USC ANNENBERG ANNOUNCES 2003 WINNERS OF THE WALTER CRONKITE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN TELEVISION POLITICAL JOURNALISM

Awards ceremony to take place April 8, 2003 during the National Association of Broadcasters and Radio-Television News Directors Association conventions in Las Vegas

LOS ANGELES, MARCH 17, 2003 – Proving that good political coverage can make great television, the USC Annenberg School for Communication today announced the winners of its prestigious USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism.  The Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Las Vegas on April 8, 2003, during RTNDA@NAB, the premier conference and exhibition for radio and television news. 

"At a time when hostilities are high throughout the world, compelling reporting about complex public issues is more important than ever,” said legendary journalist Walter Cronkite.  “At home we have found in the past, notably during the Vietnam War, that partisans on both sides of a critical issue can become so impassioned that they are likely to sense prejudice and bias in the same news reports.  We journalists must, of course, hold to our ethics of fair and impartial reporting and courageously resist political and even popular attempts to influence that reporting.  I am glad that I can be part of these Awards and to honor a commitment by reporters and stations around the country to inform and engage our citizens.”  

The Awards go to Hearst-Argyle Television; NBC News’ “Meet the Press”; WFAA-TV, Dallas; KING-TV, Seattle; Wisconsin Public Television; KMTV, Omaha; Nebraska ETV Network; News 8 Austin (TX); Jay Warren at WSLS-TV, Roanoke, VA; Randy Shandobil at KTVU-TV, Oakland, CA; and WCPO-TV, Cincinnati. 

For a transcript of the Cronkite Awards 2003 ceremony, please click here.

The USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Awards are given for coverage of the 2002 election.  Judges gave special consideration to innovative, issue-focused reporting that informed viewers about their electoral choices, and that helped them understand ballot issues, the candidates involved, and how electoral choices will affect their lives. 

“These Awards prove that covering politics is not ratings poison,” said Martin Kaplan, associate dean of the USC Annenberg School and director of the Norman Lear Center, which administers the Awards.  “Smart reporters and committed news executives can make election coverage riveting and informative.” 

Following are descriptions of the work for which the winners are receiving their USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award:

Station Group

• Hearst-Argyle Television, winning its second consecutive USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award, organized a seminar for their stations to discuss innovative ways to provide candidate-centered coverage.  The judges said the Hearst-Argyle group demonstrated a consistency of quality from small to large market stations. They noted each Hearst-Argyle station generated material appropriate to its own market and avoided “cookie cutter coverage.”

Broadcast Network

• NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” winning its second consecutive USC

Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award, created a “Senate Debate Series” to

serve the interests of viewers nationwide who wanted to learn about key US Senate races.  Meet the Press explored the relationship of local Senate races to the national struggle for control of Congress. The judges said Meet the Press “drove the national agenda” through its series of live debates with Moderator Tim Russert.

Local Station, Large Market (two winners)

• The judges praised WFAA-TV, Dallas, for its creative collaboration with other Belo stations in its coverage of Texas electoral contests. Called Project Texas, WFAA collaborated with other Texas Belo stations to identify critical issues and report on various aspects of that issue. The judges also noted the station’s unique storytelling techniques and strong reporting efforts. The station produced segments called Dinner with the Candidates, where two major party candidates sat down for a home cooked meal and questions from a North Texas family; Ad Watches, weekly reports on political advertising; Debate Watch, a series of reports checking the accuracy of statements made during debates; and College Voters, a report revealing a lack of interest and knowledge about the campaign on a college campus.
  
  
• This is the second USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award to be given to KING-TV, Seattle.  The Seattle area was battling some of the worst traffic in the country and major roads and bridges were in poor condition and considered unsafe in earthquakes.  KING-TV created a transportation unit and assigned two lead reporters to the project. Over five months, the unit produced an ongoing series of reports.  The “Taxing Traffic” series included explanatory pieces, Reality Checks and Ad Watches, in-depth coverage on the station’s weekly current events program, and an hour special that aired 10 days before the election. The judges praised KING-TV for devoting a substantial amount of time and resources to an important, but complicated, community issue—an issue that many stations would have ignored.

Local Station, Medium Market

• Wisconsin Public Television set out in 2002 to “break the predictability plaguing campaign coverage.” To break from traditional “canned” campaign trail segments, WPT took the candidates on the road to locations known only to the television station. Each of the eight gubernatorial candidates was taken to a different part of the state and spent the day meeting with citizens and answering their questions. WPT also aired innovative debates that challenged candidates to discuss how they would solve the state’s budget crisis among themselves in an unmoderated, live broadcast.

Local Station, Small Market (two winners)

• Political Reporter Joe Jordan at KMTV or KM3 News, Omaha, exposed efforts by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to influence state and federal elections with a questionable campaign tactic – a TV commercial paid for by Pfizer featuring a congressional candidate promoting a prescription drug card for senior citizens. Even though the ad did not mention the election, it featured the candidate and appeared to violate the ban on direct corporate political contributions.   KMTV’s story was picked up by the Washington Post and other newspapers, shedding light on the ad as a new attempt to influence voters.  Judges said this story illustrates that “simple can work,” which is particularly important in smaller markets that don’t have as many resources available.
  
  
• Nebraska ETV Network drew attention to candidate apathy with its “Missing Candidate” series, an issue rarely covered by the media. The station provided an in-depth look at the problem across the state, exploring why people don’t want to run for office. They included input from election officials, political scientists and politicians and included a segment on possible solutions to the problem. ETV used their web site to display streaming video, transcripts and additional resources for viewers.  Judges commented that ETV exhibited old-fashioned, rolling up the sleeves reporting. 

Local Cable News Station

• In 2002, News 8 Austin dedicated over 50 hours of news coverage to state and local elections. With a goal to avoid allowing candidates control the news cycle, they attempted to bring the voters’ interests and issues to the forefront.  Stories focused on individual and party issue coverage, voter profiles and positions on the issues, and Election Day coverage. Judges especially liked the station’s commitment to a diversity of voices in the community in its political coverage.

Individual Achievement (two winners)

• Roanoke was faced with a relatively “boring” election year, so Jay Warren of WSLS, Roanoke, set out to develop innovative approaches to political coverage. Because there were no competitive races or defining issues, he came up with new methods to cover the elections in an informative and interesting manner.  “The Road to 2002” focused on how key issues affect viewers in their every day lives.  Stories were told through the eyes of viewers.  “No Choice” was a series that shed light on non-competitive races and powerful incumbents.  Judges noted that whereas many stations use the excuse of a “boring” election year to limit coverage, Jay Warren turned it around with an innovative approach.
  
  
• Randy Shandobil of KTVU-TV, Oakland, allocated a great deal of airtime to election coverage, displaying the station’s serious commitment to political news.  KTVU tried to encourage other stations to devote more time to election coverage by putting an hour’s worth of their stories on a statewide satellite feed for others to use.  Judges said Shandobil demonstrated outstanding storytelling techniques to engage viewers and used intelligent approaches to getting California’s gubernatorial candidates to talk about issues that directly affect many of the station’s viewers.

Coverage of Money and Politics

• Laure Quinlivan of WCPO-TV, Cincinnati exposed a secretly taped political conversation that revealed one of the biggest problems in politics today – party leaders practice of limiting voters’ choice by hand-picking candidates and intimidating other good people from running for office. The station aired two well-told eight-minute in-depth reports plus follow-up stories.

“Most people say they get most of their news about politics from local news,” said USC Annenberg School Dean Geoffrey Cowan, a member of the distinguished jury that chose the winners.  “That’s why it’s so important to honor journalists and stations that struggle against long odds to do a great job.”

Other USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award judges included:  RTNDA President Barbara Cochran; Ramon Escobar, senior vice president of News, Programming and Creative Services, Telemundo Television Stations; Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean, University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication; Cinny Kennard, USC Annenberg assistant professor of journalism; Deborah Potter, NewsLab executive director; Adam Clayton Powell III, USC Annenberg Local Broadcast News Initiative and visiting professor at USC Annenberg's School of Journalism; and Gary Wordlaw, vice president and general manager, KSTW-TV, UPN affiliate in Seattle.

The Awards ceremony will include presentations by prominent journalists and communication professionals.  The Awards ceremony for coverage of the 2000 campaign featured presentations by Walter Cronkite, the late Katharine Graham, television pioneer and philanthropist Norman Lear, and USC Annenberg School Dean Geoffrey Cowan.   The Awards are a project of Reliable Resources for Broadcast Political Coverage, funded by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.  Reliable Resources is a part of USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center. 

For additional information about this and other events sponsored by USC Annenberg surrounding RTNDA@NAB, please contact David Park at 323/954-0415 or david@parkandassociates.com.

About Reliable Resources

Reliable Resources (www.reliableresources.org), a project of The Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, aims to help return high-quality TV coverage of issues and candidates – once the staple of American political campaigns – to broadcast newsrooms. With the help of educators, journalists, TV broadcasters and the public, Reliable Resources identifies, develops and distributes tools to help local stations and network television provide innovative and informative political coverage, and to recognize and reward those efforts. Reliable Resources is funded by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.  Sylvia Teague, a twenty-five year veteran of television news and an award-winning producer, serves as Project Director.