Three different streaming outlets — Max, Netflix and Paramount+ — were among the top winners at the duPont-Columbia Awards, some of the top honors accorded each year to audio and video reporting done in the public interest, while some of the usual news organizations named each year were not.
CNN, CBS News, NBC News and ABC News were not named among the 16 top honorees of this year’s awards, which were revealed Wednesday. The awards have been administered since 1968 by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Max, Little Room Films & The Boston Globe took home a Silver Baton for “Murder in Boston,” a docuseries and a podcast that examined how a high-profile Boston murder led to a racist rush to judgment. MTV Documentary Films and Paramount + won for “Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney,” a short documentary that explored the practice of forced reproduction in the antebellum South. Netflix & Lucernam Films won for “You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolfpack,” a documentary that deconstructs a gang rape that took place during the 2016 San Fermín festival.
In 2023 or 2024, PBS, ABC News and CNN were among the news companies that garnered multiple wins.
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The results could spur hand-wringing over the plight of many of the mainstream TV-news organizations, many of which have cut costs, laid off employees and trimmed resources while their corporate parents grapple with the challenges of the streaming era. More traditional TV viewers are migrating to broadband services, where they can watch programming at times of their own choosing, a dynamic that has played havoc with media economics. Many owners of TV-news organizations, including Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast, have orchestrated organizational restructures or are contemplating mergers and acquisitions.
During remarks made at a ceremony, “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker nodded to some of the challenges gripping the industry. “This is a fraught time for journalism. With wars in Europe, the Middle East and host spots around the globe, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls this one of the deadliest periods for journalists in recent history. Here at home, powerful politicians call us “enemies of the people” and more and more news consumers doubt our trustworthiness. Television news audiences and budgets have shrunk,” Whitaker said. “So journalists, as we used to say way back in the 1970’s, ‘Keep on keeping on.’ Like the reporters, these public servants whose excellence we honor tonight, we have to keep digging, keep looking under rocks, keep shining light into the shadows, keep giving voice to the voiceless and hope to the hopeless. Keep reporting with honesty, integrity and facts. Our democracy requires it.”
Several DuPont winners focused on race. Five Silver Batons awarded to journalists who re-examined the topic at various points in U.S. history – from the antebellum South to current-day examples of the racial divide in America. Aside from the projects mentioned above, other duPont winners included The Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones, Reveal & PRX “40 Acres and a Lie”; National Geographic Documentary Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Alegria Films & Cortés Filmworks “The Space Race”; and KFOR, Oklahoma City & Ali Meyer for “The Wrong Man.”
Three additional duPont Batons honored audio reporting. NPR won for its coverage of the war in Gaza; ProPublica & On the Media WNYC Studios’ podcast series “We Don’t Talk About Leonard” won an award; and “We Regret to Inform You”, co-produced with Reveal, and The Investigative Reporting Project at UC Berkeley, was a winner.
First time honorees included the non-profit journalism organization The Outlaw Ocean Project for its investigative series, “China: The Superpower of Seafood,” and Scripps News for its ongoing investigation “Maine Shootings: Missed Warnings.”
Vice News won a duPont for its online film “Battleground Texas,” and Songbird Studios & Imaginary Lane were honored for “Porcelain War” about the war in Ukraine.
Founded in 1942, the duPont-Columbia Awards uphold the highest standards in journalism by honoring winners annually, informing the public about those journalists’ contributions, and supporting journalism education and innovation. A jury made up of industry veterans selected 30 finalists and 16 winners. The pool of entries includes traditional national and local news outlets from across the country, as well as streaming and entertainment outlets.