2021 duPont-Columbia Awards

(dramatic piano music) - [Anderson] Tonight it's a celebration of outstanding journalism.

Work that has an impact, (crowd shouting) Is vital.

- [Reporter] An unusual spike in sick children.

- [Anderson] And courageous.

- [Camerawoman] Stop shooting that!

Why are you shooting us?

- [Narrator] Recognizing the very best original reporting.

- [Journalist] These people are not criminal.

They have an illness.

- [Anderson] In broadcast, documentary, and streaming.

Stories in the public interest.

At this pivotal time.

- [Reporter] You can see a Minneapolis police officer with his knee on that man's neck.

- [Anderson] As journalists risk their health, their safety, their lives to cover today's news.

- Code green!

- This is the 2021 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards.

Good evening and welcome to the 2021 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards.

I'm Anderson Cooper here in New York.

Thanks so much for joining us tonight from all around the country and overseas as we honor 15 winners and 15 finalists.

The best in broadcast, documentary, and online journalism from 2019 to 2020.

I'm joined this evening by my cohost Michele Norris, opinion writer for The Washington Post, and Michele, I'm sorry that we're not together in Low Library in the Columbia campus, but I'm very glad to be partnering with you to present the DuPont silver batons.

- Thank you, Anderson.

I wish we could be together.

Good evening from Washington DC everyone.

As we all know and have been living through and covering around the clock, this ceremony is happening in the midst of epic challenges and a time of transition here in Washington.

A global pandemic, racial reckoning, and the beginning of a new political era in America.

And it only serves as a reminder of how important our work as journalists is.

To inform the public and hold the powerful accountable.

Something that has become incredibly dangerous with a threat of catching the virus and the threat of violence while covering demonstrations and riots.

- Once again this past year we have seen the importance of speaking truth to power.

Holding others and ourselves accountable.

The pandemic has also reminded us of the importance of facts and science and honesty in a time of crisis.

We have a few special guests with us tonight to help us present these 2021 DuPont silver batons.

Our first two awards honor coverage of the biggest story of the year, the coronavirus pandemic.

The first DuPont will be presented by someone who we have all relied on for information about this virus and other outbreaks over the years.

He served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.

Please welcome Dr. Anthony Fauci.

A voice of reason during some very difficult times.

- Good evening.

As someone who talks to journalists a lot, I am delighted to have the chance to celebrate the important work that you do.

I am here to present the ceremony's very first DuPont award to the PBS science series Nova for the program Decoding COVID-19, an hour long primer on the coronavirus pandemic, the healthcare workers on the frontline, and the researchers who are racing to develop vaccines to end the pandemic.

In one masterful hour, which originally aired last May, producer Sarah Holt and her team told a story of the overwhelming spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 with strong graphics explaining how the virus works and how it could be fought with treatments and a vaccine.

The program also featured numerous interviews with epidemiologists and lab scientists on the frontlines.

And two personal stories in Wuhan, China and Queens, New York that added a powerful human dimension.

In this clip from PBS Nova: Decoding COVID-19 you can see clearly exactly how the virus attacks healthy cells in the lungs and makes it so difficult for some patients to breathe.

- [Narrator] In healthy lungs, tiny air sacs deliver oxygen to blood vessels.

But as the virus kills cells, and the immune system fights back, inflammation results.

Filling the lungs with fluid and debris.

Blocking the flow of oxygen.

- What happens to some of these individuals that go down this severe path is they begin to make this massive burst of inflammatory molecules that we call the cytokine storm.

Now once that signal or that alarm goes off in the body, all kinds of other immune cells that we have in our system start to swarm in.

That then basically sends the immune system into this incredible disarray.

- Your own immune system then becomes an enemy to your body.

So in that combination of both the direct damage that the virus does and the inflammation that comes from the immune system overreacting to the virus, you get a scenario where people start to have trouble breathing.

- [Narrator] Many patients, like George, end up needing a mechanical ventilator to do their breathing for them.

- Throughout the night he started showing symptoms.

And they had to put him on a vent.

And once they said that they put him on a vent, I just knew that it wasn't good.

- [Anthony] Congratulations to Nova producer Sarah Holt.

It is truly a magnificent film.

- Thank you, Dr. Fauci.

I didn't know if we could get an in-depth science film on the air in just six weeks.

I never dreamed we'd win an award.

It's a tribute to a talented team at Nova.

The filmmakers in China who found Leo, a recovered COVID patient, and followed him as Wuhan reopened, giving us a glimpse of life in China post-lockdown.

It's for Dr. Alice Beal who led me to the Brown family.

And Matthew, an EMT in New York city.

Matt, your interview still resinates today about what happens if we all get sick at once and overwhelm our healthcare system.

we couldn't have done this without the scientists who gave us their time as they race to understand COVID and defeat it.

Our fellow finalists are an extraordinary group of filmmakers.

Thank you for this recognition and for supporting our work.

(gentle melody) - Our next silver baton also honors COVID coverage.

This one goes to a local station in the first major American city to be hit by the epidemic, New York.

As the crisis grew early last spring WNBC-TV was covering the story on all fronts, reporting on the outbreak and its devastating impact on hospitals, the economy, schools, and communities in the vast Metro New York area.

Whether adapting makeshift technology to work from home or risking exposure to report in the field, this team of reporters brought life and death information to their viewers.

This extensive collection of news, feature, and memorial stories creates a comprehensive view in real time of the coronavirus pandemic.

With courageous and thorough reporting on the virus' bewildering explosion in New York City.

In this clip we're gonna see how WNBC-TV was the first to break the news in the New York area about the appearance of a rare disease affecting children that surfaced with the COVID outbreak.

- [Melissa] Inside Mount Sinai's pediatric ICU this week at least two children in shock with serious inflammatory disease, according to a hospital source who says at least one of those children tested positive for COVID-19.

Raising the question is New York now seeing what British health officials were worried about when they issued an alert over the weekend.

At the time, Ryan's COVID-related inflammatory sickness was still a mystery.

Like many children he was initially misdiagnosed.

April 28th, the day when Ryan finally left the hospital, was the same day News 4 first reported an unusual spike in sick children.

At the time local public health agencies were unaware.

- When you realize this is affecting little kids (mumbles) as a pediatric cardiologist.

I looked at this and said oh my.

- [Anderson] Congratulations to everyone at WNBC News 4.

Here to accept the DuPont virtually is anchor David Ushery.

- It is hard to believe COVID-19 rages on as we approach the one year mark of our first recorded case in New York.

We're honored to be recognized for our coverage of the pandemic.

The baton is humbly accepted on behalf of a talented group of journalists at WNBC-TV driven to provide life saving information to the tri-state area in the face of an unprecedented health crisis.

There will be an appropriate time and place to celebrate this achievement.

For now we thank our healthcare workers and first responders working tirelessly to save lives.

We encourage those who are sick to fight with everything they've got to get better.

And we honor those who have lost loved ones to this insidious virus.

Thank you.

(gentle melody) - Honoring reporting in the public interest from local stations is one of the core missions of these DuPont awards.

Our next award winner, KSTP in Minneapolis, continues that tradition.

After George Floyd was killed by police, local station KSTP produced insightful, sustained team coverage of one of the biggest stories of the year and kept a commitment to its hometown viewers.

With multiple angles, including interviews with the club owner who had employed both Floyd and the police officer who killed him, and coverage of state police moving in on protestors and reporters with credentials.

Early on, the station deployed all of its resources.

They obtained, verified, and posted the full unedited version of the video of Floyd's murder within one day.

And they carefully dissected that video to educate viewers about what exactly happened.

Images that continue to disturb.

- [Reporter] The crowd continues to plea, but this time watch.

- [Bystander] Get off of him now!

- [Reporter] As the officer reaches for what appears to be a can of pepper spray.

- [Bystander] What the (bleep)?

He got maced, he got maced.

- [Reporter] When we slow down the video you can see the person filming backs up as the officer shakes the can of pepper spray.

At this point, nearly five minutes in, Floyd's eyes are closed and the crowds pleas grow louder.

Including this woman who identifies herself as a Minneapolis firefighter demanding that an officer check Floyd's pulse.

- [Bystander] He's not responsive right now, bro!

- [Firefighter] Does he have a pulse?

- [Reporter] That video, shot by Darnella Frazier, is an example of how citizen journalism is changing our world.

Congratulations to the whole team from my hometown in Minneapolis, KSTP.

And here to accept the award is news director Kirk Varner.

- On behalf of all the professionals who work here at KSTP Television in Minneapolis, St. Paul, we thank the DuPont-Columbia Awards for this recognition of our coverage surrounding the death of George Floyd and the days of unrest that followed.

It is my great privilege to lead the dedicated team of broadcast journalists here at 5 Eyewitness News who made this extraordinary coverage possible.

Each of them played a key role in allowing us to present the events that have so indelibly impacted our communities.

The struggle for justice and equality is the continuing story that we're working to cover each day here in the twin cities just as so many local journalists are doing in their communities all across this country.

And finally, a thank you to all of our families and friends who support us each and every day and make it possible to do the work that is being honored here.

We're grateful for all of you and for this award.

Thank you so very much.

(gentle melody) - Tonight three DuPont silver batons will go to outstanding audio reporting.

To present the first of these is a journalist and professor at Columbia Journalism School who writes frequently about race, politics, and history.

- The Flag and the Fury is a riveting podcast episode from WNYC's Radiolab.

It recounts the clash of Mississippi culture, politics, and family, and an evocative history of the last American state to remove the Confederate battle flag from its state flag.

It starts as a sweeping historical tale and ends as a breaking news story.

After the Civil War, many southern states adopted flags with some representation of the Confederate battle flag.

Mississippi did so in 1894.

Just last month, on January 6th, the state legislature passed a resolution adopting a newly designed flag featuring a magnolia.

Ironically, the same day, the Confederate flag appeared in the US Capitol when an angry mob stormed the building.

In this excerpt from Radiolab's the Flag and the Fury, we'll hear how the first black cheerleader for the University of Mississippi, John Hawkins, sparked protests after he refused to carry the state flag on the football field.

- [John] That's when the infamous question comes up when someone asks me about the Confederate flag and if I was gonna follow this tradition and wave the rebel flag.

- [Shima] That's how every game started.

With male cheerleaders running out and waving a giant battle flag.

- [John] Listen, I never expected to have to answer that question.

- [Shima] John said he literally had never contemplated it.

Because he never thought he'd be a cheerleader to begin with.

In that moment, between when he was asked the question and when he answered, a few things went through his mind.

He thought about his grandmother.

- [John] She died when she was 102 years old.

- [Shima] Wow.

- [John] So imagine this for a moment.

This is my grandmother.

Not my great-great-grandmother, this is my grandmother whose mother was born a slave.

- [Shima] He thought about the fact that when he got chosen for the cheerleading squad he suddenly started seeing a whole lot more of those rebel flags being carried around campus.

Almost as if they came out in reaction to his presence.

He thought about how the tuition he paid helped.

- [John] Buy those flags.

That we had no interest in.

And so when the question came up about the flag.

- [Shima] He says he just looked at the reporters square in the eyes and said.

- [John] I said of course not.

- [Jelani] Congratulations to the producers of The Flag and the Fury from WNYC Studios' Radiolab.

Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee.

- Thank you to the DuPont-Columbia Awards for this incredible honor.

First I want to thank the countless Mississippians who met hatred with grace time and again over a 126 year history.

To John Hawkins who stood up and stood alone 40 years ago.

To all the Mississippi artists, journalists, and sports figures who made the impossible possible.

And to Annie McEwen and Bethel Habte, thank you for your talents.

And to my collaborator throughout the whole process Jad Abumrad.

- This is such a tremendous honor.

First and foremost I wanna thank the person you just heard from, Shima Oliaee.

Without her relentless reporting and dogged research and creativity and commitment this story would not have happened.

Huge thanks to her and to Annie and to Bethel and the entire Radiolab team.

For being such an amazing work family.

And of course to the DuPont committee for choosing to honor our work.

We are so thrilled and grateful.

Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

(gentle melody) - Journalists bear witness to our collective history in real time.

A role that's critical to our democracy.

The Washington Post digital team did just that when it pieced together cell phone video, police phone logs, and other artifacts to reconstruct the clearing of unarmed protesters and reporters from Lafayette Park last June 1st.

A day that's come to be called President Trump's bible photo op.

The jury said that the Post's combination of crowdsourced video and illustrated satellite maps delivered context and a visceral you are there feel for what the chaotic scene looked and felt like on the ground.

Here's what happened on June 1st last year in an excerpt from The Washington Post's Lafayette reconstruction.

- [Sarah] Park police push a group of protestors west on H Street.

- [Cameraman] Keep moving.

Head down.

Keep moving.

Keep moving.

- [Sarah] A protester films pepper balls fired at the crowd.

They can be heard striking the ground.

(ball launchers firing) - [Cameraman] Keep moving.

Keep moving, they got pepper balls.

Keep moving.

- [Sarah] A member of The park police SWAT team throws a sting ball grenade into the crowd.

The devices are designed to explode, firing rubber balls in a radius of up to 50 feet.

(ball launchers firing) Several park police SWAT team members, and a member of the Bureau of Prisons tactical team are seen firing pepper balls into the fleeing crowd.

- [Camerawoman] Stop shooting that!

Why are you shooting us?

Why?

- [Sarah] In a matter of minutes the skirmish line surges past St.John's church.

Police pause a few feet beyond the intersection.

On camera, a park police officer wearing a yellow helmet is seen gesturing at officers to hold the line at 16th and H Street northwest.

A minute later on 16th Street, a park police SWAT team officer crouches down to roll a chemical grenade toward the protestors.

- [Reporter] Another tear gas bomb right at our feet!

- I am so pleased to introduce my colleague from The Washington Post, Senior Producer for Visual Forensics, Nadine Ajaka.

- I want to sincerely thank the DuPont-Columbia Awards for honoring our piece today.

We are thrilled to receive this award alongside so many brilliant news organizations during what has been a busy, tumultuous year.

Thank you to the incredible group of reporters, animators, and designers we worked with who are curious, kind, and innovative.

The work that went into this piece was substantial.

We stitched together dozens of videos, determining the vantage points of each one, and synced that footage to create a bird's-eye view where none had previously existed.

The reporting was expertly refined by dedicated editors.

And perhaps most importantly, we were given the time and resources to do this kind of work.

If there's one parting thought I can leave you with, it's that the range and thoughtfulness of our storytelling can only be as good as the diversity of our teams.

It makes the work better.

I hope that this is the year that our industry adopts inclusion and equity as cornerstones of our practice.

Thank you.

(gentle melody) - For the first time, the DuPont jury selected 30 finalists for the 15 awards, a reflection of how strong the reporting was last year.

Let's take a look at some of them.

- [Jeff] There's no obvious indicators that any force at all would be justified with so much as a taser.

- [Reporter] She says they fled out of control crime in Honduras thinking they could find refuge in the United States, but when she arrived at the Nuevo Laredo bus station, she says young men with tattoos and ball caps grabbed her and her son and held them prisoner for three weeks in safe houses.

- About to make a political movement in my city.

I'm about to run for state representative.

And remember I'm the one that went from being pepper sprayed and tear gassed to being sworn in!

- [Clarissa] He says he worked as a hired gun in Syria.

For a shadowy Russian mercenary group called Wagner that has become a valuable tool for the Kremlin.

- [Lori] Officers suggested that he reached for a gun.

- [Elijah] I refuse to be (mumbles)!

- I was like hey, he's going for your gun.

I immediately grabbed the individual by his head like this with both hands and pulled him down to the ground so that he was bent over.

- We're not treated as human beings.

We're not even treated as robots.

We're treated as part of the data stream.

- [Eyewitness] I've seen people turning it into a toilet.

I've seen all over the floor.

I've seen people shooting up, needles on the ground.

- You have the Chinese who want numbers on this side.

You have quality who wants customer satisfaction on this side, and we're in the middle.

- Good evening everyone.

I'm Steve Coll, the Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

In a normal year we'd be gathered together in Columbia's Low Library rotunda and I'd be speaking to you from a podium up on the stage about to hand out a silver baton.

But we aren't in a normal year as you well know, so instead I am on campus, but I'm recording this at the journalism school studio with the rotunda on a green screen behind me.

Our purpose tonight, celebrating great journalism with the DuPont-Columbia Awards, is the same as ever.

And the next silver baton goes to fearless eyewitness reporting that revealed an historic effort to undermine India's secular constitutional roots.

Vice reporter Isobel Yeong exposed how far prime minister Narendra Modi's government is moving towards disenfranchising its Muslim population.

Vice was there in India asking hard questions about what amounts to a draconian policy.

It requires often impoverished and illiterate Muslims to navigate a morass of bureaucracy to prove their citizenship or risk losing it.

In this excerpt from Vice on Showtime's India Burning, the team travels to the state of Assam where they make a chilling discovery.

Detention camps under construction for Muslims.

(speaking foreign language) (ominous atmosphere music) - So we've just reached the first detention center that they started building.

Until just a few months ago this area was all farm land, and now suddenly hundreds of workers have descended on this spot and started building these massive watchtowers, double walls, and huge huge facilities inside.

This is a brand new detention camp being built in the state.

The central government has directed other states to start building their own.

22 year old Rasul is a Muslim construction worker who's been at the site for the last year and a half,.

(speaking foreign language) - [Isobel] Working here is hard for Rasul.

He tells me his own mother was left off the citizenship list.

At what point did you realize what it was that you're building?

(speaking foreign language) - Why have you stayed working here for the last year and a half knowing that your own family members could end up here?

(speaking foreign language) - [Steve] Accepting the silver baton for India Burning is reporter Isobel Yeung.

- On behalf of all my team I am incredibly honored to be receiving this DuPont award tonight.

I know that everyone's names are appearing on the screen somewhere, and I know I only have one minute, but I did just wanna say a special thank you to everyone who was out in the field with us.

Particularly those individuals who didn't want to be credited because of the incredible personal risk to them.

They are the people who stay in the country after we've got on a plane and left, and they are the reason that we know anything and everything about what is going on there.

I'm also just as always incredibly humbled by the individuals who were willing to share their stories with us.

These are the people who told us about incredible hardships, incredible hatred and targeting of them, and it is because of their bravery that we know what is going on and that we are able to continue doing our jobs.

Which I'm incredibly grateful for.

(gentle melody) - Now to our second DuPont award for audio reporting.

A podcast series from WNYC Studios' Radiolab.

The Other Latif.

Reporter Latif Nasser highlights one man's story to illustrate the toll of the decades-long global war on terror in his quest to find out how another person with his name, the other Latif Nasser, ended up in Guantanamo and why he's one of only 40 prisoners still there despite being cleared to leave.

Following Latif the reporter's journey to find out what he could about Latif the prisoner engages listeners as the podcast explores the Kafkaesque nightmare that is the US holding of prisoners without charge at Guantanamo Bay almost 20 years on.

As he tries to reconstruct what happened, Latif travels to Morocco.

He interviews lawyers, journalists, and experts and ultimately makes it to Guantanamo, a location outside the US chosen deliberately to sidestep prisoners' rights.

From Radiolab's The Other Latif, listen in As Latif finally touches down in Cuba.

- [Latif] I really think that this place we're going, it's literally every single Muslim American's worst nightmare.

Here we are.

- [Officer] All right everybody, welcome to Guantanamo Bay.

If I could get everybody to remain in their seats once we come to a stop.

Then myself and Lieutenant Torres will get out.

- [Latif] Welcome to Guantanamo Bay.

- [Alianos] I'm Commander Alianos, I'm the chief spokesperson for the joint task force.

So our goal and the tone that we want to set is that we're as transparent as possible.

So what not to photograph would be locks, the guards, power or water desalination plants, surveillance cameras, satellite dishes, panoramic views... - [Latif] The list went on for like 20 minutes.

- [Alianos] Fuel generation equipment.

- [Latif] And it was not enough to just tell us don't take pictures of that.

It was like okay.

- [Alianos] At the end of every day we'll do a review of your imagery.

- [Latif] We're gonna go through your camera, through the pictures one by one, and the things that have those things that we told you not to take photos of, we're gonna delete them.

And strangely, one of the justifications for these rules was.

- [Alianos] And it's important to remember that our current mission of safe, humane, and legal care and custody of detainees that's consistent with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.

- [50s Reporter] The Geneva convention.

Relative to the treatment of prisoners of war of August 12th, 1949.

- [Latif] The very thing that this place was designed to avoid was now being used as a shield.

- Accepting the DuPont silver baton for The Other Latif is the other Latif Nasser.

- It's about an hour before Joe Biden is inaugurated president.

Four years ago yesterday, I saw a tweet about a guy with my name who was locked up at Guantanamo Bay.

It took me and my colleagues at Radiolab three years to report and produce a story about him.

And when we did, what ended up happening was it wasn't really a story about him.

It was a story about this country.

And in a way its original sin of the 21st century.

How in a moment of fear it turned its back on human rights, the rule of law, international law.

So four years from a tweet the day before Donald Trump was sworn in, to today his final day in office.

I hope soon we will get to make an update to this story about the closure of Guantanamo Bay.

Either way, we will be paying attention.

Thank you so much for this honor.

(gentle melody) - The next DuPont goes to another remarkable podcast series.

This one details the daily realities inside San Quentin Prison and post incarceration, produced by those living inside.

Ear Hustle from Radiotopia was started in San Quentin's media lab.

The podcast, hosted by Nigel Poor and formerly incarcerated Earlonne Woods, is engaging and informative with stories that humanize the people who make up the largest incarcerated population in the world.

Episodes in recent seasons explore the impact of the coronavirus on those behind bars, the close relationship between correction officers and inmates, and what it's really like to get out of prison.

The DuPont jury said the podcast features innovative storytelling that gives a voice to the forgotten warehoused men and women who would otherwise be unheard.

In this excerpt from Radiotopia's Ear Hustle we'll hear one inmate's stark advice to a newcomer.

- [Prisoner] Somebody who was just really cool.

A guy that took a liking to me and he just started telling me how jail works.

He said when you go inside, don't show no fear.

Do not stay in your cell.

Go in your cell, put your property down on your bed, and come right out and just go see who's on a tier and just make yourself known.

If you go in, you're sailing high, they're gonna think you scared.

And they also told me don't accept charity in prison.

Don't let nobody give you a candy bar, don't let nobody give you anything 'cause there's always strings attached.

- [Nigel] Will you tell me that story, so what does it mean if someone leaves a candy bar on your bunk?

- [Earlonne] Oh it says setup.

- [Nigel] Will you explain that?

- [Earlonne] The theory is you've just come into prison, you don't have any property.

If you eat the candy bar, then you owe them.

And you have no way to pay with money.

And so they expect you to pay with a sexual favor.

Booty bandits.

Let's just call them what they are, booty bandits.

Guys that are trying to turn young naive prisoners out and make them their prison property.

- [Nigel] So you knew that going in.

- [Earlonne] I was scared to death.

That's like my worst nightmare.

To be raped doing something like that.

Worst nightmare.

- [Anderson] For Radiotopia's Ear Hustle, congratulations to Nigel Poor and Earlonne woods.

- Hey Nige.

- Hey E. - A DuPont, huh?

That's pretty cool.

- It is amazing.

Thank you so much to all the DuPont jurors for their votes.

And of course thank you to the incredible team that makes Ear Hustle.

For us, this award is more validation of the basic deeply held belief that animates all the work we do.

We believe that voices that are often ignored, voices from a place that most people rarely think about, deserve to be heard.

And that listening compassionately to those voices is a powerful act.

- Our show is all about believing in people.

Ear Hustle started because Nigel believed that I, a guy who was locked up with a 31 year to life sentence, would be a good person to start an ambitious podcast with.

And look at us now.

The season that we're getting this award for is particularly meaningful for me.

Just before the season launched my sentence was commuted.

10 days later, I started reporting from the free world on life after incarceration.

- Believing in people pays off.

- Indeed it does.

Thank you all.

(gentle melody) - Now I'd like to thank three important groups of people who made tonight's celebration possible.

First, a well-deserved thank you to the administrators here at the J-School who make these awards happen every year.

And it is a year-long effort.

Prizes Director Abi Wright and DuPont Director Lisa Cohen.

Thank you.

Second, thank you to the DuPont jury who chose tonight's honorees.

Even before the jury met, almost 100 screeners, many of them former DuPont winners, evaluated over 550 entries.

The jury met for three days of long Zoom meetings in October and selected 30 finalists and later met again to choose the 15 winners.

Thank you for your time and dedication to upholding journalistic standards for the profession and for the public.

And I would also like to acknowledge and thank the staff and trustees from the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund.

By carrying out the legacy of Jessie Ball DuPont to honor her husband Alfred I. DuPont, you help us uphold standards of excellence for journalists everywhere.

And with your support we are also able to offer partial scholarships to two students.

And I'd like to introduce this year's DuPont Fellows.

Rose Gilbert and Arcelia Martin.

- A special honor we have as DuPont Fellows is sitting in on the jury's deliberations to learn what makes outstanding journalism.

Even virtually this year, it was a spirited master class as distinguished news veterans discussed, argued, and came to consensus on the top honorees.

- As DuPont Fellows and as students we aspire to follow in your footsteps.

Producing journalism that holds systems of power accountable and shares the diversity of the human experience.

We'll get back to presenting winners in just a minute, but first we'd like to share a little history about how this award came to be.

- [Arcelia] Jessie Ball DuPont was a woman ahead of her times.

In 1935 when her husband, the industrialist, financier and philanthropist Alfred I. DuPont died, his widow wanted to create a lasting legacy to honor her husband's commitment to freedom of information.

- [Rose] Eight years after his death, the first DuPont award ceremony went live on the air from New York's St. Regis hotel.

The silver baton was first awarded for radio, then television, and now documentary and online too.

Since 1968, the DuPonts had been administered here at the Columbia Journalism School.

- In almost 80 years the rigorous standards have remained the same.

Journalism is first and foremost.

- DuPont winners are role models.

For us, for the other students at the journalism school, and journalists everywhere.

- [Rose & Arcelia] Thank you, Jessie Ball DuPont Fund.

- Our next two awards tackle the subject of mental illness.

Something many Americans experience either themselves or through a family member.

And joining us to present the award to our next winner is a veteran actress who has stepped outside her role to advocate for victims everywhere.

- As Captain Olivia Benson on Law and Order SVU, I have the honor of fighting for justice every single day.

And in 2019 I also had the great honor of winning a DuPont award for the HBO film I Am Evidence about the backlog of untested rape kits.

Now over the past year we have all had to learn a lot about policing in this country.

Its strengths and its limitations.

Our next winner delves into both sides of an intractable issue.

Police encounters with the mentally ill. Statistics are hard to come by for these interactions, but some studies show that as many as half of all fatal police shootings involve individuals with untreated mental illness.

A Different Kind of Force: Policing Mental Illness from NBC News Digital is a heartbreaking yet hopeful online documentary.

Directors Ed Ou and Kitra Cahana embedded with an innovative police unit that responds to calls involving the mentally ill.

They were granted extraordinary access to patients, their families, and to the police.

In this clip from Policing Mental Illness by NBC News, watch how police departments are taking steps to sensitize their officers.

- There's a difference between when you hear somebody and you're listening to them.

Hearing is an action and listening as a process.

- Whoa whoa whoa!

Hey, back up, back up!

Hey, you're not the FBI.

I called the FBI last Tuesday and they weren't there.

- You called the FBI?

What'd you call the FBI for?

- I've seen you before.

You're part of that red light team back in the 20s.

I remember you.

- So are you hearing somebody talking to you right now?

- You ever notice that there are little focuses?

When you get that window of somebody's paying attention to you, you say focus on me.

Focus on me.

- Christopher Lopez!

- CIT is great, it's 40 hours.

I think 40 hours of mental health training in a police academy that's seven and a half months long isn't long enough.

I think we should do six to eight weeks of training.

I think we should spend a vast majority of our time perfecting communication.

And then you can spend a little bit of time training them on how to shoot your gun because most officers go their entire career never doing that.

- Hey that was a real call that I went on, man.

They get interesting.

- Congratulations to directors Ed Oh and Kitra Cahana.

- I'm grateful for everyone who opened up their lives to us in order to show their truths and trusted us.

And I really hope that we've honored their stories.

While the importance of holding police power to account has been magnified this last year with the George Floyd protests, these issues have always existed.

How this country handles healthcare will be something that needs be examined.

And as journalists, we can't let up in talking about these issues.

This award means a lot to us and reminds me to never compromise in pursuit of finding truth and nuance.

And it also reminds me to keep pushing for the time and space to be able to do this work.

- I believe that a society is judged by how it treats those on the margins, especially those suffering with severe mental illness.

I've been in the position of the loved one who's had to make the grueling decision of whether to call the police in a moment of crisis and it was one of the hardest decisions of my life.

That's why I made this film.

Because people with mental illness need to live with dignity, not fear that they're going to be shot and killed by law enforcement.

- So, thank you so much (gentle melody) - Tonight we'll honor another important story about treating mental illness in America.

The challenges are well known.

As a result of cuts to services and other support in the United States, the three largest providers of mental illness care are our three largest jails.

Cook County, Rikers Island, and Twin Towers in Los Angeles.

The next DuPont goes to a gripping documentary that examines, from the inside, the mentally ill and the overburdened systems designed to care for them.

Bedlam by director Ken Rosenberg brings viewers into an overwhelmed psychiatric ER in Los Angeles.

Over several years he maintained remarkable access to patients, healthcare workers, and family members.

For Rosenberg, the story is a personal one.

He's a psychiatrist who confronts his own family's history with mental illness and the shame they felt about his sister's schizophrenia.

In this excerpt from Bedlam will meet one patient over two different parts of her life.

First, as she is admitted into the psychiatric ER off her medication.

Bop bop bop bop bop Bop bop bop bop bop - [Doctor] So you don't wanna take off the handcuffs?

- Nope!

Not right now!

The truth will set me free!

Bidi-bidi-boop!

Namaste, someone told me that.

Someone who was raped told me that.

Bidi-bidi-boop!

I love everybody.

Bidi-bidi-boop!

Who drives a van?

I don't know.

Bidi-bidi-boop!

My truth will set me free.

Am I House of Spirit?

Am I Sophie's Choice?

Who will ever know.

Bidi-bidi-boop!

I need to set you free, so you need to leave.

- [Officer] Johanna, focus on the doctor please.

- Johanna, did you take any drugs today?

- Who are you?

No.

I have too much energy.

Bidi-bidi-boop!

I saw Michael Jackson die.

Bidi-bidi-boop!

I am not who I am.

Do you understand?

Do you understand?

Just 'cause Michael Jackson is any color.

(cross talking) When you look at your (bleep) you will know.

Rihanna, you are not the truth and neither is Oprah for being owned.

I will stay once you set me free.

- [Doctor] Johanna, do you want me to give you medication?

- Nope.

Get the (bleep) out of here, I said!

- Focus on the doctor.

- Feeling better, and that's what's hard is it's like you can feel pretty normal for a while, but then you just relapse.

But I always thought it was the medication.

But it's actually the illness, I guess.

So that's what I'm finally, after five or six years of this, is finally coming around to.

I would like to get my degree.

I would love to further down the line have a family, but I would like to have my degree to have a job to be able to support myself.

That would just be so amazing, but it feels out of reach.

I, you know...

I would like to get to that.

- [Anderson] Congratulations to Bedlam's director Ken Rosenberg and producer Peter Miller.

- Thank you.

The DuPont-Columbia Award is an incredible honor for our team.

And it's an acknowledgement of the suffering of tens and millions of Americans and their families.

Including my own dear sister who lived with, and unfortunately died as a consequence of schizophrenia.

We hope you'll all watch Bedlam and be inspired as we were by the patients and the doctors who so bravely permitted us to film them.

Huge thanks to ITVS Independent Lens, Lois Vossen, Sally Jo Fifer, our funders including the MacArthur Foundation, Patty Quillan, co-producers Joan Churchill and Alan Barker, my children, my life partner Lynn Novick, and my producing partner Peter Miller.

- Thank you, Ken and our entire team.

And my deepest gratitude to my wife Valerie.

We're honored that Bedlam has supported the work of people on the frontline of change.

That it's been put to use by advocates and activists and screenings and events in Los Angeles and throughout the country to change our nation's broken approach to mental health care.

We're grateful to all who are part of this urgent and necessary movement.

Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

Thank you.

(gentle melody) - It's heartbreaking news for anyone.

A cancer diagnosis.

Our next winner is a thought provoking local news documentary from KING 5 News in Seattle that chronicles a terminal cancer patient who, with humor and insight, decides to end his life before cancer does.

Bob's Choice follows the last 68 days of Bob Fuller's life.

As he plans to use Washington State's Death With Dignity law to obtain a legal lethal cocktail.

Bob's sense of humor, compassion, and candor make him a remarkable and endearing character 'till the end The filmmakers document his final days by including him in all filmmaking decisions.

The result is a thoughtful, poignant, and surprisingly funny film.

It appeared on King 5's YouTube channel.

When his last day arrives he is surrounded by friends and family.

His sense of humor is intact.

It's May, it's May The lusty month of May - That's from Camelot.

(dramatic atmosphere music) - [Cameraman] So what do you got?

- What I got in the bag is some medicine.

This is my to go medicine.

This is the meds that I'll be taking the morning that I make the journey.

Look at that.

A lot of stuff in there.

- [Cameraman] What is that?

- That's the four medication combination that I'll take.

One that will help put me to sleep.

One will just make me hazy-dazy.

The other one will help stop my heart from ticking.

And the other one just makes it happen.

So I'll take that next Friday.

At 3 o'clock.

At the end of my party, the end of my celebration.

I just have to mix it up with water or juice or booze.

And I think I'm gonna go with Grand Marnier.

To end my day.

I'm a recovering alcoholic.

But that's okay 'cause after I have this one drink I promise I'll never have another one.

- What a story.

Here's the reporter, producer and writer of Bob's Choice, John Sharify.

- There is no greater honor.

Thank you.

Thank you for this recognition of what became a labor of love for Joseph Huerta and me.

We had the privilege of chronicling the last couple of months of Bob Fuller's life.

He asked us to.

We were there in the room with him when he took his last breath.

Bob Fuller wanted the world to know about his decision to die with dignity.

His right here in Washington State.

He'd like to say this isn't for everyone.

But it's the right decision for me.

It's my choice, he would say.

And so we called the documentary Bob's Choice.

I'd like to think that Bob is looking down on us, smiling.

I'd like to thank him for sharing his life affirming and courageous story.

And many thanks to King 5 News for giving us this opportunity to share this important story with you.

(gentle melody) - Our next silver baton honors For Sama, a harrowing documentary from the powerhouse series on PBS Frontline.

Waad al-Kateab filmed her story over five years.

And we watched as she joins fellow students and citizens in anti-government protests, as she meets and falls in love with Hamza, a young doctor, and when the Syrian regime and Russia begin attacking their city, Aleppo, she and Sama, her infant daughter, move into her husband's makeshift hospital.

The story is beautifully structured by al-Kateab and her co-director Edward Watts who joined the project after the filmmaker and her family escaped Syria.

The film, For Sama, may be one of the most personal and powerful war documentaries you'll ever see.

Let's take a look.

- [Waad] Sama.

(speaking foreign language) (loud bang) (loud explosion) (tense atmosphere music) (coughing) (child crying) - [Anderson] And now the director/producer of For Sama, Waad al-Kateab.

- Hello everyone.

Thank you so much for this amazing recognition.

I can't describe how emotional I am, especially in the time when it's 10 years since the Arab Spring started and a few days from the 10th anniversary of the Syrian revolution.

The only thing I want to say, that we didn't regret anything we've have done.

The revolution was an amazing step toward a free country.

And I hope that not one day, but very soon, to see a free country, to see us all as Syrians in Syria doing films about how amazing is the life and how challenging is it to start from scratch to build a whole country, to build a community, to build our families again.

Thank you so much again.

It means so much to us all.

To For Sama team and Action For Sama team.

Please join us in our impact campaign and keep the fight going.

Thank you so much.

(gentle melody) - To recognize the breadth of work and extraordinary challenges facing journalists this year, the jury selected a larger pool of finalists before picking the silver baton winners.

Let's look at the rest of the nominees.

- [Female Officer] I wish there were other ways of us conducting our business.

Instead of doing it in somebody's home, in front of their child.

We try to avoid it when we can.

- The passing of that patient, that beautiful person, made it really real for me.

- [Martin] Do you think Jamal had any idea that he was playing with fire?

- I think that Jamal hadn't fully realized how different this system had become.

I think that he thought that this was a regime that didn't draw blood unnecessarily.

That did not kill dissidents overseas.

And I think he was wrong.

- Challenging what is knowable is a fundamental way to ensure that you and I can't ever compromise on anything.

- The next thing you know, there is nothing about this democracy that is real.

- [Caller] I'm wondering if you think you're still being manipulated.

- [Kevin] this is a question that I have been just obsessing over for the last several years.

- [Caller] How do I tell when I'm being manipulated?

- [Host] Everything goes back to the global cabal.

- [Believer] There are so many videos like that.

- [Caller] What's real and what's not.

- [Believer] It has to be true.

- [Malachy] Spotters in the area reported a Russian jet flying overhead just minutes before the attack.

- [Lisa] How much money has New York City given you, Mr. Young?

You can't body rush me.

- [Cameraman] Don't push me!

- Well don't put me!

- [Lisa] Young rented dilapidated apartments to at least two New York City families participating in the Special One Time Assistance program or SOTA.

- No heat and no hot running water.

- Get your clown outta here.

- Our next award goes to an inspiring historical film set in the civil rights era.

Crip Camp from Netflix is a groundbreaking profile of Camp Jened, a summer camp for disabled teens who helped build a movement and ultimately won passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Crip Camp is fundamentally a civics lesson with laughter and tears, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Thanks to resurfaced black and white footage of the camp, we bond with these kids and experience the special place where they were valued and where they were no longer invisible.

The jury called this feature length film an eye-opening revelation showing how the disability movement was another side of the fight for civil rights.

In this clip from years later, we see some of them, now grown activists, empowered by their time at Jened as they occupy a federal building for weeks demanding their rights.

- We have a cafeteria, we have a conference room, we have beds all over the place, mattresses, food.

It's incredible.

- [Activist] Our support was much broader than just within the disability community.

Union members and other civil rights organizations.

We had relationships with local government.

You know, the mayor was clearly in support.

One of the secretaries in Sacramento sent down mattresses.

Glide Memorial Church which was run by a progressive minister.

- We are the people who believe in liberation!

(cheers and applause) - [Activist] It was the right place, the right time.

- One of the women who ran the big lesbian bar in the East Bay came and said what do you guys need.

And we said oh, we're so tired of being dirty.

And so her partner was a nurse and they went out and bought a gallon of shampoo and a gallon of clean rinse and one night just showed up and for three hours anybody that wanted their hair washed got their hair washed.

Yay for gay children We shall not be moved Like a tree planted by the water We shall not be moved - [Camper] You can't imagine what the 504 Sit-in was like.

It was camp!

Everything we learned at Crip Camp was what we did there.

- [Jim] So many people from Camp Jened, campers, counselors, disabled, non-disabled, found their way into the building.

- [Michele] Congratulations to the directors of Crip Camp from Netflix.

Nicole Newnham and Jim Lebrecht.

- Crip Camp is our love letter to the disabled community.

A journalistic and cinematic retelling of one of our great but still largely unknown civil rights stories.

And we want to thank The DuPont Awards for this great honor and offer a love letter to journalists.

Journalists like Evan white, the local reporter whose tenacious following of the 504 Sit-in finally moved the government to enforce the nation's first disability civil rights legislation.

And the journalists like Jim Lehrer and others who pushed to cover the blossoming disability rights movement when others did not see or acknowledge it.

- We spent years ourselves uncovering and re-piecing together their work, sometimes shot-by-shot from fragments and separate archives, to tell the story this time seen through the lens of our current moment, and told this time from the perspective of the disabled people who lived it.

We're so grateful to all those journalists and also mindful of the fact that as you all continue your vital work today you're creating the archives that will critically help us make sense of our world tomorrow.

Thank you so much for this great honor.

(gentle melody) - 2020 was one of the warmest years on record, but still many Americans don't believe in global warming.

If you're concerned about climate change, and even if you aren't sure what to believe, then this next DuPont winner may be for you.

35% of Texans still do not accept that humans have an effect on our climate.

So WFAA-TV in Dallas invited a viewer, a skeptical roofing contractor, to witness damning evidence of global warming firsthand.

Their series, Verify Road Trip, took him on a journey from Texas to Alaska to hear directly from climate scientists and biologists and see for himself what's happening to our climate.

The jury applauded the station's use of resources to innovate and produce a compelling story that works to bridge our partisan divide.

In this excerpt from Verify Road Trip the team travels to a river in Washington State to learn firsthand how global warming is affecting salmon.

- Fish numbers go up and down to be sure.

We're seeing some disturbing patterns.

We're seeing that the water temperature in streams is increasing.

And for a fish like salmon, what to us would be a very small change turns out to be a very important big change for them.

- [David] Salmon are a foundation of this ecosystem.

They help sustain mammals, birds, and other fish and plant life.

And it's normal to see dead salmon.

This is where they go to die.

Doug says what's not normal is how few salmon we're seeing.

- Compared to last year this is half the number of fish we would normally see.

- But it could be one degree and it'd be a big difference?

- Yes!

Even that small amount, whether it's two or five degrees means they can't go through their reproductive cycle.

- You know, you get the back and forth of people in your head saying that scientists can be motivated to say one thing or another.

This guy, I don't think he'd give two rat's (bleep) about if the climate change was real or not.

He wants the fish to come back.

He wants the birds to be able to eat.

- [Anderson] Congratulations to WFAA's David Schecter and Chance Horner.

- When I was about eight years old I started watching the news every night with my dad.

And what impressed me so much was how much he trusted and respected the people that were bringing it to us.

They were so solid, to me it felt like it would take a bulldozer just to knock them over.

And ever since then, all I ever wanted to be was a journalist.

Today Chance and I like to say that truth is an adventure.

And for us that means taking a viewer along for the ride.

They see what we see.

They ask their own questions.

They reach their own conclusions.

And at the end, hopefully they get a better sense of what it means to be a journalist.

- It's always an adventure to take a viewer along in the news car with us, to eat gas station tacos, and to get in front of experts that might challenge their worldview.

That's why we're so grateful for Justin Fain and the other viewers like him that have brought along their openness and their curiosity.

David and I want to thank WFAA, our wives and families, and DuPont-Columbia for this great honor.

(gentle melody) - Our final DuPont-Columbia silver baton is for all the space geeks out there.

Chasing the Moon from The American Experience on PBS is a truly definitive look at America's space race with the Soviet Union to put a man on the moon.

But it's about so much more.

Thoroughly reported and lovingly crafted with long forgotten video and news reports, the film marks the 50 year anniversary of the journey to the moon.

The jury called this five hour long documentary extraordinary in its scope and execution.

Filmmaker Robert Stone helps us feel that we are experiencing it all over again.

The drama of the descent to the moon plays out nearly in real time, increasing the tension and showing how millions were on the edge of their seats.

Stone captures the untold story with help from a remarkable interview with Sergei Khrushchev, the son of the former Russian leader.

In this clip from American Experience: Chasing the Moon we see how America and the Soviet Union came close to working together instead of competing to go to the moon.

- [Robert] Khrushchev in 1961 really didn't know or trust Kennedy and so didn't take his cooperative proposal very seriously.

But in '63 he had come to admire and respect Kennedy and was giving serious consideration to accepting Kennedy's proposal.

- Why should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition?

Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure?

Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries, indeed of all the world, cannot work together in the conquest of space.

I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon.

Sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries.

(applauding) - [Sergei] It was not propaganda.

It was part of the Kennedy policy we can work together.

Part of my father's policies was very similar.

My father was ready to go forward.

But Kennedy was killed in November 22nd, 1963 and Khrushchev was ousted out of power on October 14, 1964.

- [Michele] Congratulations to Robert Stone, director of Chasing the Moon from The American Experience on PBS.

- Thank you for this extraordinary award.

I made this film in order to fully immerse an audience in the feeling of what it was like to live in a time when we were leaving the Earth and venturing off to another world for the very first time.

I grew up during this period, but 50 years after the first lunar landing I still felt there were so many questions that were still unanswered.

Why did we do it?

What were the circumstances that drove us?

Who was behind it?

How are we able to pursue such a vast and complex common goal at a time when we were so utterly divided and polarized as a nation?

And what impact did all of us have in our belief in the future and in ourselves?

The answer to these questions proved to be as strange and revelatory and full of twists and turns as I could have ever imagined.

So thank you once again for this incredible honor, and thank you also as someone who long ago failed to get into journalism school, for welcoming me into your club.

(gentle melody) - Well welcome to the club, Robert.

And congratulations to all of tonight's awardees.

We have heard so many stories over the past decade about how the best of American journalism is supposedly behind us.

But what you've seen in the work on display tonight shows that that simply is not true.

American journalism is strong and it's solid.

And it's on an upward trajectory toward excellence, accountability, courage, and commitment.

- Congratulations to all the 2021 DuPont honorees.

From everyone at The DuPont Awards, thanks so much for supporting journalism and thanks for joining us.

Goodnight.

- Thank you and goodnight.

We have a little bit of news.

You've won.

- No.

- Oh my god!

- What?

- What?

- What?

No no.

Wait, what?

- Okay, woo.

That's, wow.

- Oh my goodness.

That's amazing!

- Wait, so we're actually winners?

Oh wow!

Oh, amazing!

- Wait what?

(laughing) - What?

Get outta here!

- Oh my god.

That is just, I...

It really means a lot.

- Really?

(laughing) Oh my god.

That's amazing.

- That's wonderful.

Thank you.

Wow.

- This is the greatest honor.

Yeah.

This is the greatest honor.

- Thank you.

That's amazing.

- You over there crying, Nigel?

(laughs) - This is like the biggest episode of Punk'd ever.

- Are you sure?

(laughs) (uplifting piano music)