Murrow award dinner, RTNDA’s new site

Cory Bergman October 15th, 2007

I just returned from the Edward R. Murrow awards dinner in NYC, and I have two highlights to share. First, 60 Minutes producer Michael Radutzky accepted the award for news documentary for the Duke rape case story. It was Ed Bradley’s second-to-last story (which also won a Peabody), and Radutzky’s emotional remarks honored Bradley as well as the Duke students wrongly accused of rape. Radutzsky had invested months in the story, and one of the students was in the audience with his family to witness the RTNDA awards ceremony. The second highlight was NBC News winning the overall excellence award. Before NBC News President Steve Capus accepted the award, RTNDA played a clip from a Martin Fletcher report in Israel. Fletcher was doing a story on the Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel, and he was running from attack to attack — literally — beating the ambulances to the scene. At one scene, a woman was desperately trying to find her husband by calling him on his cell phone. He wasn’t answering. Then someone heard a phone ringing — next to a man’s body lying nearby. It was by far the most impactful clip of the night, and Capus reminded everyone of the risks that reporters, photographers and producers are experiencing in the Middle East to bring us these stories.

Meanwhile, RTNDA President Barbara Cochran suggested I check out the brand new RTNDA.org. Yes, RTNDA has finally relaunched the site, and it’s a tremendous improvement, featuring industry news, a directory of suppliers and job postings. And wait, there’s a blog with posts from our own Steve Safran!

Finally, a little editorial comment. Dozens upon dozens of awards were handed out tonight, with just three going to the web (CNN.com, KING5.com and WAFF.com), and each site did not get a “clip” like the TV or radio folks. I thank RTNDA for adding the web awards in the first place, and now it’s time to expand them to represent the millions of Americans who depend on the web for their news day in and day out.