The Regional Edward R. Murrow award winners have been announced and several South Florida TV stations picked up an award.
Continuing Coverage
WFOR-TV, Miami
Chief Timoney Ethics
Investigative Reporting
WTVJ-TV, Miramar, FL
A Question of Security
Newscast
WFOR-TV, Miami, FL
Four Officers Shot
News Documentary
WPTV-TV, West Palm Beach, FL
Bogus Billing Primetime Special
Spot News Coverage
WFOR-TV, Miami
Manhunt
I’m not surprised at all WFOR won the awards that they did. They seem to win these categories every year. I was a little shocked that WPLG didn’t win anything, considering they’re South Florida’s ratings king. WTVJ generally has good investigative journalism. I’m glad for them. But, I’m glad WFOR won. I’ve been a WFOR fan for years, so this is pretty darn cool.
WHDH actually won the award for best newscast in the country.
Ummm, I think this is old news, as reported in these same pages almost 3 months ago.
http://www.sfltv.com/2008/04/11/wfor-wtvj-and-wptv-win-regional-murrow-awards/
…a station wins is always directly proportional to the number of entries they submit. Some stations put a heavy emphasis on award winning, solicit submissions, pay for entries, and then promote the hell out of their victories. Other stations do not. That’s why the pendulum seems to be swinging toward WFOR on the awards front of late. It doesn’t make their coverage any better or worse than WPLG’s, for example, but you should expect WFOR to make hay out of these recent wins (if they haven’t already).
The process is heavily weighted toward those who choose to show up. There’s no better way to do it, mind you, but this process is not like the Oscars where there’s some independent panel that reviews news footage, makes nominations, then selects the winners.
Congratulations to the winners. It’ll look great on your resume.
The Amount of Awards…
you are correct, that’s exactly how it goes.
the more money a station pays, the more awards it can win…doesn’t mean the station is
the best at what it does, means there just interested in awards…
there is a good reason WPLG and WSVN don’t win. They don’t enter anything.
wsvn could enter every newcast they’ve ever done in the last 20 years, they would NEVER win an award associated with journalism. maybe the “pandering award”, or the “lowest common denominator” award, or the “catering to an uneducated public to garner ratings award”, or even the “we’re too cheap to pay decent salaries award”, but journalism? as wsvn’s middle school employees would say…”LOL”
How about this? Congratulations to those honored. Period.
Here is next year’s winner for “Best Investigative Reporting”
http://www.miamiherald.com/418/story/598516.html