Everglades documentary brings prestigious journalism award to CBS’ Miami TV news station
The 16 winners of the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards were announced Tuesday — and South Florida’s WFOR CBS4 Miami was a recipient.
The station was honored for its documentary, “The Everglades: Where Politics, Money and Race Collide.”
CBS4’s reporting team — which included reporter, writer and producer Jim DeFede, a former Miami Herald columnist, and executive procuder Caridad Hernandez — spent a year investigating how toxic blue-green algae shut down beaches and businesses on Florida’s Treasure Coast in 2016. The environmental crisis, the station revealed, “prompted a political and economic crisis throughout the state.”
In accepting the award for the hour-long program , CBS4 News Director Liz Roldan said: “The Everglades is a beloved national treasure. We sought to tell its story differently for local news, via an ambitious documentary that shows how politics, growth and pollution have impacted The River of Grass. It is an incredible honor to know that our team has won the 2019 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award honoring outstanding audiovisual reporting in the public interest.”
In addition to Roldan, DeFede and Hernandez, the winning “Everglades” team included photojournalist/video editor Tony Jerez, special projects editors Alex Bombard and David Agudelo; and Adam Levy, the station’s vice president and general manager.
The Tampa Bay Times and WTSP earned a Silver Baton award for “Zombie Campaigns,” an investigative partnership that “took a colorful look at questionable campaign finance laws.”
The 2019 awards featured a record number of wins for programs for and about women — 12 victories, said the presenter, Columbia Journalism School.
Frontline PBS won the Gold Baton, the award’s highest honor for PBS’ “longstanding commitment to original documentary programming.”
CNN and WNYC won two awards. One of CNN’s wins was for the popular “RBG,” a theatrical documentary about sitting Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The winners will be feted at the 77th annual awards ceremony at Low Memorial Library in Manhattan. “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl and NPR’s “All Things Considered” host Ailsa Chang will co-host the event.
This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 12:39 PM with the headline "Everglades documentary brings prestigious journalism award to CBS’ Miami TV news station."
