Public Media Reporting Collaborations Shine in RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Awards

Led by innovative, wide-ranging reporting on threats to democracy, race, and the pandemic, public media won or collaborated on 38 2022 National Edward R. Murrow Awards, announced on August 12 by the Radio Television Digital News Association to recognize outstanding journalism. Public radio won 34 of the 48 radio categories, led by NPR with six awards.

Close to a third of public media’s award-winning works were the result of partnerships and collaborations, including statewide public media organizations Florida Public Media and Texas Standard, the daily newsmagazine of Texas.

“These awards affirm the quality of the work that public media journalists do every day and the importance of collaboration as a force multiplier,” said Kathy Merritt, CPB senior vice president, Radio, Journalism and Community Service Grant Services. “CPB is proud to support this public media journalism.”

PBS’ FRONTLINE won three awards, all for collaborative efforts: for American Insurrection (with ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Project); for its continuing coverage of The Insurrection and Extremism in America, (with ProPublica); and for Un(re)solved, a CPB-supported multiplatform project telling the stories from the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. FRONTLINE partnered with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, StoryCorps and Ado Ato Pictures, Retro Report and PRX, on the web-based interactive, serialized podcast, augmented-reality installation, and documentary.

PBS NewsHour won a national Murrow Award for “On Our Minds with Noah and Zion,” a podcast about youth mental health for and by teens, from the CPB-supported Student Reporting Labs in partnership with WETA’s Well Beings mental health public awareness campaign.

National Edward R. Murrow winners will be honored at an October 10 gala in New York City. Public media winners by category:

Television Network

• Excellence in Innovation: Un(re)solved, FRONTLINE
• Feature Documentary: American Insurrection, FRONTLINE (in partnership with ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Project)
• Podcast: On Our Minds with Noah & Zion, PBS NewsHour
   

Radio Network

• Digital: COVID-19 Trackers, NPR
• Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Mississippi Goddam: The Ballad of Billey Joe, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting (in partnership with PRX)
• Excellence in Innovation: Joy Generator, NPR
• Excellence in Writing: NPR’s Embedded: The Capital Gazette, NPR
• Feature Reporting: Pair Your Pints With a Trip Through History on This British Pub Crawl Across London, NPR

• Investigative Reporting: How States Charge the Poorest Families and Children for the Cost of Foster Care, NPR (in partnership with Politico, The Marshall Project)
• News Documentary: The Essential Workers of the Climate Crisis. WNYC Studios (in partnership with The New Yorker)
• Podcast: Home/Front: Marla’s War, NPR
   

Large Market Radio

• Digital: Class of COVID-19: An Education Crisis for Florida’s Vulnerable Students, Florida Public Media (in partnership with WLRN, WGCU, WFSU, WUSF, WMFE, WUCF, WPBT/WXEL, WJCT, WEDU, WUWF)
  Miami, FL
• Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Unseen: The Boy Victims of the Sex Trade, WGBH-FM (Boston, MA)
• Excellence in Innovation: Vaccinating Texas: A Tracking Project
  Texas Standard (Austin, TX)
• Excellence in Sound: ‘Time To Cut Losses’: Inside The Final Days of a Boston Restaurant, WBUR-FM (Boston, MA)
• Excellence in Writing: Who is Buried in this Cemetery on 51st Street in Austin?, KUT-FM (Austin, TX)
• Feature Reporting: Who is Buried in this Cemetery on 51st Street in Austin?
  KUT-FM (Austin, TX)
• Hard News: Female Ex-Lifeguards Describe Decades of Sexual Abuse at Chicago’s Beaches and Pools, WBEZ-FM (Chicago, IL)
• Investigative Reporting: Buried Secrets: WBEZ’s Investigation Into Chicago Lifeguard Sexual Abuse, WBEZ-FM (Chicago, IL)
• News Documentary: An Investigation Into Deadly COVID-19 Outbreaks at Foster Farms, KQED (San Francisco, CA)
• News Series: Pandemic Generation, WBUR-FM (Boston, MA)
• Overall Excellence: Texas Public Radio (San Antonio, TX)
• Podcast: Relative Fiction, Oregon Public Broadcasting (Portland, OR)
• Sports Reporting: How Major League Soccer Passed Over San Antonio for Austin, Texas Standard (in partnership with Texas Public Radio) (Austin, TX)

Small Market Radio

• Digital: Vermont Public Radio Digital, Vermont Public Radio (Colchester, VT)

• Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: KUNR’s Youth Media Program, KUNR Public Radio (in partnership with Washoe County School District & Report for America) (Reno, NV)
• Excellence in Innovation: 20 Years Later: Vermonters Remember Sept. 11
  Vermont Public Radio, (Colchester, VT)
• Excellence in Sound: Sea Otters — The Guardians Of Monterey Bay’s Kelp Forest, 90.3 KAZU Public Radio, Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz, CA
• Excellence in Writing: David Condos, High Plains Public Radio, Garden City, KS
• Feature Reporting: A Boise Nurse Shares Her Frontline Experience Through Poetry, Boise State Public Radio (Boise, ID)
• Hard News: Migrants Expelled, KTEP-FM (El Paso, TX)
• Investigative Reporting: Distance-Learning Investigation: Shortfall In Student Engagement Despite High Attendance Numbers, KVPR (Fresno, CA)
• News Documentary: The Rural Doctor Is In, WKSU-FM (Akron, OH)
• News Series: COVID-19 in Virginia Prisons, WVTF/Radio IQ (Roanoke, VA)
• Overall Excellence: WVTF/Radio IQ Overall Excellence, WVTF/Radio IQ
  (Roanoke, VA)
• Podcast: Fireline, Montana Public Radio (in partnership with University of Montana College of Business) (Missoula, MT)
• Sports Reporting: Diversifying the Adirondacks One Whitewater Rafting Trip (or Hike) at a Time, North Country Public Radio (Canton, NY)

Large Digital News Organization

• Continuing Coverage: The Insurrection and Extremism in America, ProPublica (in partnership with FRONTLINE) (New York, NY)

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