The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award is an American award that honors excellence in broadcast journalism. 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.1
The duPont-Columbia Award was established in 1942 by Jessie Ball duPont in memory of her husband Alfred I. du Pont. It is the most prestigious journalism-only award for radio and TV, and along with the George Foster Peabody Awards ranks among the most prestigious awards programs in all electronic media. (The Peabodys also cover cultural programming as well as journalism.)
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. Every once in a while, the Jury finds a super winner, like ABC News for so many great programs in a single year, a golden baton could be given. That hasn't happened for a few years. There's no obligation for the jury to give a gold one.
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
2008
The thirteen awards for 2008 were announced on December 17, 2007, and presented on January 16, 2008.2
- 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
20071
- 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
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?
1995
1974
References
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