investigate Reports on Military Medicine | WRAL-TV

A massive investigative undertaking for a local television station, this six-part series on inadequate medical care provided to military families became a national story. For Stuart Watson and WRAL-TV, the story had a compelling local resonance because of the military personnel and bases located in North Carolina. Watson also traveled to Boston, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C. to document the pervasiveness of the problem and the human suffering that resulted.

CREDITS

Investigative Reporter: Stuart Watson

Chief Photographer: Richard Adkins

NOVA | WGBH-TV

Five parts of this series of outstanding science reporting won Gold Batons. This is an excerpt from "Coma." "Coma" follows the treatment of several patients with severe head injuries to demystify the notion of sudden and miraculous recoveries. "China's Mysterious Mummies" accompanies Chinese and American scholars into remote deserts of Central Asia, in order to learn about unearthed mummies that indicate European nomads lived in the region more than 2500 years ago. "Supersonic Spies" exposes years of Soviet espionage into British and French aviation design in the race to produce the first supersonic passenger airplane. "The Brain Eater," a collaborative effort with the BBC, is an authoritative report on the deadly infection "mad cow disease." And "Everest: The Death Zone" investigates the death of eight climbers in a single day near the summit of Everest in 1996.

1998

Primetime Live: Debt Reckoning ABC News

This investigative report revealed that a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company called The Associates used manipulative practices to sell mortgage loans to unsophisticated borrowers, many of them poor homeowners. Excessive interest rates, high fees and forgery—with devastating effects on the victims—were among the practices that made Ford’s loan company at least as profitable as its cars.

CREDITS

Phyllis McGrady, Rick Nelson, Ira Rosen, Chris Wallace

CIA: America's Secret Warriors Blowback Productions

This three-hour series coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Central Intelligence Agency. Using archival footage and interviews about espionage efforts during World War II and later actions in Cuba, Iran and Central America, this biography of an institution chronicled the successes and excesses of this enormous agency. The programs raised the question of why these “warrior priests” are needed now that the Cold War has ended.

CREDITS

Nancy LeBrun, Kathy Davidov, Marc Levin, Alan Levin, Stephen Stept, Daphne Pinkerson

CBS Reports: Enter the Jury Room CBS News

In this age when trials and jury decisions are major stories, CBS News sought and won the right to videotape the process of jury deliberation in several cases in Arizona. Working with the American Bar Association and Arizona’s Chief Justice, and with the permission of the prosecutors, defendants and all the jury members, CBS News illuminated the struggle of jurors in actual deliberations as they came to terms with their power to convict. One case ended in a hung jury, giving the cameras the opportunity to come back to watch a second jury reach a very different verdict.

CREDITS

David Schneider, Mary Raffalli, Vanessa Procopio, Ed Bradley, Richard Schlesinger, Ben McCoy, Steven Lederer, Chris Bancroft, Bill Hitchcock, Gary Metz, Jim Lee, Linda Kim, Steve Dellapietra, M. Scott Cole, Beth Leudesdorf, Neal Kassner, Laura Willoughby, Gregory V. Generet, Gary Mazzacca, Greg Bader, Michael Barry, Gerardo Rueda, Michael Goldbaum, Sandy Genelius, Kevin Tedesco, Barbara Colegrove, Benito Colon, Ilene D. Roseberg, Karen E. Hymes, Anthony Sturniolo, Scott Stern, Kate Hemmerdinger, Chris Telles, Linda Mason, Jonathan Klein

Vote For Me: Politics in America Center for New American Media & PBS

An important antidote to much of national political coverage, this raucous four-hour miniseries was independently produced by Louis Alvarez, Andrew Kolker and Paul Stekler for PBS as part of its Democracy Project. This was a celebration of American politics focused primarily on local campaigns and candidates heady with ambition to contribute to civic life. Culled from 300 hours of tape shot in 30 states, the pace is breathless and the outcomes, win or lose, are revealing, inspiring and often amusing.

The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century | KCET-TV

This series of eight one-hour programs used individual stories to drive home the chaotic origins and the devastating outcome of the first World War. Through archival footage, diaries, still photographs and scenes of the current landscapes, the producers created a tapestry of the social, economic and military forces that transformed Europe. The programs have a poetic quality that brilliantly preserves for the future the overwhelming tragedy of this war.

CREDITS

Blaine Baggett, Jay Winter, Carl Byker, Isaac Mizrahi, Lyn Goldfarb, David Mrazek, Cynthia Crompton, Margaret Koval

NewsNight Minnesota: Unisys | KTCA-TV

This series of reports about the impact of downsizing on long-term employees of the Unisys Corporation was produced for the nightly, half-hour news magazine that airs on Minnesota’s public television stations. In sensitive and penetrating profiles, the reports explored the devastating dimensions of unemployment on hard-working people.

CREDITS

Senior Correspondent: Ken Stone

Marketplace | KUSC Radio

Marketplace, a half-hour program aired nightly on public radio stations, proves that reporting on economic issues can be approached with energy and flair. This eight-year-old magazine format program is consistently engaging, informative and witty. Host David Brancaccio and the Marketplace team have created a highly original business news magazine.

CREDITS

General Manager/Creator: James Russel

Host: David Brancaccio

Why Can't We Live Together? NBC News & Howard Scripps Productions

This one-hour documentary examined the self-fulfilling prophecies of race relations through the attitudes of upper-income blacks and whites in the Chicago suburb of Matteson, Illinois. Correspondent Tom Brokaw explored the myths and negative stereotypes that create white flight from neighborhoods where blacks are moving in. He documented fear and prejudice in candid interviews with townspeople who were remarkable frank.

CREDITS

Craig Leake, Tom Brokaw, Andrea Malin, Andrea Blaugrund, Douglas Cheek, Keith Walker, George Peebles, Bill Arnold, Richard Pooler, Rick Ariail, Alex Riordan, Bob Nymoen, Allan Chalfin, Nina Weinstein

An American Nile | PBS

Beautiful photography elevated this story about the Colorado River beyond the politics of development and the environment. Water is the hero against human encroachment in this ageless contest. Beautifully written and documented with archival footage, interviews and graphics, this one-hour program chronicled the course of a river that no longer reaches the sea.

CREDITS

Jon Else, Robert Dalva, Dan McCann, Kirsetne Jones Neff, Martin Bresnick, Jon Else, Michael Chin, Alfre Woodard, Jamie Stobie, Richard Berge, Martha Olson Jarocki, Jon Haptas, Jon Shenk, Todd Wagner, Jon Halperin, Jay Boekelheide, Will Harvey, Randy Musgrave, Hilary Morgan, Paul Marbury, Jim Ball, Don Briggs, Stephen Lighthill, Brett Wiley, Fred Lewis, Stephen Longstreth, Bonnie G. Rowan, Jorey Else, Katy Mostoller, Tim Brownold, Loren Sorenson, Peter Gleick, David Kennedy, Karen Garrison, Nan Woodruff, David Getches, Kenn Rabin, Danny McGuire, Joe Salandanan, Jennifer Miran, Jonathan Taplin, Sandra Itkoff

Room 104: The Overcrowding Crisis WABC-TV

This half-hour special program by a local station went behind the headlines of New York City’s troubled public schools and examined one of the many issues—overcrowding. Reporter Celeste Ford secured unlimited access to a first grade classroom in Brooklyn. By observing the teacher’s struggle to keep the children focused, the students’ efforts to learn and the parents aspiring to do the best they could, this program brought a current urban issue home to the public in stunning personal terms.

CREDITS

News Director: Bart Feder

Reporter: Celeste Ford

Welcome to Poverty Hollow Wisconsin Public Television

This Gold Baton-winning insightful one-hour program followed three families in an innovative anti-poverty effort in northern Wisconsin, a response to the state’s new welfare reform system. National policy lies behind these stories that were videotaped over a year and a half. The families were not stereotypical, although they cope with classic problems of alcoholism, depression and divorce. Poverty Hollow is an excellent treatment of contemporary poverty that goes beyond current rhetoric.

CREDITS

Linda Friend, Frank Boll, Jim Guenther, Curt Sorenson, Susan Fey, Tom Smith, Jonathan Freedman, Carol Larson, Andrew Garfield, Liz Soellner

Frontline 4-Part Series | WGBH-TV

This Gold Baton-winner is comprised of four distinct programs on disparate controversial, sensitive subjects: Murder, Money and Mexico, an investigative report on the rise and fall of Mexican President Carlos Salinas and his brother, Raul; The Choice '96, a two-hour film portrait of Presidential candidates Robert Dole and Bill Clinton; Secret Daughter, a two-hour autobiographical portrait revealing social relationships revolving around race; and Innocence Lost: The Plea, a two-hour installment taking on justice system failings that was the third part of a seven-year epic about charges of sexual abuse in a day-care center in Edenton, North Carolina.

CREDITS

Neil Docherty, Lowell Bergman, Declan Hill, Adrienne Bard, Andres Oppenheimer, Anita Turcotte, Mike Savoie, Larry Kent, Leslie Steven Onody, Will Lyman, Sylvestre Guidi, Martin Lee, Steven Jones, Alex Powell, Tim Mangini, M.G. Rabinow, Steve Audette, Shady Hartshorne, Andrea Davis, Dennis O'Reilly, Jim Bracciale, Richard Byrne, Diane Hebert, Tess Oliver, Eileen Walsh, Tracy Loskoski, Lee Ann Donner, Debra Morton, Min Lee, Anne delCastillo, Karen O'Connor, Robert O'Connell, Valerie E. Opara, Janel G. Ranney, Miri Navasky, Joe Rosenbloom III, June Cross, Robin Parmelee, Kai Fujita, Sharon Tiller, Marrie Campbell, Michael Sullivan

1997

Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation | BBC & Discovery Channel

This five part epic series, made for the BBC and the Discovery Channel, untangles the political and military events that led to the dismemberment of the country that was Yugoslavia. It integrates rare video footage of council meetings and events that had never been televised before with interviews of the heads of all six rival states. The documentaries carefully explain how Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic systematically and brutally increased the territory under his control. Narrated by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who has become the voice of authority on the region, this series accomplished what other media have not yet managed to do: it sorted out the characters involved and found visual documentation of the crucial events and decisions that led to Yugoslavia’s collapse.

CREDITS

Nancy LeBrun, Brian Lapping, Nicholas Fraser, Norma Percy, Angus MacQueen, Paul Mitchell, Susan Winslow, Christiane Amanpour

The State vs. Simpson: The Verdict ABC News

Nightline made three notable, enterprising departures from its regular nightly format, exceeding even its own high level of reporting. Anchor Ted Koppel, a master of the interview, brought out the unexpected, provocative and most human in his subjects, broadening our exceptions of what nightly news coverage can be in a week-long examination of the implication of the outcome of the O.J. Simpson trial. The series explored the issues of media impact and race, and secured an important interview with a member of the Simpson jury.

CREDITS

Tom Bettag, C. Scott Willis, Mark Nelson, Richard Harris, Ted Koppel

Journey of a Country Doctor: The Verdict | ABC News

"Journey of a Country Doctor," a two-part broadcast, followed Dr. Claire Hicks in her practice of treating AIDS patients over a broad swath of rural Georgia. It was an uplifting view of a courageous doctor in her struggle to deal with the death of her patients.

CREDITS

Tom Bettag, Laura Palmer, Ted Koppel, Russ Freeman

60 Minutes: Punishing Saddam CBS News

In “Punishing Saddam," produced by Catherine Olian, the 60 Minutes team reported on the impact of the UN sanctions on civilians in Iraq. Focusing on shortages of food and medicine as well as the decline in sanitary conditions because of the embargo, Lesley Stahl demonstrated the moral dilemmas of foreign policy.

CREDITS

Don Hewitt, Philip Scheffler, Catherine Olian, Lesley Stahl

60 Minutes: Too Good to be True CBS News

In "Too Good To Be True," produced by Suzanne St. Pierre, Morley Safer revisited graduates of West Side Prep, a private inner-city school in Chicago, the same group he had profiled 16 years before. The success of these students refuted charges by social scientist Charles Murray in his book The Bell Curve that the school could not have improved the prospects of its poor, deprived children.

CREDITS

Suzanne St. Pierre, Morley Safer

Town Meeting: Thou Shalt Not Kill | ABC News

"Town Meeting: Thou Shalt Not Kill," was a two-hour live discussion in Jerusalem shortly after the assassination of Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin. Ted Koppel managed to control an often vitriolic debate among deeply divided panelists and an audience of 900 Israelis. He permitted many voices to be heard, revealing much about the passions and problems besetting Israel.

CREDITS

Tom Bettag, Mark Nelson, Scott Willis, Ted Koppel, Roger Goodman

High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell

and

The Celluloid Closet

HBO

HBO exemplified their commitment to non-fiction programming on important social issues with the documentary “High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, “ an hour-long cinema verite portrait of several crack-addicts in a declining Massachusetts neighborhood. The camera took viewers uncomfortably close to addiction, leaving no romance in this view of the drug culture.

CREDITS

Jon Alpert, Maryann de Leo, Richard Farrell, John Custodio, Doug Abel, Duncan Cameron, John Wiggins, Terri Finaro, Ted Striggles, Craig Crawford, Jonathan Moss, Sheila Nevins

"The Celluloid Closet," is an engaging documentary about the evolution of gay and lesbian characters in Hollywood films. Intercut with anecdotes and observations by many film industry professionals are historical film clips, funny and poignant. Narrated by Lily Tomlin and based on a book of the same name, this program turned the best of Hollywood skills into a revealing self-portrait.

CREDITS

Howard Rosenman, Bernie Brillstein, Brad Grey, Sheila Nevins, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, Lily Tomlin, Vito Russo, Sharon Wood, Carter Burwell, Armistead Maupin

The Wenatchee Child Sex Ring | KREM-TV

Tom Grant of KREM-TV was the only reporter to investigate a rash of indictments on charges of child sexual abuse in the rural area of Wenatchee, Washington, in 1995. With more than 100 people implicated, 40 arrested, and 28 jailed, Grant found that many of the accused were poor, illiterate or below average in intelligence. He reported the story for more than a year and discovered that the cases hinged on the work of one police detective whose key witness was his 13-year-old foster child. Grant uncovered the criminal record of the detective and brought into question the reliability of children as witnesses in cases of sexual abuse. The 13-year-old recanted her testimony.

CREDITS

Shiree Woody, Tom Grant, Duane Regehr

Dateline: Class Photo | NBC News

Starting with a 1982 photograph of a fourth grade class in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant, Dateline did some empirical research by tracking down 21 of the 24 students, now in their 20’s. The effort took nine months to complete, and the program devoted forty minutes to the significant results. A frightening number of the men were in prison or had been involved in crime; the women, for the most part, were successful. Their reunion was enlightening and powerful.

CREDITS

Neal Shapiro, John Block, Len Cannon, Geraldine Moriba-Meadows, Marc Rosenwasser

Fifty Years After 14 August | NPR

This half-hour elegy on the 50th anniversary of the Allied victory over Japan was written and directed by Norman Corwin, the pioneering writer of documentaries and dramas during radio's golden age. Based on the original essay that he created for Orson Welles on CBS Radio, Corwin, now 86, evokes the patriotism and grand emotions of America during World War II. This version was produced for NPR by Mary Beth Kirchner and narrated by Charles Kuralt.

CREDITS

Norman Corwi, Mary Beth Kirchner, Charles Kuralt

Plague Fighters | NOVA & WGBH-TV

The only film crew permitted in the "hot zone" of the deadly ebola epidemic in Zaire was a team from NOVA. They spent a month near Kikwit, taking the same risks as the international medical rescue team, to record Ebola’s effects on the local population and the heroic scientific war against the disease. Plague Fighters, a one-hour program, is a suspenseful human story of doctors and patients pitted against a terrifying villain in a race between science and death.

CREDITS

Paula Apsell, Elliot Halpern, Simcha Jacobovici, Kate Halpern

Coverage of Former Soviet Union | NPR

Garrels' reporting is full of history, context, analysis and humor. With the skillful use of natural sound, she covers 11 time zones and many more ethnic groups, from Siberian hunters to the war in Chechnya. Garrels’ journalism represents the best of NPR’s international coverage, especially in her ability to find individual characters to personalize her stories.

CREDITS

Anne Garrels

Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud PBS

This 90-minute biography of a fabulously quirky character aired on the PBS series American Masters. The producers found superb archival footage that demonstrated the genius and the iconoclast in Buckminster Fuller--architect, engineer, poet, inventor and philosopher, whose most memorable legacy is the geodesic dome. The interviews with many artists, cultural observers, and scholars provide insight and light-hearted reflections on Fuller’s exceptional life.

CREDITS

Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon, Buddy Squires, Terry Hopkins, Sara Fishko, Jaime Snyder, Jan Hartman, Brian Keane, Nancy Graydon Roach, Molly O'Brien, Carol Wilson, Gary Steele, Greg Andracke, Kirk Simon, Jeff Stern, Regina Mullen, Grant Maxwell, Jon Fordham, Joseph Borruso, Elizabeth Westrate, John Ferry, Bonnie Goldstein DeVarco, Dina Hossain, Alan Weeks, Thomas Wagner, B.T. Whitehill, Neil Parker, Karen Bernstein, Tamar Hacker, Jac Venza, Susan Lacy

Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was | PRI

This 13-part, six-and-a half-hour series created for Public Radio International is a masterpiece of historical programming. The producers gathered hundreds of rare tapes dating back to the 1920’s from private individuals and stations, out of cellars and attics and long-forgotten tape libraries. Narrator Lou Rawls tours the vibrant and increasingly popular world of black radio and documents its influence on the changing black community.

CREDITS

Lou Rawls, Jacquie Gales Webb, Sonja Williams, Lex Gillespie

Robert Riggs for Investigative Reporting | WFAA-TV

In 1995, senior reporter Robert Riggs and WFAA-TV broke the story of suspicious payments and commissions between a member of the Dallas Independent School Board and the insurance agent who provided the school’s many insurance and pension policies. The investigative team examined more than 4,000 documents and conducted more than 250 interviews in its uncompromising coverage.

CREDITS

Robert Riggs, P.J. Ward, Percy Powers

Shtetl | Frontline & WGBH

This three-hour special edition of Frontline was a first-person journey of history and remembrance of Europe before World War II. The filmmaker, Marian Marzynski, returned to his native Poland with a friend to rediscover the Jewish village, or Shtetl, of their past, to see how much had survived the Holocaust. They befriended a young Polish non-Jew and explored the shards of Jewish culture he collected in the shtetl called Bransk. Their visit is full of stories of warmth, betrayal, humor, and reconciliation. It is as much a report on modern Poland as it is a healing journey of mutual understanding.

CREDITS

Slawomir Grünberg, Marian Marzynski, David E. Simpson, Millie Cave, David E. Simpson, Mason Daring, Ilya Levinson, Colleen Wilson, Bernice Schneider, Mark Steele, Mary Fenton, Jim Deering, Stephen Baracsi, John Jenkins, Jane Greenberg, Ari Kissiloff, Lesli LaRocco, Jason Longo, Marek Maruszewski, Tomasz Pracel, Maria Wisnicka, Tim Mangini, M.G. Rabinow, Steve Audette, Andrea Davis, Dennis O'Reilly, Jim Bracciale, Karen Klein, Diane Hebert, Eileen Warren, Sara Bader, Lee Ann Donner, Ken Cowan, Min Lee, Anne delCastillo, Robert O'Connell, Janel G. Ranney, Robin Parmelee, Kai Fujita, Marrie Campbell, Michael Sullivan, David Fanning

1996

Turning Point of Human Bondage: Slavery Today | ABC News

This single-themed magazine hour reports on three different cases of slavery in the modern world - children working in rug factories in India; women held as prostitutes in the Amazon; and farm workers in North and South Carolina. Lured by the promise of good jobs and the lies of their employers, these human chattel find themselves trapped into producing what the markets demand. In India, the ABC News team built on the work of local investigators, following them on a surprise rescue mission that freed 126 children. In Brazil, they found teenage girls tricked into prostitution and help captive in mining camps along the Amazon River. In the Carolinas, ABC News found homeless people who had been promised jobs as farm laborers in virtual bondage at isolated work camps.

CREDITS

Phyllis McGrady, Betsy West, Andrew Tkach, Don Kladstrup, Forrest Sawyer

American Agenda: Political Waters ABC News

The American Agenda team probed two unusual stories on environmental subjects, unifying them in a third segment about the Republican legislative drive in Congress to reverse environmental policies. Beautifully photographed in Surinam and Costa Rica, the segments clearly make connections between discoveries of new medical cures through substances found in the rainforest, the impact of pollution on threatened species, and legislation in Washington - and how all three affect the global habitat.

CREDITS

National Editor for Environmental Coverage: Robert Aglow

Anchor and Managing Editor: Peter Jennings

Richard Kaplan, Ned Potter, Bill Blakemore

America's War on Poverty | PBS

This powerfully constructed five-hour series documents the efforts under President Lyndon Johnson to create bold, original, economic strategies to help the nation's poorest and most disadvantaged Americans. Using rare archival footage and thoughtful interviews, each hour closely examines the power struggles that surrounded innovative programs like VISTA, Head Start and Model Cities. The series contradicts the popular assumption that the War on Poverty created the welfare state. It is historical programming that illuminates the current political debate.

CREDITS

Henry Hampton, Terry Kay Rockefeller, Susan Bellows, Lynne Thigpen, Dante J. James, Werner Bundschuh, Paige Martinez, Sam Sills, Leslie D. Farrell

Watergate | BBC & Discovery Channel

This five-hour epic series by producer in London, funded by the BBC and The Discovery Channel, marks the coming of age for cable television journalism. Breathtakingly thorough, Watergate brings significant new evidence to light, primarily in the on-camera revelations of principal players in the White House intrigue. With exhaustive reporting, attention to historical detail, clear narrative and dramatic pacing, the series pulls no punches. This is a remarkable contribution to the historical record at a distance of 20 years by a talented team of journalists.

CREDITS

Executive Producer: Brian Lapping

Series Producer: Norma Percy

Other: Liz McIntyre, Andy Cottom, Nancy LeBrun, Paul Mitchell, Laurence Rees

Political Coverage | NPR

In dozens of segments on all of its programs, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio provided consistent, comprehensive and imaginative coverage of the 1994 elections and the resulting Republican revolution in Washington. NPR deployed its sizable contingent of well-informed reporters, producers and editors to cover grass-roots issues in the context of nationwide trends. The range of subjects, formats and reporting styles makes an impressive contribution to all political coverage, even beyond the medium of radio.

School Colors | Frontline & PBS

In this two-and-a-half-hour special edition of Frontline focuses on the Issues of race, integration and education at Berkeley High School in California, whose students are an ethnic microcosm of urban America. The producers spent a year there documenting the separation of students along racial and ethnic lines, attributed to academic "tracking," social customs and peer pressure. They recruited a multiracial group of student video journalists to help record the complex efforts the school is making to integrate and educate at the same time. With minimum narration and subtle but clear structure, this penetrating documentary drives home the dilemmas of race in America.

CREDITS

Scott Andrews, Stephen Olsson, Inez M. Robinson-Odom, Rick Butler, Spencer Nakasako, Eliza Starr Byard, Tamu Du Ewa, Marilyn Abbink, Ken Schneider, Shirley Thompson, Jay Freund, Lori Olszweski, Frederic N. Tulsky, Reven Malkmus, Rose Arrieta, Tamara Chuang, Stephen Levine, Kenji Yamamoto, Dawn Logsdon, Tal Skloot, Becky Clark, James Curtiss, Jose Norberto Urquijo, David Becerra, Mike Arago, Jennifer Lung, Katherine Steele, Trudi Kelsey, Kathleen Abing, Sharon Tiller, June Cross, David Fanning

Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter P.O.V, The American Documentary Inc.

While many journalists have approached the serious subject of Alzheimer's disease, this intimate documentary hour addresses the illness with considerable warmth and humor. Often talking directly to the camera, Producer Deborah Hoffmann fondly reconstructs the life and decline of her mother, Doris Hoffmann. As Doris's memory slips away, the viewer comes to understand how the frustrating illness can be handled with love and dignity.

The American Experience | PBS

This superb television series makes history its beat, enriching the present with a wide array of film and narrative styles that look at history through today's lens. The duPont-Columbia Jury salutes the series especially for three programs aired last season: The Battle of the Bulge, FDR and The Way West. Fifty years after the biggest and costliest battle in U.S. military history, The Battle of the Bulge weaves eyewitness accounts by German and American survivors and historical footage with intimacy, vividness and emotion, bringing viewers right into the horror of World War II. This 90-minute documentary is taut and unsparing in its examination of how the U.S. military underestimated the enemy, even though the war was nearly over. In FDR, a four-and-one-half-hour series, Producer David Grubin examines the elusive public and private personality of Franklin Roosevelt, from his childhood, through his marriage and political career, and through his social perspective on the needs of Americans. FDR is television biography at its finest, with rare film, personal testimonies, and extraordinary insight. In the six-hour series The Way West, Producers Ric Burns and Lisa Ades use archival pictures, diaries, contemporary news accounts, and historians to create full-blown portraits of great leaders - Native Americans, pioneers and military officers. The series dramatically proves how the migrating white settlers and the military marginalized Native American tribes.

When Billy Broke His Head & Other Tales of Wonder | PBS

An hour-long documentary about life with disabilities, this first-person account is gritty, funny, angry and compelling. The narrator and co¬producer, Billy Golfus, takes viewers through his recovery from a devastating motorcycle accident and then carries them along on his journey to join forces with advocates for the disabled. The program is relentlessly honest and moving as it sweeps away stereotypes.

CREDITS

Billy Golfus, David Simpson

American History - The Disney Version WMAL-AM

This all-news commercial station is refreshingly original in the way it covered the furor over the Disney Company’s proposal to build a Civil War theme park in Haymarket, Virginia. Reporter John Matthews deftly uses clips from Disney classics as he lays out the conflicts about commercial interests, environmental concerns, and historical accuracy. The five-part series aired shortly before the local zoning board approved Disney's plan, but Disney retreated in the wake of local opposition.

CREDITS

John Matthews

Coverage of Haiti | WTVJ-TV

With Haitian refugees streaming into south Florida, WTVJ maintained strong and informative coverage of the crisis in Haiti before, during and after the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Especially in the work of Reporter Kerry Sanders, the coverage showed understanding of the political cross-currents behind the violence. WTVJ served its Florida viewers as well as a wider audience through NBC's network of affiliate stations.

CREDITS

Linda Pattillo, Ingrid Arnesen, Bert Rudman, Kerry Sanders

Target 7: Michigan's Secret Soldiers WXYZ Detroit

This series of three investigative reports on the growing citizens' militia movement aired six months before a bomb destroyed the Federal office building in Oklahoma City. Without demonizing the subject, Reporter Shellee Smith presented this movement's potential for violence. This is local reporting at its best - coverage that sounds a wake-up call about an important trend.

CREDITS

News Director: Walter Kraft

Reporter: Shellee Smith

Alan Upchurch, Barry Cutler

Daniel Schorr | NPR

Daniel Schorr's achievements and boundless energy in both radio and television add up to nearly half a century of clear and probing reporting. First at CBS News for 23 years, then as a member of the starting team at CNN, and now in his tenth year as National Public Radio's senior news analyst, Schorr has reported on the biggest issues and political scandals of our time. Recruited to CBS News in 1953 by Edward R. Murrow, Schorr has covered virtually every important beat: Europe, South America, the UN, and in domestic affairs, the McCarthy hearings, health care, education, antipoverty programs, the FBI, CIA, and the Iran-Contra affair. But if every reporter has a defining moment, Schorr's is Watergate, a story he covered thoroughly and relentlessly, earning him awards and prominence on President Nixon's famous "enemies list." Never shy of controversy; Daniel Schorr has stood tall for First Amendment rights -protecting sources, editorial independence, and the public's right to know.

1995

Coverage of Haiti | ABC News

ABC News won the Gold Baton for the depth and range of its coverage, producing, in a single year, outstanding television journalism in various programs and in all forms. ABC News correspondent Linda Pattillo provided clear and consistently strong reports that focused on Haitian civilians and their suffering under military rule. Pattillo’s courageous and informed reports, supported by illuminating video, brought new perspective to the situation and to well-documented cases of civil rights abuses, including rape and murder by Haitian authorities.

CREDITS

Linda Pattillo, Ingrid Arnesen, Bert Rudman

American Agenda: Women's Health Week | ABC News, World News Tonight

This powerful series of 10 reports on an array of health issues affecting women aired on five consecutive editions of "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings." The solid reporting, concise and clear presentation, and most important, consolidation of up-to-date information about medical care for women’s specific health needs were examples of journalism at its finest.

CREDITS

Sally Holm, Rick Kaplan, Jackie Judd, Tim Johnson, George Strait

Smoke Screen | ABC News, Day One

This series of five outstanding reports by correspondent John Martin investigated various aspects of the tobacco industry and aired on ABC News’ prime-time newsmagazine "Day One" between November 22, 1993, and May 16, 1994. ABC News broke the story that tobacco companies added nicotine to reconstituted tobacco to boost the nicotine level in cigarettes. This was one of several disclosures in the series, which also covered the list of 13 chemical additives that are allowed in cigarettes but banned from food products. Another segment reported on "secret sickness" of tobacco workers exposed to the raw leaves during harvest. "Smokescreen" played a major role in raising the level of national debate on the hazards of cigarettes and smoking.

NOTE - ABC News later apologized for its reporting that Phillip Morris and Reynolds added significant amounts of nicotine from outside sources, as part of a settlement.

CREDITS

Tom Yellin, Stuart Schwartz, Mark Obenhaus, Walt Bogdanich, John Martin, Larry Goldfine, Dana Tamura, Jamie Deans, Jim Sutton, Keith Summa, Christopher Riback

Inside the Struggle: The Amy Biehl Story | ABC News, Turning Point

In an intensely emotional hour-long program, ABC News followed the poignant journey of an American family retracing the steps of their daughter Amy, a Fulbright Scholar who was slain in a black South African township simply because she was white. Correspondent Don Kladstrup accompanied the Biehls to South Africa, where they met their daughter’s friends and colleagues as well as other South Africans who assembled in tribute. As the family was swept up by the force of Amy’s commitment to ending apartheid, they came to understand the tremendous social transformation that occurred there.

CREDITS

Phyllis McGrady, Claudia Pryor, Don Kladstrup, Barbara Walters

While America Watched -The Bosnia Tragedy | ABC News

In this hour-long special, Peter Jennings took a critical look at Washington’s failure to respond to the disintegration of Bosnia. He examined ethnic cleansing and other atrocities by the Serbs in Bosnia as well as America’s paralysis in post-Cold War foreign policy. The hour was both a gripping assessment of American policy and a personal and compelling account of the continuing bloodshed.

CREDITS

David Gelber, Martin Phillips, Fiona Turner, Peter Jennings, Mark Danner

The Great Depression | PBS & Blackside, Inc.

This seven-hour series exemplified excellence in historical programming, illuminating the great political and social changes of an era through little-known stories of the time. Blackside, Inc., a past winner of a Gold Baton for "Eyes on the Prize, Part I" and a Silver Baton for "Eyes on the Prize, Part II," brought the Depression to life through rare film clips and the vitality and diversity of the witnesses who told their stories.

CREDITS

Henry Hampton, Terry Kay Rockefeller, Steve Fayer, Orlando Bagwell, Joe Morton, Brian Keane, Alison Bassett, Stephen Stept, Katy Mostoller, Jon Else, Leslie D. Farrell, Lillian Benson, Howard Sharp, Robin Espinola, Dante J. James, Susan Levene, Jon Neuberger, Andretta Hamilton, Lyn Goldfarb, Tracy Heather Strain, Lulie Haddad, Lisa A. Jones, Marian Hunter, Michael Yudell, Susan Bellows, Eric Handley, Cheryl Downes, Allison Cook

60 Minutes: Semipalatinsk | CBS News

Uncovering a secret kept by the government of the former Soviet Union for 40 years, "60 Minutes" visited a city called Semipalatinsk in Northeastern Kazakhstan that has become a living nuclear catastrophe. Continuing until 1989, the Soviet government deliberately exploded more than 500 nuclear bombs there, more than 100 of them above-ground, to study the effects of radiation on the city's half-million residents. The result is a population with an astounding incidence of genetic abnormalities, retardation and cancer. "60 Minutes" once again broke an important, original story and presented it with compelling pictures, detail and understanding.

CREDITS

Don Hewitt, Jeanne Solomon Langley, Ed Bradley

Sunday Morning | CBS News

Even before he anchored the first edition of "Sunday Morning" more than 15 years ago, Charles Kuralt was the biographer of our national idiosyncrasies and the poet of network news. When he retired from CBS News in 1994, two continuing features, "On the Road" and "Mileposts," had become hallmarks of television journalism. Against the backdrop of world headlines, Kuralt found the quiet voices in the American crowd and the humor on our ways. His work is extraordinary for its original approach to reporting, its broad range and consistent quality of writing, and its uncommon sense of humanity.

CREDITS

Missie Renner, Peter Freundlich, Charles Kuralt

Coverage of the Moscow Uprising CNN

During two tense days in October 1993, when conservatives led by Alexander Rutskoi tried to take over the Russian Parliament and destabilize Boris Yeltsin, CNN was on the air live with cameras and correspondents on both sides of the battle line. Demonstrating remarkable understanding of politics and language on a breaking story, CNN’s team took the lead and set the pace for the world’s view of the crisis.

CREDITS

Steve Hurst, Claire Shipman, Eileen O’Connor, Gene Randall, Walter Rogers, Hugh Williams

Coverage of Rwanda | Michael Skoler and NPR

When civil war erupted in Rwanda in spring 1994, NPR’s Africa correspondent Michael Skoler filed some of the first and most chilling reports from the scene. Working alone, without any sound technicians, he made his way around the country, talking to many Hutu and Tutsi, some who had taken part in massacres and some who had survived them. Without a hint of sensationalism, Skoler used the power of words and local sounds to describe the political and social causes of the horrors of genocide in Rwanda.

CREDITS

Michael Skoler

Coverage of South Africa | NPR

Although most news organizations covered the story of South Africa’s revolutionary election in June 1994, National Public Radio stood alone in the breadth, quantity and quality of its reporting. In spot news, in-depth profiles, through historical backgrounders, insightful commentary and exceptionally moving international version of its call-in program "Talk of the Nation"", NPR made an outstanding contribution to America’s understanding of events in South Africa.

CREDITS

Ray Suarez, Ann Cooper

Frontline: Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo PBS

The story of two young lovers--a Muslim girl and a Serbian boy--gunned down by snipers as they tried to flee Sarajevo made headlines around the world. Only "Frontline" returned to their lives in compelling detail. Their drama, told through photographs and reminiscences of family and friends, explored the ethnic and religious conflicts and chronicled the siege of Sarajevo. In this 90-minute documentary, the lovers’ lives became archetypes, complete with black-marketeering and clandestine meetings, symbolizing the progressive destruction and tragedy of Bosnia.

CREDITS

John Zaritsky, Virginia Storring, Michael Savoie, Richard Wells, Zoran Stevanovic, Will Lyman, Mason Daring, Faud Mulaha Sanovic, Branko Djordjevic, Steve Milosevic, Michael Ellis, Michael Doherty, Dragan Dostonic, Eric Goddard, Frank Moressa, Julie Johnson, Mary Cannin, Diane Rombough, Stephen Levine, Mark Lewis, Linda Grierson, Michael Hogan, Justin Louis, Charmion King, Peter Outerbridge, Soo Garay, Joshua Satok, Nancy Beatty, Cythia Eastman, Lubo Mykytiuk, Damir Andrei, Amos Crawley, Rick Rockiki, Gabe Lee, Eric Apps, Jeff White, Dennis Murphy, Mark Starowicz, Rainer Hoffman, Robin Parmelee, Hesh Shorey, Colleen Wilson, Janis L. Henwood Khorsi, Kathleen Boisvert, Mark Steele, Jim Deerling, Martin Brody, Doug Scott, Jack Foley

I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School | HBO

Filmed over the course of an entire school year, this 90-minute cinema verite' documentary brought new insight to a now familiar problem of inner city schools. Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia enrolled 725 students, all of them African-American and 90 percent of them living in poverty and in single-parent homes. What set this film apart from so many other stories about education was the choice of its central character, the tenacious principal Deanna Burney. Through her contact with individual children, her leadership in trying experimental classrooms, including one boys-only class taught by a black male teacher, she tried valiantly to improve the lives of "her" children.

CREDITS

Sheila Nevins, Alan Raymond, Susan Raymond

Missing the Beat | WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, Minnesota

This was local investigative reporting at its best. WCCO-TV spent four months looking into a special police street patrol working in a troubled downtown area to control crime and violence. Veteran police beat reporter Caroline Lowe and the station’s investigative team tracked the cops’ actions, or inaction, as it turned out, during the course of many shifts. Using a hidden camera in public places, the team found that some of the police took a surprising and embarrassing number of breaks. The team photographed police in bars, strip joints and a movie theater, even asleep at the movies while a fight broke out downstairs. The two-part series for WCCO’s evening news program led to several early retirements and a reshuffling within the police department.

CREDITS

Ann Williams, Jacquee Petchel, Caroline Lowe, Nancy SooHoo, Lora Johnson

Frontline: Innocence Lost - The Verdict PBS

This four-hour documentary, aired on two consecutive nights, revisited the story of charges of child sexual abuse against several workers at Little Rascals Day Care Center in Edenton, N.C. For three years, Producer Ofra Bikel documented how the allegations of sexual abuse destroyed the tranquillity of Edenton. In this update of an earlier "Frontline," which won a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton in 1992, Bikel examined the trial, raised questions of whether psychological experts manipulated the children who testified, and interviewed several jurors after they delivered the guilty verdict. Grounded in stunning interviews, especially with jurors who frankly admitted they were exhausted or coerced into unanimous verdict, the program eloquently questioned the ability of the jury system to decide cases of this kind.

CREDITS

David Fanning, Ofra Bikel, Rachel Dretzin

My Promised Land: Bernice Cooper's Story | PBS & Wisconsin Public Television

Wisconsin Public Television, winning a Silver Baton for the second year in a row, produced an hour-long documentary about the struggles of a single mother on welfare. The production team followed Bernice Cooper for a year. The result is an unsentimental portrait of one woman’s escape from crime and drugs in Chicago for the relative security of Madison, Wis. This is a clear, candid look at Cooper as she faced challenges and set-backs with courage and the help of Madison’s supportive social service system.

CREDITS

Lewis Friedland, Linda Friend, Frank Boll, Kerman Eckes

The Last Hit: Children and Violence WTVS-TV, Detroit, Michigan

In a style that is deceptively simple yet original in concept, this half-hour program assembled uninterrupted cameos of children, ages 10 to 12, who recounted their experience with and thoughts about violence. Selected for their ability to express themselves, they show emotions ranging from fear and anger to withdrawal and denial, creating an eloquent composite portrayal of childhood in distress.

CREDITS

Sister Janet Ryan, Harvey Ovshinksy, Char DeWolf, Martin Hogan, Mike Shamus, Roger Smith, Gordy Marcotte, Deirdre Bellomo, Chris Staels, Dana Newhouse, Margot Johnson, Brenda Beene, Carmen Garcia, Shannon McNamara Verklan, Chris McElroy, Lewis Morris, Suzanne O'Brien, Lauren DeMercurio, Dave Toorongian, Barbara Handelsman, Beverly Hindson, Catrina Ganey, Celia Thurston, Patricia Vranesich

1994

20/20: The Gift of Life | ABC News

This simple reconstruction of the brief encounter between an Army surgeon and a wounded soldier in Vietnam transcends the specific incident to illuminate what it means to be human. The surgeon’s decision to save the soldier’s life despite his devastating injuries becomes an ethical question to be answered by all. It is a story of moral ambiguity and personal triumph.

CREDITS

Ethel Bass Weintraub, Bob Brown, Victor Neufeld, Robert Schlenker

Coverage of Bosnia | CNN

CNN's team of correspondents has courageously and continuously covered the civil war in Bosnia with outstanding professionalism. Correspondents Jim Clancy, Brent Sadler, Jackie Shymanski and especially Christiane Amanpour, who has covered Bosnia longer than any other American network correspondent, have consistently filed reports from the front lines with restraint and context. Filled with the horror of war, their reporting is tough yet deeply human. Supported by dozens of CNN production staff, they have focused the world’s eye on the former Yugoslavia, particularly on the plight of Sarajevo’s children and elderly, soldiers and victims of war.

CREDITS

Eason Jordan, Christiane Amanpour, Jim Clancy, Marc Dulmage, Brent Sadler, Jackie Shymanski, Peter Humi, Nic Robertson, Stephen Cassidy, Kass Cohen, David Clinch, Art Feenan, Lynn Felton, Tom Fenton, John Fiegener, Rob Golden, Paris Khosravi, Will King, Igor Kratov, Yan Mei, Larry Register, Stephanie Swanson, Annie Steeper, Chris Turner, Mark Biello, Dave Rust, Pierre Bairin, Malcomb Robinson, Cornell Marigney, Stefano Kotsonis, Margaret Moth

Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson | NBC, ETC Films & Barbara Kopple

In a unusual alliance between an independent documentary filmmaker and NBC television, Barbara Kopple has crafted a mosaic about Mike Tyson as a deeply flawed human being with all the mythic qualities Americans attribute to sports heroes. Starting with his childhood delinquency and his resurrection through boxing, the 90-minute film climaxes in Tyson’s arrest for rape. Done entirely without narration, the film is comprehensive, sensitive and completely insightful.

CREDITS

Diane Sokolow, Barbara Kopple

Fred Friendly, for his lifetime contribution to the ethics and practice of journalism

Fred Friendly is recognized for his impact on all journalism, but especially on broadcast journalism. he began his career on radio in Providence, R.I., in 1937 and completed his last Columbia University Media and Society Seminar in 1992.

Beginning in 1948, in a close professional 12-year partnership with Edward R. Murrow, he produced for CBS News the series “See It Now” and “CBS Reports.” Their broadcast challenging Senator Joseph McCarthy and their documentary “Harvest of Shame” on migrant workers are world-famous. Later, as adviser on communications at the Ford Foundation, Mr. Friendly became an early champion of a nationwide public television service that went on to become the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In 1974, he began a series of private conferences fo major news organizations on ethical problems that flowered to become the Media and Society Seminars: 600 seminars were produced, more than 80 broadcast on PBS on such subjects as “The Constitution: That Delicate Balance,” “Managing Our Miracles: Health Care in America,” “The Presidency and the Constitution,” “Ethics in America,” “Hard Drugs, Hard Choices,” “The Other Side of the News,” “The Military and the News Media,” “In the Face of Terrorism,” and the final series in 1992, “That Delicate Balance: Our Bill of Rights.,” marking the 200th anniversary of its ratification.

Named Edward R. Murrow Professor of Journalism at Columbia in 1968 (emeritus since 1980), he became a mentor and inspiration to hundreds of students. To news professionals and news consumers alike, throughout the last five decades Fred Friendly has been catalyst and conscience for the highest standards of excellence and public service in all media.

In the Shadow of the Wall | KRON-TV

On the 10th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, KRON produced an eloquent and elegant documentary revisiting several Bay Area veterans who had made an earlier pilgrimage to the Wall. The station’s original concept and evocative production proved that the Wall has become more than a Washington landmark. For the Vietnamese veterans, the Wall is a healing instrument in their lives.

CREDITS

Ken Swartz, Suzanne Shaw, Melissa Peabody

Harry Bridges: a Man and his Union M.W. Productions & KQED

Move Over: Women and the '92 Campaign | PBS

In an unusual collaborative effort, Wisconsin Public Television conceived and organized an hour-long special broadcast about a national political trend: the increasing number of women in politics at all levels of public life. Drawing on production teams at various public television stations around the country, Wisconsin Public Television gathered six local stories about successful women in government, including a Wisconsin state legislator, a Georgia Supreme Court justice and the Oregon governor’s chief of staff. The program intelligently assessed the importance of the trend, demonstrating that local stations can cover national issues in effective and creative ways.

CREDITS

Dave Iverson, JoAnne Garrett, Lynn Sprangers, Nolan Lehman, Sue Fey, Frank Boll, Curt Sorensen, Brad Wray

The Pacific Century | PBS

This series of 10 hour-long programs tells the story of the growth to economic and political power, and perhaps world dominance, of Asia. Produced as an educational series in conjunction with the Annenberg/CPB Project, it provides a sweeping history of many Asian countries. Each program examines a major theme rather than a single country and explains in absorbing detail trends such as the growth of nationalism and Communism, the influence of writers on revolutionary change, and the cultural impact of the United States on postwar Japan. The series is beautifully produced and among the best historical documentaries on public television.

CREDITS

Christopher Ralling, Alex Gibney, Peter Bull, Alan Poul, Steve Talley, Carl Byker, Al Levin, Marc Levin

Massacre: The Story of East Timor WBAI/Pacifica Radio

This series of outstanding reports on the evening news and an hour-long special broadcast, all reported by Deborah Weiner, prove that a local station can cover the subject of urban crime and violence with sensitivity, original reporting and restraint. By penetrating the juvenile justice system and focusing on the perceptions of inner city children and the random victims of urban gunfire, Deborah Weiner squarely lays out the severity of urban violence in the city of Baltimore.

CREDITS

Mark Pimental, Deborah Weiner, Mark Hadler, Bill Sawyer, Joe DeFeo

Justice on Trial, The Lost Generation & Walking Wounded | WBFF-TV

This series of outstanding reports on the evening news and an hour-long special broadcast, all reported by Deborah Weiner, prove that a local station can cover the subject of urban crime and violence with sensitivity, original reporting and restraint. By penetrating the juvenile justice system and focusing on the perceptions of inner city children and the random victims of urban gunfire, Deborah Weiner squarely lays out the severity of urban violence in the city of Baltimore.

CREDITS

Mark Pimental, Deborah Weiner, Mark Hadler, Bill Sawyer, Joe DeFeo

Frontline: The Best Campaign Money Can Buy | PBS

This hour-long investigative report, which aired shortly before the 1992 presidential election, took a hard but witty look at the inherent ethical problems of financing presidential campaigns. Giving equal time to both the Democratic and Republican parties’ tactics, the producers gained remarkable access to major donors, who candidly revealed their motives, demonstrating that despite changes in the regulation of campaign contributions, the wealthy still maintain considerable influence over the politically powerful.

CREDITS

Stephen Talbot, Robert Krulwich, Eve Pell, Wendy Wank, Sue Ellen McCann, Rachel Raney, Peter Pearce, Steve Robinson, Kimberly Reiss, Holly Ziemer, Jennifer Packer, Mark McClusky, Gino Bruno, John C. Davis, Carl Gilman, Greg Larsen, Ed Jennings, Jimmy Mastrandrea, JP Whiteside, David Gladstone, Felicia Widmann, Shirley Thompson, James Curtiss, Philip M. Stern, Dan Noyes, Sharon Tiller, Robin Parmelee, Hesh Shorey, Colleen Wilson, Richard Camacho, Kathleen Boisvert, Mark Steele, Jim Deering, Martin Smith, Michael Sullivan, Louis Wiley, Jr., David Fanning

Armed Enemies of Castro | WPLG-TV, Miami

In a series of eight investigative reports for its evening news program, WPLG and reporter Rad Berky uncovered a secret anti-Castro group operating out of a paramilitary training camp in the Everglades. This Democratic National Unity Party, led by Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis, used the cover of Cuban patriotism to hide illegal gunrunning and drug operations and to raise money from wealthy Cubans in Miami. WPLG is to be commended for its daring investigation in a market with so many Cuban-American viewers.

CREDITS

Rad Berky, Lourdes Lehey, Emilio Rangel, Mario Hernandez

The Coverage of Hurricane Andrew WTVJ-TV, Miami

With extensive technical preparation and expert information from the station’s team of meteorologists, WTVJ became a lifeline for its region, staying on the air around the clock for nine consecutive days and providing a radio simulcast for those without electricity. The station supplied safety information and psychological support, including viewer call-in-sessions. WTVJ-TV’s coverage was a fine example of public service, with consistently informative, important and restrained reporting during the storm and afterward.

CREDITS

Bryan Norcross, Sharon Scott, Deborah Callura, Jim Ogle

1993

Coverage of Clarence Thomas Hearings | NPR

NPR’s coverage of the Clarence Thomas confirmation process, with Nina Totenberg’s reporting as its core, was comprehensive and pace-setting. She was the first to reveal details of Anita Hill’s affidavit about sexual harassment and the first to air a lengthy response from Hill. NPR carried gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate hearings on the charges against Thomas, and Totenberg’s reporting was a catalyst for national debate on the subject.

CREDITS

Nina Totenberg, Bill Buzenberg

Coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and Aftermath | NPR

Throughout its coverage of the Los Angeles riots last spring, NPR took full advantage of radio’s ability to move quickly and unobtrusively. It probed well beyond the obvious news angles to assess attitudes and actions, producing extensive and moving coverage of the response of black people in south central L.A., merchants in Koreatown whose shops were destroyed, gang members and church members. The reaction far from L.A. was also monitored, as anxious residents of other cities watched for local repercussions.

Voices from the Backstairs | NPR

"Voices from the Backstairs"", a documentary report about the lives of former valets, maids and doormen of the White House, is wonderful oral history, produced with NPR’s customary style and sensibility. It gives a different twist to the celebration of the presidential home’s 200th year.

The American Folklife Radio Project NPR

The ""American Folklife"" series, written, produced and reported by David Isay with exceptional skill, roams the country to chronicle the small stories of America, ranging from a gospel quartet of African-American steel mill and coal mine workers in Alabama to a profile of a seltzer deliveryman in New York City.

Nightline: Coverage of the Los Angeles Riots | ABC News

"Nightline" responded to the event that shook the nation as a news organization should respond--with comprehensive, substantive coverage and a continuing commitment to revisit the scene. "Nightline" covered the story for a week of broadcasts and returned a month later for a prime-time special that provided an analysis of the hours immediately following the acquittal of four policemen in the beating of Rodney King. The coverage also included a heated half-hour interview with L.A. Police Chief Daryl Gates.

CREDITS

Tom Bettag, Ted Koppel, James Walker, Judy Muller, Jackie Judd, Brian Rooney, Jeff Greenfield, Jack Smith, Dean Reynolds, Todd Carrel, Don Kladstrup, Jerry King, David Ensor

Bill Leonard | Former Producer at CBS News and Director of the duPont Awards

Called one of broadcast journalism’s most respected and influential figures, Bill Leonard has a career record spanning five decades as writer, reporter, producer, program host, network executive and, lastly, awards director. In 37 years with CBS, he was associated with broadcasting giants Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly and with every major innovation that made the network a leader in news programming. His leadership during nine years of service to the duPont-Columbia awards has served to uphold the highest standards of excellence for the industry.

60 Minutes: Made in China | CBS News

Contrary to assurance given by the Chinese government, goods produced by prison laborers--primarily political prisoners--in the People’s Republic of China still made their way into this country. With the help of a Chinese expatriate who had been imprisoned for 19 years, Ed Bradley and "60 Minutes" went undercover and used hidden cameras to document the practices in five Chinese labor camps and in the offices of Hong Kong merchants. This story appeared as the U.S. Senate prepared to give most-favored-nation status to China.

CREDITS

Don Hewitt, David Gelber, Ed Bradley, Doug Hamilton, Anthony Baldo

The American Experience: LBJ | KERA-TV & PBS

This brilliant piece of filmmaking is historical biography for television at its best. In four hours aired on two consecutive nights, "LBJ" superbly used still photographs and vivid anecdotal interviews to explain one of the political giants of our time. Narrated by David McCullough, it is a sweeping portrait of a complex, triumphant and ultimately defeated President Lyndon Johnson.

CREDITS

David Grubin, Patricia Perini, Judy Crichton, Margaret Drain, David McCullough

Abortion: Desperate Choices | HBO

This outstanding and compassionate treatment of the subject of abortion transcends the polarization of opinion on this issue. In more than an hour of exquisitely made film, shot primarily in and around a clinic in Pittsburgh, this documentary depicts the difficult personal choices made by several women as they consider, undergo or protest abortions.

CREDITS

Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, Albert Maysles, Nell Archer, Bob Richman, Kenneth Love, Martha Wollner, Wendy Blackstone, Douglas Cooper, Kim Morgan, Sakae Ishikawa, Janet Swanson, Rick Dior, Greg Addison, Matthew Berner, David Cosby, Mark Schwentner, Gary Anderton, Tom Deem, David Mahlman, Greg McKean, John Romeo, Susan Brignoli, Cailin Harrison, Jude Prest, Mitchell Sargent, Kathryn Stepanek, Michael Swiatek

Erin’s Life | KCNC-TV

This one-hour broadcast documents the slow, moving and carefully managed recovery of Erin Peterson, a 24-year-old automobile accident victim who suffered severe brain damage. Beginning with her evacuation by medical helicopter through her return home to a different but miraculous life a year later, KCNC describes both the medical treatment of brain injuries and the human influences on Erin’s recovery.

CREDITS

Dan Fox, Bill Stuart, Vicki Hildner, Alison Harder, Kandy Mead Barry, Marv Rockford

Who’s Watching the Store | KSTP-TV

For years, people of color in Minnesota had claimed they were discriminated against by security guards in department stores who routinely targeted them for surveillance as shoplifters. KSTP conducted a four-month undercover investigation of this practice in several local department stores, even though they were major advertisers on the station. Using hidden cameras and planting researchers as a security guard in training and as test shoppers, KSTP documented blatant discrimination against African-American shoppers. The three-part series resulted in a consumer boycott, and two department stores canceled advertising on KSTP. Eventually 30 Minnesota retailers agreed to change their security practices.

CREDITS

Joel Grover, Angela Cushman, Deb Lyngdal

Cops on Trial: The Rodney King Case KTTV-TV

KTTV in Los Angeles stood out among local stations covering the entire trial of the four policemen accused of beating Rodney King. The station carried more than 200 hours on the trial in 35 days--all of it with highly professional, non-sensational background reports and live coverage. This major, controversial and unfolding story was handled with exemplary responsibility and professionalism.

CREDITS

Chris Harris, Dave Bryan

Louisiana Boys | Louisiana Public Broadcasting

This hour-long documentary, created for Louisiana’s consortium of six small-market public television stations, depicts the fascinating, colorful and corrupt world of the state’s politics. With historical footage and contemporary material, the result is an entertaining and insightful film about how political leaders, however imperfect, manage to capture the hearts and votes of the state’s very politically active citizens.

CREDITS

Louis Alvarez, Andrew Kolker, Paul Stekler, Anne O. Craig, Eddie Kurtz, Star Irvine, Janny Densmore, Susan Paley, Richard Dallet, Tom Fitzgerald, Karen Snyder, Randy Ward, Jeff Blackwell, Charlie Farr, Chris Kent, Kerin Corrado, Rick Smith, Beth Courtney

Nick News: W/5 | Lucky Duck Productions & Nickelodeon

This news magazine for children ages 8 to 12 is a unique contribution to television, produced with imagination and humor. The stories in this half-hour program cover local and global subjects in terms that children can absorb and discuss. The format allows host Linda Ellerbee to debate serious issues with a small group of children, encouraging them to put their own interpretation on the news. "W/5," which takes its name from the five W’s of Who, What, When, Where and Why, aired four times last season. Now it is a weekly feature of Nickelodeon’s cable service.

CREDITS

Linda Ellerbee, Rolfe Tessem, Bob Brienza, Robert Hersh, Chichi Pierce, Mark Lyons, Debbie Diclementi, Andy Aaron, Cynthia Bernbach, Betsy Osha, Heidi Schulman, Anne-Marie Cunniffe, Susanna Nicholson, Murr Lebey, Woody Thompson, Joe Curiale, Todd Ruff, Dan Rather, Gwen Billings, Jay Mulvaney

Made in the USA? | WCPO-TV

In this three-part investigative series for its late-night local news, the WCPO I-Team takes on the complex international trade issue of products manufactured abroad but falsely labeled as American to qualify for sale to the Pentagon. The story was central to the economy of Cincinnati, once the world capital of machine tool manufacturing. Cincinnati lost out to Japan and Florence, KY, which is now the home of Mazak, a subsidiary of a Japanese industrial giant. With the help of a former Mazak employee, a whistle-blower who had been ignored by the federal government, the series proved that through false labeling and documentation federal law was violated --at the cost of many jobs in Cincinnati.

CREDITS

Stuart Zanger, Karl Idsvoog, Clyde Gray, Jeff Keene

Chronicle and Environmental Reporting | WCVB-TV

WCVB-TV is extraordinary among local stations in its commitment to news and public affairs programming, as exemplified in its half-hour news magazine "Chronicle," the only locally produced nightly news magazine in the country. Environmental reporting by producer/reporter David Ropeik is a regular part of its local news coverage. By covering national stories with a local news spin as well as stories of general human interest with a sensitivity and warmth rare in local news, WCVB provides a service to New England.

CREDITS

Susan Sloane, Mark Mills, Chris Stirling, Stella Gould, Andria Hall, Art Donahue, Judy Guild, John Mitchell, Larry Young, Ted Phillips, Leroy McLaurin

Berkeley in the Sixties | PBS

Spanning the entire decade of the 1960’s, this two-hour documentary weaves the memories of several Berkeley rebels with film of the burgeoning student uprising against the Establishment--from the Free Speech Movement protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee, to the Civil Rights, anti-Vietnam War, and Black Panther movements. With its view of Berkeley as the epicenter of a generation’s social revolution, this film profiles an age of activism that spawned a new era of protest in campus life everywhere.

CREDITS

Marc N. Weiss, David M. Davis, Ellen Schneider, Ellen Levine Weyrauch, Dora V. Lewis, Donna Daniels, Yvonne Smith, Roger Downey, Roberta Lynn Tross, N.S. Leibowitz, Deborah Matlovsky, Jody Sheff, Jacqueline Sheridan, Lollie Davis, Janet Young, Carl Bernzweig, Margot Adler

Frontline: Who Killed Adam Mann? WGBH-TV

The breakdown of the child welfare system in dealing with chronic child abuse cases is the subject of this hour-long documentary about the family history and short life of Adam Mann. Producer Carole Langer had covered the Mann family for the 1985 "Frontline" program. She used that early coverage to build a compelling investigation of seven more years of brutality in a family that was repeatedly in contact with welfare officials who never intervened effectively. "Frontline" tracks this heartbreaking history without flinching.

CREDITS

Carole Langer, Luke Sacher, Robert Gearty, Marion Dane, Gary Ronn, Joshua Landis, Luisa Ferrari, Anna Celada, Robert Sheppard, Leslie Hankey, Ben Anderson, Ron Stellar, Cindy Mollo, John Sniado, Robin Parmelee, Hesh Shorey, Colleen Wilson, Teja Arboleda, Mary Fenton, Tom Pugh, Doug Martin, Alison Kennedy, Jack Foley, Mason Daring, Martin Brody, June Cross, Jim Gilmore, Joe Rosenbloom III, Jim Bracciale, Stephanie Murphy, Diane Hebert, Mary Elizabeth Canning, Miri Navasky, Erika D. Kinan, Robert O'Connell, Karen L. Roach, Kai Fujita, Marrie Campbell, Michael Sullivan, Martin Smith, Louis Wiley, Jr., David Fanning

1992

Peter Jennings, Gulf War Coverage ABC News

Peter Jennings and ABC News went beyond the available breaking news coverage to examine the background and implications of the war in "A Line in the Sand," aired Sept. 11, 1990, one month after Iraq invaded Kuwait; "A Line in the Sand: War or Peace?" aired Jan. 14. 1991, just before Operation Desert Storm began; and "War in the Gulf: Answering Children’s Questions," a 90-minute broadcast on Saturday morning, Jan. 26, 1991, created specifically for young viewers. All three broadcasts feature Jennings standing on a huge curved map of the Middle East to explain the situation. Also exceptional is the four-part extended series called "Children in Crisis," in which much of the "World News Tonight" staff traveled to urban and rural Ohio, selected as representative of the national problem, to go behind the statistics and focus on the pervasive poverty in the lives of many American children.

CREDITS

Denise W. Burke, Tom Yellin, Stuart Schwartz, Peter Jennings, George Paul

Reports from Baghdad | CNN

With his courageous reporting under fire from inside Iraq, when he was the only broadcast reporter there, Peter Arnett provided an antidote to other coverage of the Gulf War. Always carefully indicating when his reports were censored, Arnett came to symbolize the flowering of CNN as a prime source of information for the world.

CREDITS

Ed Turner, Bob Furnad, Eason Jordan, Robert Wiener, Peter Arnett

Land or Death | KBDI-TV

Reaching beyond state borders, public television station KBDI-TV (Denver, CO) in an hour-long program documents the story of a little-known community of Mexican-Americans in the Chama Valley of New Mexico. There, descendants of early Mexican shepherds use techniques of civil disobedience to fight off developers in order to regain their historical claim to pasture land and their traditional values.

CREDITS

Carolyn Hales, Luiz Valdez, Army Armstrong, Dale Green, Cindy Barchus, Martha Roskowski, Christine Anderson, Pacho Lane, Lewis Hyer, Pamela Hoge, Barbara Jabaily, Michelle Bauer, Ivy Morgan, Meg Nagel, Ann Whitehill, Kim Johnson, Donald Corsiglia, Jon Larrance, Paul Conly, Jim Craighead, Karen Robin Tuke, John Wood, Hector Galan, G. Emlen Hall, Karl Johnson, Enrique Lamadrid, Richard Salazar, Lydia Valencia, Buddy Rath, Jane Jacobson, Diane Markrow

Wards of the State | KPIX-TV

For five years KPIX tracked several juvenile offenders sentenced to the custody of the California Youth Administration. As they grow up, moving in and out of the state’s custody, the videotape makes clear that the treatment these boys received failed them and the state as well.

CREDITS

Richard Saiz, Sheldon Fay, Jr., Richard Jett, Terry Kane Chinn, Steve Parmley, William Corona, Carlton Lewis, Mark Winkler, Neil Shigley, Celeste Greco, Lindsey Jackson, Janet Utech, Ron Lorentzen, Jim Lutton

Cloud of Concern | KWWL-TV

After a nine-month investigation, KWWL-TV allotted nearly half of its evening news broadcast to this report about the dangers of the chemical fertilizer anhydrous ammonia, widely used and stored in this agricultural community. The coverage reports on illness associated with small ammonia leaks as well as the chemical industry’s efforts to suppress studies about the dangers of large-scale leaks.

CREDITS

Christopher Scholl, Bob Cashen, Monte Bowden

Coverage of the Gulf War | NPR

In the tradition of great descriptive war reporting on radio, National Public Radio deployed its correspondents and staff to cover the war on all fronts, at home and in the Middle East. Adding 24-hour newscasts and more than 100 special programs, NPR provided comprehensive news and analysis that was extraordinarily vivid and informative. NPR had its share of exclusives and took many risks on the front lines to get them.

CREDITS

Neal Conan, John Hockenberry, Deborah Amos, Ted Clark, Jacki Lyden

Weapons of the Spirit | Pierre Sauvage

American filmmaker Pierre Sauvage returns to the village of Le Chambon, his birthplace in southern France, to exaime why and how its citizens were able to hide 5,000 Jewish refugees from Nazi occupires during World War II. He finds the answer in their historical resistance to religious persecution, a legacy of their French Huguenot ancestors. This 90-minute documentary broadcast on PBS honors their heroism.

CREDITS

Pierre Sauvage, Barbara M. Rubin

Frontline: High Crimes and Misdemeanors | PBS

This 90-minute investigative report amasses for the first time on television the documented evidence to explain how the Reagan Administration conducted the covert operations known as the Iran-Contra affair. By dramatically reconstructing newly declassified documents and the electronic diaries of Oliver North, and in interviews with former National Security Adviser Robert MacFarlane and others, the broadcast chronicles how the Administration tried to overrule Congress.

CREDITS

Sherry Jones, Bill Moyers, Foster Wiley, Elizabeth Sams, Morrow Cater, Scott Armstrong, Andie Tucher, Kristin Schneeman, Kris Kral, Gail Schumann, Jim Gilchrist, Dennis Towns, Ron Yoshida, Brett Wiley, Hugh Walsh, Richard Chisholm, Bob Waybright, Murdoch Campbell, David Wilkins, Felicia Widmann, Adrianne Alvare, Shana Smith, Julie Quinton, Lawrence Asbell, James Ferrara, Regina Mullen, Ken Hahn, David Fanning

Four Documentaries by Bill Moyers PBS and Public Affairs Television

Bill Moyers is a singular independent voice in broadcast journalism on a broad agenda of issues, as exemplified this year alone by five programs. Bill Moyer’s commitment to investigative journalism, especially the long-form documentary, endures at a time when it is an endangered species.

"After the War," a one-hour special report aired June 18, 1991, counters the popular vision of the Gulf War as an American triumph. By comparing claims of military accuracy with film and eyewitness testimony about death and destruction in Iraq, Moyers tempers the elation of an Allied victory. The broadcast also examines the political miscalculations of American policy in leaving Shiite and Kurdish rebels stranded when U.S. forces pulled out of Iraq.

"The Home Front," a one-hour report taped during the ground war in the Persian Gulf, contrasts the human struggles being ignored in the United States with American military and political might in the Middle East. From a suburban couple’s desperate search to find a job to interviews with homeless men in New York and profiles about ever scarcer human services, Moyers captures the irony of spending billions on war while so many needs at home go unmet.

"Beyond Hate" explore the phenomenon of hate as seen through the experiences of victims of hate crimes, gang leaders in Los Angeles, skinheads in Oregon, high school students in Brooklyn, and a young Arab and a young Israeli, as well as in discussions with world leaders engaged in a philosophical debate. In this 90-minute broadcast, Moyers brings out the commonality of hate, prompting viewers to examine their own attitudes.

"Amazing Grace" is a 90-minute film about the evolution and power of the famous inspirational hymn. Sung in many variations by ordinary individuals, choirs and famous singers, its history is portrayed through time and locale. Moyers always returns to the core of the tale --that is song of salvation was written by the prosperous English slave ship captain who became a repentant country preacher.

CREDITS

Elena Mannes, Donna Marino, Gary Steele, Greg Andracke, Rebecca Berman, Jan Morgan, Dyanna Taylor, Duncan Forbes, David Waterston, Peter Miller, Rowland Fowles, Michael Lonsdale, Lee Orloff, David Eubank, Sean Glenn, Roger Shinn, Jimmy Williams, Severin Woxholt, Janet Cristenfeld, Carl Christensen, George Harrington, Nobuo Ishiida, Jeff Levy, Keith Mead, Buddy Phox, Scott Ramsey, Tim Bess, Rick Bruck, Howard Fox, Abner Goldstone, Glenn Moran, Christopher Rogers, Mark Schwentner, Akinobu Sugino, Ray Sullivan, Guy Vergoglini, Marc Wyler, Junko Ogura, Judy Widener Baker, Cindy Cash, Maria Pizzuro, Pat Blashill, Paul Holzman, Sean Marshall, Jaykumar Menon, Adam Park, Julie Pribula, Elliott Gamson, Hal Levinsohn, Lee Dichter, Jeremy Irons, Naomi Golf, Rebecca Jo Wharton, Christine Dietlin, Diana Warner, Judy Doctoroff O'Neill, Arthur White, Judith Davidson Moyers, Bill Moyers

The Civil War | Ken Burns, WETA-TV and Florentine Films

In 11 hours of superb filmmaking, Ken Burns uses every possible tool to reconstruct and chronicle the terrible years of the American Civil War. Capturing the largest audience in the history of public television, this independently produced series brings the meaning and tragedy of the war to life.

CREDITS

Ken Burns, Ric Burns, Geoffrey C. Ward, David McCullough, Buddy Squires, Allen Moore, Phoebe Yantsios, Meredith Woods

Gulf War Coverage | WFAA-TV

Of all the local stations that entered their coverage of the Gulf War, WFAA-TV stands out. Devoting a great deal of its staff and resources to covering the war at home and in the Middle East, WFAA broke stories others missed--in particular a story that elevated the censors about clandestine church services for Americans in Saudi Arabia.

CREDITS

John Miller, Carolyn Fessler, Cinny Kennard

Frontline: Innocence Lost | WGBH-TV

This two-hour documentary was exceptional in the careful way it revealed how charges of sexual abuse in a day-care center tore apart the once idyllic town of Edenton, N.C. Dissecting the story to analyze all sides of the issue, it leaves the viewer questioning whether any community or court can fairly resolve such charges. The documentary is followed by a half-hour discussion by experts on the reliability of child witnesses in sexual abuse cases.

CREDITS

David Fanning, Ofra Bikel, Rachel Dretzin

Explorer: The Urban Gorilla | WTBS-TV

As part of its weekly series "Explorer" on the cable superstation WTBS, the National Geographic Society offers a stunning testimony to the compassionate qualities of gorillas as they adapt to modern "natural" zoo habitats. This one-hour broadcast includes several case studies in which the interaction of gorillas and humans is both touching and surprising.

CREDITS

Allison Argo, Robert E. Collins, William Sims, John Vincent, George Stamer, Scott Harper, Kent Gibson, Tom Mitchell, Don Gooch, Nancy Staley, Ed Barger, Roger Herr, Sian Evans, Mila Schwartz, Lisa Manning, David McKillop, Elisabeth Steenweg, Michael Rosenfield, Nicolas Noxon, Julia Mair, Tom Simon, Tim Kelly, Gilbert M. Grosvenor

1991

Peter Jennings Reporting: From the Killing Fields | ABC News

This one-hour investigative report details the return of the Khmer Rouge rebels, a murderous anti-Communist force to Cambodia. Peter Jennings reports from the bases of rebels and resistance fighters and examines the extent of American support behind the resurgence of the Khmer Rouge. In a revealing interview with Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Sihanouk, America’s enemy during the Vietnam War, Jenning’s points out the ironies that have turned Sihanouk into America’s ally in spite of his ties to the rebels. This broadcast stands out for its tough reporting in dangerous circumstances about the continuing impact of the Vietnam War on Cambodia and on American policy.

CREDITS

Leslie Cockburn, Peter Jennings, Tom Yellin, Bonnie Cutler, David Ewing, Manny Alvarez, George Bouza, Carole DiFalco, Praisit Sangrungfrueng, Bob Peterson, Jeffrey Johnson, Satharn Pairoah, Andrea Blaugrund, Maurie Perl, Barbara Fedida, Stanley Spiro, Susan Pomerantz, Frank Sveva, Kevin O'Hare, Barbara Serlock, Jack Baierlein, Michael S. Smith, David Seeger, Tom Yellin

Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads | Blackside, Inc.

This series of eight one-hour documentaries completes the epic recounting of the Civil Rights movement in the United States from 1954 to 1985 begun with "Eyes on the Prize" in 1987. It brings together with reason and passion a story that had only been told in pieces and constructs an invaluable archival history of modern times. "Eyes II" covers the period after the civil rights legislation of the 1960’s as the movement sought and achieved increasing political representation.

CREDITS

Henry Hampton, Sheila Bernard, James A. DeVinney, Madison Davis Lacy, Jr., Louis J. Massiah, Thomas Ott, Sam Pollard, Terry Kay Rockefeller, Jacqueline Shearer, Paul Stekler, Lillian Benson, Betty Ciccarelli, Steve Fayer

Evening News with Dan Rather 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.

CREDITS

Correspondent: Ed Bradley

Near Death | Exit Films

This six-hour chronicle about terminal patients and those around them at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital is illuminating, elevating and unforgettable. Wiseman’s cinema verite’ style demystifies death for viewers as it dignifies the families and medical staff involved. The film offers insight into the ethical issues of caring for terminal patients, yet in its slow, deliberate coverage never sensationalizes the subject. "Near Death" aired nationally on PBS stations.

CREDITS

Frederick Wiseman, John Davey, Ollie Hallowell, Lyn Gaza, Richard Gliklich, Nancy Simonian, Stephanie Monroe, Diane Hodgman, Viki Garvin, Carolyn Rouse, Romana Vysatova, Marian Parry

Horizons: And Justice for All | NPR

This half-hour radio documentary on the plight of poor tenants facing evictions in New York City's housing court is radio reporting at its best. Helen Borten captures the stories of tenants caught in bureaucracy without the guarantee of legal representation. With touching interviews and vivid narration, Borten explains how the mistakes of bureaucracy and the tactics of landlords can contribute to homelessness, even when the tenants have paid the rent.

Coverage of California Earthquake KCBS-AM

This all-news radio station provided outstanding reporting and public service broadcasting in the face of a devastating emergency. For 84 hours of continuous coverage without commercials, the anchors and field reporters showed restraint, resourcefulness d compassion in their reporting. The station continued to cover the story for many months with several special reports and a continuing series on the most devastated areas. KCBS-AM, San Francisco, California. Coverage of earthquake in San Francisco and several follow-up reports.

Critical Choices: America's Health Care Crisis | KING-TV

In this exceptionally thorough and clear comparison of the Canadian and American health care systems, KING succeeds in showing why high technology and private insurance make the cost and access to medical care impossible for many Americans. By comparing the two communities of Sechelt, British Columbia, and Port Angeles, Washington, the hour-long broadcast shows Americans what care is like when the government insures everyone.

CREDITS

Barbara D. Fenster, Ken Jones, Nancy McManamin, John Blackman, Chris Odegard, Gary Betourne, Willie McClarron, John Wilson, India Simmons, Mark Mano, Michael Cate, Reiko Higashi, Ken Jones, Arthur Thivierge, Doug Gibson, Leonard Hanson, Kelley Larson, Robert Torgerson, Mike Renteria, Charles McCray, Donna Miller, Linda Schmidt, Cecilia Evans, Loree Martin, Joe Beitel, Walt McGinn, Mike Renteria, Eugene Tagawa

Express: Shield for Abuse | KQED-TV

This half-hour broadcast investigates a pattern of police brutality in San Francisco over a 10-year period. With excellent street reporting and a detailed examination of more than 300 lawsuits against the police, the broadcast reveals that San Francisco’s Police Department rarely disciplined its officers for using excessive force, and paid out millions of dollars in damage claims besides. After the report, the mayor’s office assumed more police disciplinary powers and the Police Department’s internal affairs section was reorganized.

CREDITS

Scott Pearson, Lewis Cohen, Vivek Bald, John Claibourne, Harry Betancourt, Bill Swan, Birrell Walsh, Rito Jackson, Gerry Jarocki, Eric Shackelford, John Andreini, Spencer Michels, Al Lipske, Margaret Clarke, Yolanda Grizzard, Vaniecia Williams, Weldon Clemons, Steve Daetz, Jini Dayaneni, Elida Errante, Mimi Rice, Jami Spector, Genine Turner, Deborah Dallinger, Margaret McCall, Jane Tierney, Tonia Williams, Michael Schwartz, Beverly J. Ornstein

Who Killed Vincent Chin? | P.O.V. & WTVS-TV

This 90-minute documentary reconstructs the incidents surrounding the death of a young Chinese engineering student who was clubbed to death with a baseball bat by a white auto worker. Whether Vincent Chin was the victim of racism and the troubled economy of Detroit or simply the victim of a barroom brawl is unraveled through eyewitnesses, friends and participants in the trials that followed. The story is reported with skill and suspense and raises broader questions for society about justice and tolerance. It premiered the second season of "P.O.V.," the PBS showcase for independent productions.

CREDITS

Marc N. Weiss, David M. Davis, Cathryn Garland, Ellen Levine, Yvonne Smith, Roger L. Downey, Roberta Lynn Tross, James Klein, Marc Levin, Karen Sanderson, Janet Young, Carl Bernzweig, Mary Donnelly, Emilie Borg, Cindy Gould, Brooke Palmer, Dan Rutter, Margot Adler, Wendy Blackstone

Coverage of Hurricane Hugo | WCBD-TV

When Hurricane Hugo headed toward the coast of South Carolina in September, 1989, WCBD-TV made an extraordinary effort to cover all facets of the situation. With careful preplanning, the team evacuated its downtown studio and moved to an emergency site at its transmitter. The station reported the emergency with exceptional restraint, sensitivity and professionalism.

CREDITS

Mark D. Pimental, Sue Stephens, Anne Gardner, Harve Jacobs, Melissa Talman, Bill Evans

Frontline: Inside Gorbachev's USSR WGBH-TV & Martin Smith Productions

This series of four one-hour documentaries is a monumental undertaking that distills the extraordinary expertise of one reporter, Hedrick Smith, on a story he could not have covered with cameras before Glasnost. Smith, who was the The New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief in the early 1970’s and is the author of two authoritative books on the Soviet Union, drew on old contacts and new conflicts between innovators and the old bureaucracy to explain the changes occurring in the Soviet Union. With a team of producers and Soviet experts, Smith provides a richly textured portrait of Soviet citizens coping with the dilemmas of their time.

NFL Drug Testing: Illegal Procedure WJLA-TV

Rarely does an investigative report on a local station attract the kind of national attention that this series on the drug-testing policies of the NFL unleashed. In nine reports that began two days before the Super Bowl last year, Roberta Baskin details faulty laboratory practices and discriminatory enforcement policy by the NFL’s chief drug adviser, Dr. Forest Tennant. Revealing a situation untouched by sports reporters, WJLA’s consumer affairs reporter broke this story outside the locker room. Within a month the NFL’s drug adviser resigned.

CREDITS

Roberta Baskin, Joan Martelli, Peter Hakel, Joy Galane

Dick Feagler for Nightly Commentaries WKYC-TV

Dick Feagler practices the all but extinct art of regular commentary on a local station with incisive and witty personal essays on local, national and international issues. Among Feagler's subects are congressional pay raises, the invasion of Panama, and baseball. WKYC-TV stands out among local stations for its commitment to regular commentary four nights a week on the station's late night news program.

1980

The Koppel Report: Tragedy at Tiananmen -The Untold Story | ABC News

For its masterful hour-long re-examination of the uprising in China, ABC News and Koppel Communications sent six Chinese speaking journalists and scholars to cover the precipitous events last May and June. On June 27, well after martial law was imposed, Ted Koppel recapitulated the turmoil in China with extraordinary detail and insight and with an emotional impact unexpected after so much coverage of those events.

CREDITS

Dorrance Smith, Ted Koppel, Lionel Chapman, Tara Sonenshine, Bob Haberl, Terry Irving, Marianne Keeley, William Moore, Louis Hepp, Pat Cullen, Mark Nelson, Reid Orvedahl, Wynette Yao, Peter Demchuk, Deirdre Koppel, Richard Wilde, Ed Eaves, Robert Fahringer, Bob Kerr, David Ryzman, Eric Wray, Chuck Schaeffer, Philip Cunningham, Benet Chen, Henry Bautista, Trevor Barker, Claus Bratt, Kim Norwood, Ron Dean, Roberto Palacios, Phillipe Decaux, Gary Dobrovolski, Didi Arndt, Phillip Etcheverry, Jean-Claude Malet, Jim Fitzgerald, Al Turner, Chris Fryman, Gary Chapman, Bob Goldsborough, Dan Edblom, Robert Jennings, Mel Barr, Keith Kay, Dave Griffin, Joe Lomonaco, William Blanco, Charles Pinkney, Peter Bogardus, Jetana Pongpanich, Narong Srivoraphak, M. Serita, K. Mukai, Gary Shore, Vladimir Merkulov, Richard Townsend, Sam Lopez

Other People's Money | Byron Harris & WFAA-TV

Investigative reporter Byron Harris and his station led the way in covering the Savings and Loan failures beginning in 1987 and culminating in this outstanding hour-long report. They took the time to explore all the important angles and connections in this complicated story, the kind that broadcast journalists often avoid as either too boring or too difficult. This program proves otherwise. It is fast paced and fascinating and goes to the heart of America’s politics, business and values.

Coverage of China | CBS News

By sending so many of its senior journalists to China and devoting so much of its regular news programming to coverage of the unfolding crisis --from summit to suppression--CBS News supplied its radio and television audiences with outstanding coverage. Much of it provided exceptional background features to help viewers and listeners understand the depth of feeling behind the breaking story.

CREDITS

Larry Cooper, Larry McCoy, Charles Kaye, Charles White, Brian Seligson, Linda Perlman, Gail Lee, Greg Kandra, Pam Rauscher, Jill Landes, David Jackson, Dick Reeves, Bob Schieffer, Barry Petersen, Jim Chenevey, Bill Whitney, Rob Forman, Dexter Leong

Coverage of China | CNN

Beginning in mid-April, CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy began covering the student uprising in China. When CNN anchor Bernard Shaw filed his first report in mid-May on the eve of this Sino-Soviet summit, CNN became the network of record with its live reports on the uprising. For recognizing the story early and staying with it well after the Chinese government stopped satellite transmission of their pictures, CNN's coverage was an exceptional public service.

CREDITS

Ed Turner, Jane Maxwell, Eason Jordan, Bernard Shaw, Mike Chinoy

Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land | Gardner Films & WETA-TV

Based on David K. Shipler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, this two-hour documentary stunningly translates history and emotion into a documentary account of the stalemate between Palestinians and Jews in Israel. Shipler was the principal writer and narrated the broadcast, which was exceptionally well-written. Robert Gardner produced the program, carefully balancing the testimony of Arabs and Jews. WETA provided editorial guidance and helped organize financial support for this PBS production.

CREDITS

David Shipler, Robert Gardner, Ricki Green

For the Sake of Appearances and Expecting Miracles | KCET-TV

Two unusually well-crafted reports on medical issues from this PBS affiliate won KCET a Silver Baton. "Expecting Miracles," an hour-long broadcast, followed four California couples through the agonies of accepting and trying to overcome infertility. The program carefully documented the medical and psychological struggles of the couples for three years. It is full of new information, especially on the causes and treatment of male infertility, and its emotional impact is strong. "For the Sake of Appearances" is a half-hour investigative report on abuses in the practice of cosmetic surgery in Southern California. It is first-rate consumer reporting.

CREDITS

Claudia Bryant, Tom Thompson, Allison Arnold, Molly Ryan, Peter Stone, Howard Stapleton, Michael Manzagol, Duane Anderly, Rick Thornton, Roy Stewart, Tilden V. Williams, Michael Dziak, Gerald Zelinger, Mary Danly, Marlene Calaway, Roy Stewart, Rose Evans Musgrove, Ada Diaz-Romero, Lorenzo Wilkins, Celeste Durant, Tom Thompson

Nancy Salter, Kate Mulgrew, Carl Byker, Howard Stapleton, Tildon V. Williams, Jill Morrison, Gina Black, Willie Geiger, Dan Leighton, Fred Rodey, Dan Mossbarger, Gerald Zelinger, Parker Bartlett, Luis Fuerte, John Nuler, Peter Stone, Mike Clark, Stu Fox, Charles Gonzalez, Larry La Sota, Roy Stewart, David Swofford, David Johnson, Kelly Takemura, Chris Jarmick, Renee Krikken, Gay Iris Parker, Dorothy Quertermous, Stephen Kulczycki, Tom Thompson

On Our Own Land | Kentucky Educational Television

This half-hour documentary about a campaign by a group of Kentucky landowners against an old form of mining rights is an excellent example of responsible advocacy journalism. For several years, Appalshop, a creative arts workshop in Whitesburg, followed the landowners’ efforts from confrontations with mining company officials to mountain songfests to legislative sessions. This program aired originally on Kentucky Educational Television and has been shown on WNET.

Other Faces of AIDS | Maryland Public Television

This hour-long documentary focused on the disproportionate impact of AIDS on black and Hispanic populations. It carefully explored the reasons behind the disparity, as well as why AIDS has not been successfully prevented in those segments of the Maryland population. Not stopping with the problem, the broadcast examined local efforts to control the epidemic.

CREDITS

George Strait, John Grassie, Suki Jacobson, Tim Pugh, Bill Bealmear, Bill Dukes, Lou Goldberg, Bill Mixter, Bob Bryan, Sue Hannon, Thom Wolf, Don Barto, Ed Haupt, Mark Roumelis, Kimberly Anne Wilson, Dave Weaver, Millicent Williamson, Everett L. Marshburn

The Best Insurance Commissioner Money Can Buy | WBRZ

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.

CREDITS

This hour-long investigative report shows the consistently strong commitment of the station and its news division to uncovering administrative corruption in Louisiana. John Camp dissected the contributions behind the election of Richard Green, who promised to end corruption in the insurance industry if elected state insurance commissioner. When Green won, and promptly aided his friends in the auto insurance business, WBRZ unraveled the web of Green’s favoritism.

CREDITS

John M. Spain, John Camp, Mike Haley

Crack Crisis: A Cry for Action | WJXT

With exceptionally thorough reporting and well-balanced coverage of both treatment and prosecution of addicts, this documentary shows how a small-market station can pursue a story far beyond its city limits. WJXT traced the root of Jacksonville’s crack epidemic to South America and examined the extent to which crack dominates the criminal life of that country's own community--especially among the young.

CREDITS

Mel Martin, Nancy Shafran

Frontline: Remember My Lai | WGBH

In the 1988-89 season, Frontline's excellence was extraordinary on five counts, each deserving of mention. All are hour-long, except for "The Choice," which is two hours. "Remember My Lai" explores the continuing impact of the 1968 massacre on both the Vietnamese villagers and the American soldiers who took part. The program is a stunning historical essay on the legacy of war.

CREDITS

Judy Woodruff, Kevin Sim, Michael Bilton, Will Lyman, Grant McKee, Frank Pocklington, Lee Corbett, Barry Spink, Steve Haynes, Christine Sharman, Jenny Foster, Sheldon Himelfarb, Tran Thi Thuc, David Fanning

Frontline: The Spy Who Broke the Code WGBH

"The Spy Who Broke the Code" is a fascinating account of the Walker family, who sold U.S. military and intelligence codes to the Soviet Union for 18 years. It includes chilling exclusive interviews with John Walker Jr. in federal prison and with his best friend and co-spy, Jerry Whitworth.

CREDITS

Kudy Woodruff, William Cran, W. Scott Malone, Stephanie Tepper, Jim Gilmore, Larry Lewman, Leonid Finkelstein, Chris Lysaght, David Raitt, Joe Vitagliano, Walther Sievi, Ray Brislin, Harry Dawson, Michael Chin, Flora Moon, Anita Sievi, John Collins, J. E. Jack, Chonk Moonhunter, Roger Haydock, Barbara Kloeppel, Charles Borninger, Russell Crockett, Peter Hodges, Mike Kelly, Dick Knapman, Collin Legood, Paul Faulkner, Robin Fish, Clarissa White, Janet McFadden, Robin Parmelee, Merle R. Eisman, K Robert Kramer, Lisa D. Mendes, Larry LeCain, Steven Carrus, Mark Steele, Dan Lesiw, Jack Foley, Alison Kennedy, Mason Daring, Martin Brody, Cornelia Kennedy, Carl Nagin, Jim Bracciale, Erwin Campbell, Karen L. Roach, Lisa Levine, Ginette Mayas, Joe Rosenbloom, Joe McMaster, Kai Fujita, Marrie Campbell, Michael Sullivan, Louis Wiley, Jr., David Fanning

Frontline: Who Profits from Drugs? WGBH

"Who Profits from Drugs?" recounts the story of Operation Man, a federal investigation into the most respectable lawyers in American society to find the new breed of front men for drug money - the bankers, lawyers, tax accountants, businessmen and government officials who launder money through legitimate and sometimes even prestigious businesses.

CREDITS

Judy Woodruff, Charles C. Stuart, Marcia Vivancos, Mark Hosenball, David Atwood, John Baynard, Frank Reap, Doug Snyder, Chip Benson, Bonnie Huang, Janet McFadden, Robin Parmelee, Merle R. Eisman, K. Robert Kramer, Lisa D. Mendes, Larry LeCain, Steven Carrus, Mark Shell, Danda Stein, Joe Pugliesi, Jack Foley, Alison Kennedy, Mason Daring, Martin Brody, Cornelia Kennedy, Carl Nagin, Jim Bracciale, Erwin Campbell, Karen L. Roach, Janice E. Sager, Lisa Levine, Ginette Mayas, Joe Rosenbloom, Joseph McMaster, Kai Fujita, Marrie Campbell, Michael Sullivan, Louis Wiley Jr., David Fanning

Frontline: The Choice | WGBH

"The Choice" is a probing biographical examination of the lives and character of the 1988 Presidential candidates George Bush and Michael Dukakis. Produced in association with Time magazine and aired two weeks before the election, it combined historical footage, home movies and interviews with those who knew the candidates best --friends, relatives, childhood sweethearts-- to stand out among the finest campaign coverage of the election.

CREDITS

Stan Matthews, George Wruck, Jr., Alison Camp Maddox, Scott Miller, Emilie Aronson, Mike Harris, John England, Curtis Gunter, Rick Owen, Joe Bill Worthington, Angie Campagna, Waid Blair, Suzanne Dooley, Lori Cohen

Frontline: Children of the Night | KQED-TV

"Children of the Night," produced by KQED in San Francisco for "Frontline," chronicles the life and death of a white middle-class boy who lived on the streets of San Francisco as a male prostitute.

CREDITS

Ray Telles, Judy Woodruff, Dara Albro, Iain Brown, David Fanning