“60 MINUTES” WINS TWO PEABODY AWARDS: ONE FOR 50-YEAR CONTRIBUTION TO TELEVISION, ANOTHER FOR OPIOIDS STORY
Total of 25 Peabody Awards Is the Most for a News Program
60 MINUTES will receive two George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in television journalism this year, bringing the program’s total to 25 – the most a news program has ever won. The Peabody Board of Jurors singled out the CBS newsmagazine for its decades-long contribution to television and its influence on society in an institutional Peabody to be awarded to the broadcast, now in its 50th season. 60 MINUTES also will be honored with a Peabody for its insightful reporting on the opioid crisis conducted with The Washington Post.
“We’re proud of our work and of our history, and we are grateful to the Peabody awards for this special recognition,” said Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 MINUTES. “It is an honor for all of the fine people who have contributed to our broadcast over the 50 years since Don Hewitt created 60 MINUTES.”
In its citations for the 60 MINUTES awards, the Peabody Board of Jurors wrote, in part:
Peabody Institutional Award 60 MINUTES
“Fifty years later, when the ticking of that Aristo stopwatch pops up on millions of American television screens every Sunday night, it signals that serious journalism is about to be committed…With regularity, 60 MINUTES pursues investigations that lead to legal action, catalyze social change, and illuminate dark government secrets. The longest continuously running program in American network primetime, it is also, by many measures, the most successful evening program in the history of television.”
Peabody to 60 MINUTES and The Washington Post for “The Whistleblower”
“In an example of sophisticated business reporting, 60 MINUTES and The Washington Post collaborated on this far-reaching investigation into how the Drug Enforcement Administration was hobbled in its attempts to hold Big Pharma accountable for fueling the opioid epidemic…The impact of the story was immediate, leading to the withdrawal of the president’s nominee for drug czar, calls for enforcement legislation, and new investigations into drug industry culprits. For explosive reporting that uncovered a truly bipartisan problem, which continues to receive massive amounts of funding even while the scourge of addiction continues to grow, 60 MINUTES and The Washington Post receive a Peabody Award.”
“The Whistleblower,” an October 2017 joint investigation by 60 MINUTES and The Washington Post, uncovered a war within the DEA over whether to hold a powerful drug industry accountable for fueling the opioid epidemic. It shined a spotlight on an enforcement slowdown as deaths from prescription drug overdoses escalated. It also exposed the quiet passage of a law in Congress that stripped the DEA of its most potent enforcement tools against big pharmaceutical distributors. Days after the report was broadcast, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA), withdrew his name as the president’s choice for drug czar.
The story was reported by Bill Whitaker and produced by Ira Rosen and Sam Hornblower. The Washington Post reporters on “The Whistleblower” are Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein; it was edited by Robert Zimet.
The Peabody Awards are administered by the University of Georgia and will be presented at a dinner in New York City on May 19.
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