The 2022 duPont-Columbia University Awards ceremony took place in a virtual setting on Tuesday evening.
Co-hosted by CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff, the duPont jury selected 16 winners representing what their panel deems the very best in audio and video journalism from 30 finalists.
Two of the 16 winners hail from the world of national TV news.
Vice News won a du-Pont silver baton award for its original film, titled Shockwave. duPont-Columbia writes: “Through brilliant use of CCTV footage, this harrowing and deeply moving documentary followed the devastating August 2020 explosion in the Port of Beirut from the vantage point of nearby Saint George’s Hospital, where doctors and nurses tried to save lives amidst the rubble.” The film premiered in June of last year.
CBS News and Norah O’Donnell won a du-Pont silver baton award for extensive investigative reporting into sexual assault in the U.S. military. The multi-year investigation by O’Donnell and the CBS News investigative unit, titled Military Sexual Assault: Norah O’Donnell Investigates, included interviews with nearly two dozen sexual assault survivors, whistleblowers, and families of victims who later died by suicide. The series of reports, which aired on CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News, revealed that the military’s sexual assault crisis is worse than ever, despite the Pentagon’s pledge of zero tolerance 10 years ago.
“This is the hardest and most important investigation we have ever done together at CBS News,” O’Donnell said in her acceptance remarks. “Journalism is a calling and … has the power to make substantive change in the world we live in.”