ABC News will receive six Edward R. Murrow Awards, including one for overall excellence, and CBS News will be honored with four, including one for best newscast for the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,” the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) announced Monday.
The network news divisions are among 54 news organizations being recognized with 2008 Murrow Awards, which honor excellence in electronic journalism. Joining ABC News and CBS News in the network category of recipients are NBC and ESPN.
Disaster coverage figured in many of the winning stories, including reports on the Virginia Tech shootings and the Minneapolis Bridge collapse. The plight of injured Iraq war veterans returning home was the subject of both the winning continuing coverage entry from CBS News and the ABC News documentary entry.
The 54 news organizations being recognized will receive a total of 77 awards out of an initial 3459 entries from several hundred news organizations.
To earn an overall excellence award, a station or network must consistently demonstrate depth and scope in its coverage. Overall excellence award winners in television this year are:
- ABC News (network television)
- KOMO-TV, Seattle (television, large market)
- WJAR-TV, Cranston, RI (television, small market)
Several local stations won multiple national Murrows, including WBAL-TV in Baltimore in the news documentary and news series categories.
The awards will be presented Oct. 13 at the RTNDA Awards Dinner in New York City.
For a complete list of the winners, visit http://www.rtnda.org/pages/media_items/2008-murrow-national-winners1303.php.
