1993 duPont-Columbia Award Winners

In a special program, the duPont-Columbia University Awards announced 1 Gold Baton recipient and 14 additional winners.

GOLD BATON - National Public Radio: All Things Considered, Morning Edition, & Weekend Edition

NPR is recognized for four pieces of outstanding reporting: Coverage of the Clarence Thomas Hearings, Coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and Aftermath, Voices from the Backstairs, and The American Folklife Radio Project.

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.

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"", 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"" 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.