"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central won a Peabody Award for its presidential election coverage.
It was the second time the show and its host have won the award for election coverage.
Posted on 04/08/2005 5:36:48 AM PDT by OESY
When the George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in electronic media were announced yesterday, they cited a program that was later accused of basing a report on fake documents, "60 Minutes II" - and a program that gleefully engages in the production of fake news, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."
The Peabody given to the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes" honored an exclusive story, produced by Mary Mapes and reported by Dan Rather, about the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Several months after that journalistic coup, Ms. Mapes was fired and Mr. Rather retired as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" earlier than planned in the wake of another broadcast, on President George W. Bush's National Guard service. After initially backing its reporters and their report, CBS said they may have based it on falsified documents.
"The Daily Show," which combines elements of entertainment and news, was honored for its presidential election coverage, as it had been four years earlier.
But it was the award to "60 Minutes II" that set tongues wagging because of the recent controversy that led to Ms. Mapes's firing and Mr. Rather's early departure. (He continues to work for CBS as a reporter.) Horace Newcomb, director of the Peabody Awards, said that in this instance, an award is just an award.
The prison story "stands on its own merits," he said. "It was one of the most important stories of the year and was one of the crucial components of the ongoing conflict in Iraq."
Susan Stewart, a television critic with TV Guide and one of the judges of the awards, concurred.
"I have been participating in these awards for a number of years, and there is never any agenda; it is a pure process," she said. "Now, we don't operate in a vacuum and you can't turn your brain off, but the process of judging the work is separate from any other consideration."
In citing the report, the committee said, "This Dan Rather report broke the story of the abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad, airing for the first time the photographs of American soldiers and abused Iraqi prisoners that shocked the world. "
Ms. Mapes, who has sued CBS and is writing a book about the controversy created by the report on the president's National Guard service, said she got a call from Mr. Rather yesterday, one she received with a fair amount of trepidation.
"He said, 'I have some news for you,' and I said, 'Now what?' " Mr. Rather related the happy news that their Abu Ghraib collaboration had received one of broadcasting's highest distinctions. Ms. Mapes described the experience as bittersweet, "but more sweet than bitter."
"I was happy to get the news, especially from someone I love and respect so much," she said. "I think there is at least context here, if not vindication. And I am happy for my colleagues at CBS. I have always tried to separate the people who flicked me like a piece of lint off their shoulder when things were tough and the people that I worked with, who I remain very proud of."
While Mr. Rather may have called Ms. Mapes with the news, he chose to issue a very formal statement - no Rather-isms to mark the honor - instead of being interviewed.
"Each of us who worked on the Abu Ghraib story for CBS News is deeply and humbly appreciative to the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and to its advisory board of judges, for honoring the report with a Peabody Award," the statement said.
It was apparently a good day for issuing pronouncements. Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" was in rehearsals yesterday and unable to come to the phone.
"All of us at 'The Daily Show' very much appreciate the Peabody Committee's recognition of our work," Mr. Stewart said in a statement released by the show. "Because this is the first time we've ever released a statement, we'd also like to, just for the hell of it, categorically deny all charges and say that we find them both scurrilous and without merit."
Mr. Stewart may have made time for a joke, but he did not crow that in two consecutive presidential election years the Peabody judges decided that his show's presentations - which are part running gag and part droll annotation of the campaigns - were worthy of citation.
Tom Goldstein, the director of the mass communications program at the University of California, Berkeley, pointed out that the Peabody Awards generally award both entertainment and journalistic excellence, so the second trip to the podium for "The Daily Show" should come as no surprise.
"Jon Stewart is extraordinarily important phenomenon," he said, adding, "The truth can be told in many ways - journalistically, through satire - and he does a brilliant job of expressing the truth his way."
The awards, administered by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia and first handed out in 1941, are not broadly recognized by the public, but many people within the television and radio industries see them as a significant recognition of quality work. There are no categories or limits on the number of prizes - 32 awards were given this year - and they often range widely in search of broadcast excellence.
This year's awards were no exception. BBC Television News was cited for its reports on the famine in the Darfur region of Sudan, while Studio 360, a relatively new program produced by WNYC, a public radio station in New York, was recognized for its on-air deconstruction of "Moby-Dick."
I agree. It's important to know how many people take this 3rd rate comedian seriously.
Fake but accurate, don't forget. I predict the next big innovation in news will be to have the video generated by computer, saving the expense of actually sending camera crews to the field, and the time needed to interview live subjects.
I see we have a Peabody Award bubble to go along with the Nobel Prize bubble.
Hilarious!
As Bahbah doubles over laughing...bwahahahah.
Your concept was very well illustrated in the movie Wag to the Dog
Marty's Pantheon of Useless Awards.
And then they'll just sit back and chuckle at the likes of Jayson Blair, filing stories datelined in South Carolina while comfortably perched on his favorite stool in his favorite Manhattan sports bar.
"Heh heh. That's just so 20th century!"
The media, in all its forms, from print to pictures, has been showering their people with meaningless and useless "awards" for everything under the sun for generations. It makes copy and provides free advertising. But, really, who the h**l cares but these incestuous backslappers and their gaggle of like-minded egomaniacs.
There's already a CGI reporterette who's smarter than Nancy Grace and easier on the eyes than Greta Van S.
The Peabody has taken over for the Lenin Peace prize. Does what these people do really have any mean?
Gee, all this time I thought it was the Peabrain Award.
The prison story was one of the most important stories of the year? Was that quote a joke? I don't know a damn person who gives a rats a-- about that overblown story. And I live around a lot of liberals.
Making prisoners pose in nude or form nude human pyramids is NOT torture.
How about the beheading of Americans in Iraq - was that an important story? How about voting in Iraq?
No, this dumb prison story is the top MEDIA CREATED story of the year.
Rest in peace, Dan Rather.
Produced and directed by Blame America First at CBS.
LOL!
The MSM *is* the way-back media.
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