With public broadcasting under fire in Congress, PBS and NPR dominated their respective mediums in Thursday's Peabody Awards announcements.
FX's "Justified," CBS' "The Good Wife," HBO's "The Pacific" and public radio's "The Moth Radio Hour" were also among 39 recipients of awards for the best in electronic media in 2010.
Also read: Peabody Winners: The Full 2010 List
PBS programs received nine awards, including for "Great Performances: Macbeth," "Frontline: The Wounded Patrol," "LennonNYC" and "Elia Kazan: A Letter to Elia."
NPR had three awards among the eight total for radio -- including the award for "The Moth" -- in what the awards called The awards called it an "especially rich year for radio."
HBO won seven awards, including for "The Pacific," "Temple Grandin," and Spike Lee's "If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise."
The 70th annual Peabody Awards will be given out May 23 at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City at a ceremony hosted by Peabody winner Larry King. The winners were announced by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Here's the release:
Athens, Ga. – A record 39 recipients of the 70th Annual Peabody Awards were announced today by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The winners, chosen by the Peabody board as the best in electronic media for the year 2010, were named in a ceremony in the Peabody Gallery on the University of Georgia campus.
“For 70 years the Peabody Award has defined excellence in electronic media,” said Horace Newcomb, director of the Peabody Awards. “This list of Peabody recipients continues the commitment of the University of Georgia and the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the stewards of the award. With that commitment, we challenge media makers and distributors to reach higher, try harder and be ever mindful of their central role in public life.”
The latest Peabody winners reflect diversity in content, genre and sources of origination. The recipients included The Pacific, an epic HBO miniseries about American soldiers and sailors fighting in the Pacific theater of World War II; Men of a Certain Age, TNT’s world-wise comedy-drama about three middle-aged pals; Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, anIndependent Lens documentary that entertained as it set the checkered cinematic record straight; and The Moth Radio Hour, where the ancient art of storytelling is honored and expanded weekly.
International recipients included Report on a New Generation of Migrant Workers in China, a report by Hong Kong’s Phoenix InfoNews Channel about challenges facing the latest wave of Chinese workers abandoning rural life for urban, and Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children, BBC Four’s presentation of Xoliswa Sithole’s secretly-filmed documentary about the abysmal living conditions of her homeland’s youngest citizens.
The entertainment programs selected included The Good Wife, a CBS dramatic series about apolitical spouse’s life after her husband’s scandalous downfall, and Justified, FX’s modern-day Western set in the wild, wild hills and hollows of Appalachia.
