a
The Silver Baton For Most Predictable Prizes
The ‘prestigious’ DuPont Awards were announced today from Columbia University and they were a roster of the totally most predictable and ‘safe’ bets you could imagine.
Despite the fact that awards ceremony host Brian Williams kicked off the ceremony by stating “they are outstanding, innovative and investigative news programs about some of the biggest stories of the year”, the reality is that they are none of those. They are, instead, a litany of old and tired.
This year’s winners included such ‘innovative’ broadcasts as 60 Minutes, which has not changed in the past 30 years or so. Very innovative indeed. Or 20/20 – another tower of innovation.
Not to mention Frontline!
And what were the ‘biggest stories of the year’? Well, according to the DuPont Awards they include:
“20/20” for their investigation into a government agency’s failure to protect dozens of young female swimmers from abusive coaches.
or
West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s stunning historic radio documentary about multiculturalism.
Yeah!
Those were sure the biggest stories of the year…. that is, if you weren’t online or reading The New York Times… or any newspaper for that matter.
Now, it’s not like the DuPonts have never heard of the Internet.
Right there on their home page, they say very clearly:
As technology changed, the duPont Awards expanded to include television, and later cable programming. As the forms of television and radio journalism have multiplied, the Awards have responded by honoring investigative series, magazine programs, documentaries, independent and online productions.
They may ‘honor’ online productions, but they don’t seem to be too aware that they exist.
All in all, I am not surprised, but as a graduate of Columbia’s J School, I am deeply disappointed that they have elected to ‘honor’ such predictable banality.
Emily Bell, who used to run The Guardian’s Online side is joining the board of The DuPonts. I hope she will bring the kind of aggressive focus on new kinds of journalism that she championed at The Guardian to the moribund and dead DuPont Awards.
