“60 MINUTES” WINS ITS 19th DUPONT AWARD FOR ITS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING ON THE OPIOID CRISIS
Series by “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post Wins More Awards than
Any Other “60 Minutes” Work in Program’s 50-Year History
The 60 MINUTES/Washington Post joint investigative series on the opioid crisis in America earned the CBS newsmagazine its 19th DuPont-Columbia University Journalism Award. The Columbia School of Journalism announced the awards honoring electronic journalism today. The award to the CBS newsmagazine was the only one earned by a broadcast television network.
The Silver Baton from Columbia is the eighth award garnered by the two-part coverage of the origins of the crisis and the most for any 60 MINUTES work. The reports have also won the Peabody, Emmy, RTDNA Murrow, Sigma Delta Chi, Hillman Foundation, Association of Healthcare Journalists and the National Association of Health Care Management awards.
The segments appeared on 60 MINUTES and in print versions published in The Washington Post in the fall of 2017. The first, “The Whistleblower,” uncovered a war within the DEA over whether to hold a powerful drug industry accountable for fueling the opioid epidemic. It shined a spotlight on an enforcement slowdown as deaths from prescription drug overdoses escalated. It also exposed the quiet passage of a law in Congress that stripped the DEA of its most potent enforcement tools against big pharmaceutical distributors. Days after the report was broadcast, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA), withdrew his name as the president’s choice for drug czar.
The next installment, “Too Big to Prosecute,” revealed how the biggest opioid case in U.S. history against one of the world’s largest drug distribution companies was settled by the government in a deal that shocked DEA agents.
The 60 MINUTES stories were reported by Bill Whitaker and produced by Ira Rosen and Sam Hornblower. The Washington Post reporters on the series are Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein. The television segments were edited by Robert Zimet.
Bill Owens is the executive editor of 60 MINUTES.
No comments:
Post a Comment