Peabody Awards announce winners

By: KRISTEN COULTER

Posted: 4/3/08

The Peabody Awards winners were announced Wednesday by the University's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The Peabody board selected 35 winners out of a pool of more than 1,000, Horace Newcomb, Peabody Awards director, said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

The board is composed of 16 people and includes television critics, broadcast and cable industry executives and experts in culture and the arts, who judge the entries, according to a University news release. Selection is made by the board following review by special screening committees of University of Georgia faculty, students and staff, the release shows.

"It's the most prestigious award in electronic media," Newcomb said.

He added that the committee does not distinguish between the different genres, making it the only award of its kind.

"Everything competes with everything else," he said.

In the news release issued Wednesday, Newcomb expressed strong enthusiasm for this year's contendors.

"The range of genres, the variety of topics and the consistently high quality of submissions for Peabody consideration indicated again that amazing work is being done in electronic media," Newcomb said in the release. "The Peabody board labored through many hours of discussion and deliberation to select these works from among more than 1,000 outstanding entries."

The Peabody Awards are the oldest prizes given in electronic media, the release states.

According to the release, the Peabody Awards recognize "distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals."

Some award winners:

TV shows

• "Colbert Report"

• "30 Rock"

• "Project Runway"

TV reports

• "A Journey Across Afghanistan: Opium and Roses"

• "Wounds of War - The Long Road Home for Our Nation's Veterans"

• "60 Minutes' 'The Killings in Haditha'"

• Virginia Tech Shootings: "The First 48 Hours,"
from WSLS-TV in Roanoke, Va.