Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award

Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award
Awarded for	The best in television and radio journalism
Presented by	Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Location	New York City
Country	United States
Official website	dupontawards.org

The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards honor excellence in broadcast and digital journalism in the public service. The awards, administered since 1968 by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, are considered a broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, another program administered by Columbia University.

Dedicated to upholding the highest journalism standards, the duPont awards inform the public about the contributions news organizations and journalists make to their communities, support journalism education and innovation, and cultivate a collective spirit for the profession.

The duPont-Columbia Awards were established in 1942 by Jessie Ball duPont in memory of her husband Alfred I. du Pont. It is the most well-respected journalism-only award for broadcast journalism, and starting in 2009, under new director Abi Wright, began accepting digital submissions. The duPont, along with the George Foster Peabody Awards, rank among the most prestigious awards programs in all electronic media.

The duPont-Columbia jury select the winners from programs that air in the United States between July 1 and June 30 of each year. Award winners receive batons in gold and silver designed by the American architect Louis I. Kahn. The gold baton, when awarded, is given exclusively in honor of truly outstanding broadcast journalism.

In 2012, the first-ever theatrically released documentary film was honored by the duPont Jury: "Hell and Back Again" about the war in Afghanistan and the struggles facing veterans when they return home.

In 2010, the first award for digital reporting was given to MediaStorm and photographer Jonathan Torgovnik for "Intended Consequences" about children born of rape in Rwanda.

In 2003, the first-ever foreign-language program was awarded a duPont-Columbia Award. CNN en Español and reporter Jorge Gestoso won a Silver Baton for investigative reporting on Argentina's desaparecidos.

Award winners

2011

Television, Radio, and Digital: Silver Baton Winners

• ABC News, for "20/20, Brian Ross Investigates: The Coach's Secret"
• BBC America, for "BBC World News America: Haiti's Earthquake"
• CBS News, for "60 Minutes: "The Blowout"
• KCET, Los Angeles for "Up In Smoke, Protected or Neglected?, Hung Out to Dry?"
• KING-TV, Seattle & Susannah Frame for "Waste on the Water"
• 9News/KUSA-TV, Denver, 9News at 10 for "Keys to the Castle"
• NPR & Laura Sullivan for "Bonding for Profit"
• POV & Geoffrey Smith, "The English Surgeon" on PBS
• The Las Vegas Sun, "Bottoming Out: Gambling Addiction in Las Vegas"
• West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Trey Kay & Deborah George for "The Great Textbook War"
• WGBH, FRONTLINE & Najibullah Quraishi for "Behind Taliban Lines"
• WKOW-TV, Madison & Dan Cassuto for "Who's Protecting You?"
• WTHR-TV, Indianapolis & Bob Segall for "Reality Check: Where are the Jobs?"

2010

Television, Radio, and Web: Silver Baton Winners

• American RadioWorks, Michael Montgomery & Joshua E. S. Phillips for "What Killed Sergeant Gray"
• CBS News & Katie Couric for "The Sarah Palin Interviews"
• CBS News for "CBS Reports: Children of the Recession"
• HBO & Edet Belzberg for "The Recruiter"
• KHOU-TV, Houston & Mark Greenblatt for "Under Fire: Discrimination and Corruption in the Texas National Guard"
• KMGH-TV, Denver & Tony Kovaleski for "33 Minutes to 34 Right"
• MediaStorm & Jonathan Torgovnik for "Intended Consequences"
• NPR, Michele Norris & Steve Inskeep for "The York Project: Race and the 2008 Vote"
• POV, Elizabeth Farnsworth & Patricio Lanfranco for "The Judge and the General," on PBS
• WCAX-TV, Burlington & Kristin Carlson for "Foreigners on the Farm"
• WGBH, Boston, FRONTLINE/World, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy & Dan Edge for "PAKISTAN: Children of the Taliban," on PBS
• WSVN-TV, Miami, Carmel Cafiero & Anthony Pineda for "Pill Mills"
• WTVF-TV, Nashville & Phil Williams for "General Sessions Court"
• WWL-TV, New Orleans for "NOAH Housing Program Investigation"

2009

Television: Golden Baton Winner

• WFAA-TV in Dallas for "Money for Nothing, A Passing Offense, The Buried and the Dead"

Television & Radio, Silver Baton Winners

• ABC News / Nightline for "The Other War: Afghanistan"
• California Newsreel, San Francisco & Vital Pictures for "Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?"
• CNN for "God's Warriors"
• Current TV for "From Russia with Hate"
• HBO for "Cinemax's Reel Life: The Blood of Yingzhou District"
• Oregon Public Broadcasting for "the Silent Invasion"
• Safari Media, ITV, PBS for "Independent Lens, Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story"
• WJLA-TV, Washington, DC for "Drilling for Dollars: Children’s Dentistry Investigation"
• WTVT-TV, Tampa for "Small Town Justice"
• All Things Considered, for "Coverage of the Chengdu Earthquake"
• This American Life, for "The Giant Pool of Money"
• All Things Considered, for "Sexual Abuse of Native American Women"

2008

The thirteen awards for 2008 were announced on December 17, 2007, and presented on January 16, 2008.

• CBS News for 60 Minutes: The Mother of All Heists
• Chicago Public Radio, Alix Spiegel & PRI for This American Life: Which One of These Is Not Like the Others?
• Florentine Films/Hott Productions & WETA-TV, Washington, DC, for Through Deaf Eyes on PBS
• HBO, Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg for The Trials of Darryl Hunt
• KHOU-TV, Houston, for Rules of the Game
• KMOV-TV, St. Louis, for Left Behind: The Failure of East St. Louis Schools
• KNOE-TV, Monroe, Louisiana, for Names, Ranks and Serial Plunder: The National Guard and Katrina
• MSNBC & Richard Engel for War Zone Diary
• NBC News for Dateline: The Education of Ms. Groves
• NPR & Daniel Zwerdling for Mental Anguish and the Military
• Paladin Invision, London, & WETA-TV, Washington, DC, for Jihad: The Men and Ideas Behind Al Qaeda on PBS
• WBBM-TV, for Fly At Your Own Risk
• WFAA-TV, for Television Justice

2007

• AMERICAN MASTERS and WNET, New York, for Bob Dylan: No Direction Home on PBS
• Brook Lapping Productions, London, for Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace on PBS
• WGBH's Cape and Islands NPR Stations for Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands
• Discovery Times Channel, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The New York Times for Nuclear Jihad: Can Terrorists Get the Bomb?
• FRONTLINE and WGBH, Boston,for The Age of AIDS on PBS
• HBO, Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neillfor Baghdad ER
• ITVS, Lisa Sleeth and Jim Butterworth for INDEPENDENT LENS: Seoul Train on PBS
• NBC Nightly News and Dateline for Coverage of Hurricane Katrina
• KCET, Los Angeles, KPBS, San Diego, KQED, San Francisco, KVIE, Sacramento, for California Connected: War Stories from Ward 7-D
• NPR for Coverage of Iraq
• WBAL-TV, Baltimore, for Dirty Secret
• WLOX-TV, Biloxi, for Coverage of Hurricane Katrina
• WRAL-TV, Raleigh, for Focal Point: Paper Thin Promise and Standards of Living
• WWL-TV, New Orleans, for Coverage of Hurricane Katrina

2006

• ABC NEWS for Live Coverage of the Death of Pope John Paul II and the Election of Pope Benedict XVI
• CNBC for The Age of Wal-Mart: Inside America's Most Powerful Company
• CNN for Coverage of the Tsunami Disaster in South Asia
• FRONTLINE and WGBH, BOSTON, for Al Qaeda's New Front on PBS
• FRONTLINE, WGBH, BOSTON, and The New York Times for The Secret History of the Credit Card on PBS
• HBO for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: The Sport of Sheikhs
• North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC, Chapel Hill, for North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty
• PRI,WGBH, BOSTON, and BBC WORLD SERVICE for The World: The Global Race for Stem Cell Therapies
• The Kitchen Sisters, JAY ALLISON and NPR for Hidden Kitchens
• THE SUNDANCE CHANNEL, DENIS PONCET, JEAN-XAVIER de LESTRADE and ALLYSON LUCHAK for The Staircase
• WFTS-TV, TAMPA, for Crosstown Expressway Investigation
• WJW, CLEVELAND, for School Bus Bloat
• WPMI-TV, MOBILE, for For Lauren's Sake

2005

• ABC NEWS and PJ PRODUCTIONS for Jesus and Paul: The Word and the Witness
• PBS FRONTLINE and WGBH-TV for Ghosts of Rwandaon PBS
• ABC NEWS and PRIMETIME THURSDAY for The Nuclear Smuggling Project
• DAVID APPLEBY and THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS for Hoxie: The First Stand on PBS
• FRONTLINE and WGBH-TV for Truth, War and Consequences on PBS
• MSNBC and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ULTIMATE EXPLORER for Liberia: American Dream?
• HBO/CINEMAX REEL LIFE, VICTORIA BRUCE and KARIN HAYES for The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt
• LOUISIANA PUBLIC BROADCASTING for Louisiana: Currents of Change
• MSNBC and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ULTIMATE EXPLORER for Liberia: American Dream?
• NBC NEWS and DATELINE for A Pattern of Suspicion
• NPR and RADIO DIARIES for Mandela: An Audio History
• WFAA-TV, DALLAS for State of Denial
• WBAP-AM, DALLAS for JFK 40
• WCNC-TV, CHARLOTTE for Medicaid Dental Centers Investigation
• WFTS-TV, Crosstown Expressway Investigation, Investigative Reporter Mike Mason

The duPont Jury also announced four finalists for their exemplary broadcast journalism:

• Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Tracy Droz Tragos for "Be Good, Smile Pretty" on PBS
• MarketPlace and American Public Media for "Spoils of War" on public radio stations
• NOVA, WGBH-TV and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. for "Crash of Flight 111"
• WISH-TV, Indianapolis, for "Will Your Vote Count?"

2001

• Hedrick Smith
• Cry Freetown

1999

• Documentary Filmmaker Tony Buba (Producer) and Raymond Henderson (Co-Producer) for Documentary "Struggles in Steel"

1997

• Richard Schlesinger for CBS Reports: "Enter the Jury Room"

1995

• National Public Radio for reporting on welfare reform

1994

• Deborah Weiner and WBFF TV for a three part series on inner city violence: "Justice on Trial: The Lost Generation", "Finding the Lost Generation" and "The Walking Wounded."

1987

• George Rochberg

1986

• Callie Crossley

1974

• Lord of the Universe (documentary)

Media

• "Telling the Truth — The Best in Broadcast Journalism", PBS, Maria Hinojosa. Documentary on the 2010 Dupont award winners.

External links

• Official site
• 2003 duPont-Columbia Award Winners (press release)
• 2007 winners, official site