KPNX And KECI Earn Walter Cronkite Awards For Reporting

KPNX, Tegna’s NBC affiliate in Phoenix, and KECI, Sinclair’s NBC affiliate in Missoula, Mont., received Walter Cronkite Awards for their reporting in 2020. The awards honor “outstanding local and national journalism that debunks disinformation, promotes public health, advocates science, exposes inequities, empowers citizens and serves as a watchdog for voting rights and election fairness, transparency, accuracy and security. The biennial Cronkite award is administered by the Norman Lear Centerat the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

For the first time, entries were limited to three subject-matter categories: systemic racism, the coronavirus pandemic and the integrity of elections.

A record 177 were received.

KPNX received its Cronkite Award for its documentary, The Work is Hard and Not Done: Being Black in the Valley.

In awarding KPNX the award, the Walter Cronkite Award judges had this to say about the station’s documentary:

The Tegna-owned NBC affiliate wins for its documentary of systemic racism seen through the long lens of the Black experience in Arizona. Its “highly compelling” archival footage was applauded by the jury for “providing a historical perspective on racism in Arizona over nearly the last century.” “Every single interview” with experts, community leaders and residents “carries so much emotion.” Past and present are “seamlessly strung together” into “an impactful narrative that is not broadly known, and that makes you realize how much has changed and how much more needs to be done.”

KECI received its Cronkite Award for its reporting on USPS Blue Box Removals.

In awarding KECI the award, the Walter Cronkite Award judges had this to say about the station’s reporting:

NBC Montana, Maritsa Georgiou’s reporting on “USPS Blue Box Removals” In a pandemic election year particularly reliant on voting by mail, the US Postmaster General implemented nationwide policies whose effect was to gum up and slow down mail delivery. When he put those measures on hold, NBC Montana’s Maritsa Georgiou “clearly had a hand in it,” the judges said. Her “dogged” reporting for this Sinclair-owned station broke the story of mailbox removal in Montana, especially in Democratic areas. “She shined a light on practices that could have disenfranchised Montanans”; her reporting rippled across the nation, prompting more coverage and “ultimately bringing about change.”

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