Celebrations are in order for PBS, CNN, and Vice News, as the media outlets are receiving Peabody Awards this year.
The 83rd Annual Peabody winners were announced on Wednesday morning and saw the news category receive seven out of the 35 awards given out, with PBS receiving three awards (one NewsHour and two for Frontline), while CNN and Vice News garnered one a piece in the category.
NBC’s Minneapolis affiliate KARE-TV won a Peabody in the news category, as did AJ+, while while Frontline was also honored in the Public Service category.
Peabody previously announced four specialty awards including NBC News’ Today show as an Institutional Award winner.
The winners were chosen by a unanimous vote of 32 jurors from the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors with over 1,400 entries from television, podcasts/radio, and the web/digital in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and interactive programming.
Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody, said, “Representing a wide range of mediums, genres, and narrative approaches, this year’s winners continue to advance what it means to craft storytelling that is compelling, powerful, and prescient.”
He added, “Whether capturing the lives of teachers in Philadelphia or young women in Afghanistan, these stories are powerful enough to make us laugh, cry, and learn. They are all deserving of this honor, and we are thrilled to shine a light on their amazing achievement. All citizens should seek out, watch, and engage these winners.”
PBS NewsHour garnered an award for its ongoing Guns in America coverage. In 2022, NewsHour dedicated an unprecedented amount of resources, airtime, and focus to the issue. Coveraged ranged from on-the-ground updates in Uvalde and survivor interviews in Buffalo to long-range impact stories around the tenth anniversary of the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, to a deep dive into the psychology behind gun marketing. PBS NewsHour continually found groundbreaking angles to every gun story.
Frontline awards were for;
Michael Flynn’s Holy War: A documentary in collaboration with The Associated Press that followed General Michael Flynn as he traveled across America speaking to growing crowds on the far right.
Ukraine: Life Under Russia’s Attack: Filmed during the first three months of the unprovoked invasion by Russia in 2022, the documentary provides a powerful inside portrait of the civilians and first responders who chose not to evacuate but to remain and defend the city, refusing to hand their country over to Vladimir Putin and taking a stand for democracy in the process.
The Power of Big Oil: A three-part investigative documentary that revealed how the fossil fuel industry over four decades manipulated climate change research, influenced environmental policy, and undermined efforts to confront the threat and impact of global warming.
CNN senior crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz and the CNN team won a Peabody for their relentless coverage of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 children and two teachers. Prokupecz covered this story with a commitment to getting accountability for the many families who had to contend with the fact that their kids, some of whom didn’t make it out of the school alive, had to wait close to an hour before officers actively responded to the 911 calls coming from inside those classrooms.
Another year, another major award for Vice News. The outlet was awarded for its No Justice for Women in the Taliban’s Afghanistan investigation, which saw Vice News traveling across north and south Afghanistan, exploring the present-day plight—and troublesome future—of a new generation of girls growing up under Taliban rule.
Vice News’ Peabody win comes under a heavy cloud as the news division saw significant layoffs resulting in the cancelation of its signature TV news program Vice News Tonight. Additionally, parent company Vice Media is facing the threat of bankruptcy.