A PHEAAbody
Apr 3rd, 2008 by JamieB
WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh has won a “Peabody,” broadcasting’s most prestigious award, for its series on the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Association and the fight for open records reform in Pennsylvania.
WTAE-TV was one of the 35 winners of the 67th annual award. The station was cited for “’Fight for Open Records,’ a series of reports about improprieties in Pennsylvania’s state-run student loan agency – reports[that] were made possible by a successful – and well-explained – legal battle to obtain the agency’s ostensibly public records.”
The Peabody Award, which is based at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, is a big deal.
“The Peabody Awards, which reward the best of broadcasting and are administered by the University of Georgia’s journalism school, are universally respected for their serious, thoughtful choices.”
So hats off to WTAE.
Other recipients included “The Colbert Report,” Comedy Central’s cable-news satire, “A Journey Across Afghanistan: Opium and Roses,” a documentary from Bulgaria’s Balkan News Corporation, “Whole Lotta Shakin,” the Texas Heritage Music Foundation’s public-radio series chronicling rockabilly music, and “Univision’s Ya Es Hora,” a public-service campaign that taught legal aliens how to apply for American citizenship.
Also winners were three extraordinary pieces on the war in Iraq: “Wounds of War – The Long Road Home for Our Nation’s Veterans,” a series by ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff about the struggles of veterans dealing with severe war injuries and stress; “CBS News Sunday Morning: The Way Home,” Kimberly Dozier’s story about two women veterans who lost limbs in Iraq; and “The Killings in Haditha,” a Scott Pelley 60 Minutes report. Both Woodruff and Dozier were severely wounded in Iraq. Finally, “Taxi to the Dark Side,” a documentary about an Afghani cabdriver who died in U.S. military custody, won a Peabody after capturing an Oscar last month.
Fight for Open Records, WTAE-TV’s “relentless legal campaign to obtain public records of a state-run student-loan program netted evidence of financial misconduct and pushed the state to rewrite an antiquated right-to-know law.”