The 2021 duPont Awards on PBS

The virtual duPont-Columbia Awards ceremony will be available on PBS Digital platforms.

The virtual duPont-Columbia Awards ceremony will be available on PBS Digital platforms.

The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards are partnering with PBS on a special event to announce the 2021 award-winners to digital audiences. “The 2021 duPont-Columbia Awards: Honoring the Best of Journalism,” a 60-minute special presentation, will premiere across PBS digital platforms on Tuesday, February 9 at 8pm EST

This year, for the first time, the duPont jury selected a round of 30 finalists, who were announced on November 12, 2020. Breaking from tradition again, the 15 silver baton winners will be revealed at the ceremony. 

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Hosted by CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper and Michele Norris, former longtime NPR host and Washington Post opinion columnist, the special presentation of the duPont-Columbia Awards will highlight outstanding reporting in the public interest. 

The ceremony will include excerpts from the winning programming from local television stations, broadcast, cable, documentary, online and audio reporting. The honorees will include coverage of the most critical issues from the past year including the global coronavirus pandemic, the fight for racial justice and policing in America.

The hour-long special will premiere on Tuesday, February 9 at 8pm EST across PBS digital platforms, including PBS’ YouTube channel. The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards are administered by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. 

The duPonts have a long history with PBS; the annual awards ceremony was televised nationwide on PBS stations for 25 years from 1978 to 2003. 

“We are excited to bring this great reporting to a wider audience on PBS in a moving celebration of the powerful journalism that informed us all over this difficult past year,” said Lisa R. Cohen, Director of the duPont-Columbia Awards 

The 2021 duPont-Columbia Finalists:

ABC15 Arizona

Abuse of Force  

Dogged reporter Dave Biscobing examined video of a policeman’s abusive taser use and systemic problems in one Arizona police department.

Smriti Mundhra, SamiKhan & Poh Si Teng

AJE Witness/MTV Documentary Films

St. Louis Superman 

In a deeply moving sidebar to the racial uprising in Ferguson, Missouri, an inner-city Black activist and “battle rapper” became an anti-violence legislator to honor his dead brother.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | PBS

Chasing the Moon

Thoroughly reported and lovingly crafted with long-forgotten video and news reports from the era, this documentary afforded a definitive look at America's space race with the Soviet Union that led to the first men landing on the moon.

CBS 2 New York

Forgotten Families

A relentless investigative series by CBS 2 New York revealed how New York City dumped homeless families into squalid housing in Newark, New Jersey and other communities. 

CBS News 

Bravery and Hope: 7 Days on the Front Line

In the earliest days of the COVID crisis, a hospital at the epicenter granted CBS News unfettered access, for a gripping one-hour special that captured the extraordinary care delivered by doctors, nurses and EMT’s.

CNN

Russia’s Secret Influence Campaigns

Reporter Clarissa Ward traced Russian efforts to subvert the 2020 Presidential campaign to a surprising place - an internet troll farm in Africa working to exploit fear among African American voters.

FRONTLINE | PBS 

Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos

As politicians and regulators consider the global impact of Amazon — and how to rein in founder Jeff Bezos’ power, reporter James Jacoby investigated how he built one of the most influential - and controversial - economic and cultural forces in the world. 

FRONTLINE | PBS

For Sama

A powerful, harrowing documentary by filmmaker Waad al-Kateab went inside makeshift hospitals in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo to provide a personal lens into the country’s enduring conflict.

FRONTLINE | PBS

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

Reporter Martin Smith’s years long reporting and analysis of the rise of Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia resulted in this trenchant FRONTLINE documentary that also underscored the Trump administration's unwavering support of the regime, no matter its sins.

HBO 

After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of “Fake News”

This disturbing documentary untangled the web of conspiracy theorists and fake newsmakers to spotlight the corrosive impact of their efforts to undermine democracy.

KDVR/FOX31 Denver

Police, Paramedics, and Ketamine: What Happened to Elijah McClain

The death of a young Black man in police custody prompted reporter Lori Jane Gliha to conduct a tenacious investigation that led to officers being fired and a police chief being replaced. 

KING 5 News Seattle

Bob's Choice

In this thought provoking local news documentary KING 5 News chronicled a terminal cancer patient who, with humor and insight, decided to legally end his life.

KSTP Minneapolis/St. Paul

George Floyd Coverage 

As Minneapolis caught fire this year -- literally and figuratively - KSTP produced courageous, sustained team coverage of one of the biggest stories of the year, maintaining a commitment to its hometown viewers. 

NBC Bay Area

DERAILED

With traditional shoe-leather reporting and innovative production, this online series documented San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and its descent into Wild West lawlessness.  

NBC News Digital 

A Different Kind of Force—Policing Mental Illness

This heartbreaking yet hopeful online documentary detailed the strained relationship between law enforcement and those with mental illness, with impressive access to both sides of the intractable issue. 

Netflix

American Factory 

This engrossing feature documentary about a Chinese billionaire who came to the “rescue” of a shuttered General Motors plant in beleaguered Dayton, Ohio portrays the human and economic consequences of globalization.

Netflix  

Crip Camp

This inspiring historical film set in the civil rights era profiled a groundbreaking summer camp for disabled teens who helped build a movement and ultimately won passage of the American with Disabilities Act.   

NOVA | PBS

Decoding COVID-19

NOVA combined stunning graphics and expert medical analysis with moving human stories in this hour-long primer on the coronavirus crisis, the doctors on its frontlines and researchers in the race for its cure.

NPR 

There Is No Protection — How The ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy Failed Migrants

NPR reporters traveled to gang-controlled towns inside the Mexican border for a series of radio reports that uncovered tragic personal stories of U.S. asylum seekers caught there, and the troubling impact of the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico" policy.

Optimist 

Five Years North Documentary

Five Years North’s unparalleled access and observational approach provided nuance to a complex issue - America’s broken immigration system - by focusing on an undocumented teen working in New York City and the conflicted ICE agent who patrols his neighborhood.

Radiotopia from PRX

Ear Hustle

This remarkable podcast series about the daily realities inside San Quentin prison, produced by those living it, shattered the myths about serving time and what happens afterwards.

The New York Times

Rabbit Hole

This highly informative and entertaining podcast series guided listeners through the nascent history of the internet to help explain what it has done to our lives, our society, and to the notion of truth.

The New York Times Visual Investigations Team

The Russia Tapes: Tracing Attacks on Syrian Hospitals and Civilians

The New York Times Visual Investigative team used cutting edge digital techniques to present  damning visual and forensic evidence, proving that Russian pilots bombed multiple Syrian hospitals and other locations filled with civilians. 

The Washington Post

Lafayette Reconstruction 

Piecing together cell phone video, police phone logs, and other artifacts, the Washington Post’s digital team reconstructed the clearing of Lafayette Park for President Trump’s “Bible photo op,” driving home the disconnect between political ends and violent means.

Upper East Films & Independent Lens | PBS

Bedlam

The riveting verité documentary Bedlam takes viewers inside an overwhelmed psychiatric ER for a painful reminder that America has turned its back on treatment for those with mental illness, who are often criminalized or left to fend for themselves.  

VICE on SHOWTIME

India Burning

Vice’s fearless eyewitness reporting  revealed the extent to which the Indian government is moving towards declaring its Muslim population second class citizens in an historic effort to undermine India’s secular roots. 

WFAA-TV Dallas

Verify Road Trip: Climate Truth

In a fresh take on climate change, producers of this ongoing series devoted an episode to taking a skeptical viewer on a reporting trip to meet and question scientists, and to witness the damning evidence firsthand.

WNBC-TV New York

The Epicenter of the Coronavirus Pandemic

This extensive collection of breaking news, feature, and memorial stories created a 360 view in real time of the coronavirus pandemic, with courageous and thorough reporting on the virus’s explosion in New York City.

WNYC Studios | Radiolab | OSM Audio

The Flag and the Fury

This riveting podcast episode recounted the clash of Mississippi culture, politics and family, in an evocative history of the last American state to include the Confederate battle flag on their state flag. 

WNYC Studios | Radiolab

The Other Latif

In this dazzling audio series, reporter Latif Nasser illustrated the toll of the decades-long global war on terror in his quest to find out how another Latif Nasser ended up in Guantanamo and why he’s still there, despite being cleared to leave.

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Announcing the 2021 duPont Winners