The prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards recognized NBC 5 Investigates for the series “Against All Enemies,” which explores how a former high-ranking leader of the Oath Keepers teaches sheriffs that they are above the FBI and the President of the United States and shows how he has been able to conduct training for Texas law enforcement officials. NBC 5’s questions about the group’s Texas training sessions have led to an investigation by a state agency that licenses peace officers.
Watch the series, "Against All Enemies," here.
This is the second straight duPont baton for NBC 5 Investigates. In 2023, the investigative team won a duPont Award for their series "Paper Tag Nation."
The Columbia Journalism School announced the 15 winners of the 2024 duPont-Columbia Awards during a special ceremony Thursday night highlighting outstanding audio and video reporting in the public interest. ABC World News Tonight Anchor David Muir and CNN Anchor and Correspondent Audie Cornish hosted the ceremony at the Low Memorial Library on Columbia University’s campus. The 90-minute awards ceremony, often referred to as the “Pulitzers of broadcast,” is available to watch HERE.
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“In this moment when truth is being tested here at home and around the world,” said Muir, “it is a privilege to honor the journalists who work tirelessly to uncover the truth, and who often risk their own lives to report on the most pressing stories of our time. Their work has never been more important, and it serves as an inspiration for us all”
Cornish said, “At its best, reporting is mission-driven work with high stakes for the voices we amplify.” She praised all the duPont honorees for reporting with “curiosity, urgency and empathy.”
The duPont-Columbia Awards have a longstanding commitment to outstanding reporting by local news outlets that cover important issues in their communities.
This year, five local news outlets are 2024 duPont-Columbia Award winners. They are KVUE TV & The Austin American-Statesman, KXAS-TV, KUSA 9NEWS Denver, New Hampshire Public Radio, and WANF-TV & InvestigateTV, an innovative collaboration of Gray-owned television stations.
In national news, ABC News took home two awards; one for its environmental reporting and one for ABC News Studio’s “Aftershock.” PBS won three duPont-Columbia Awards; one for courageous reporting from Ukraine in “20 Days in Mariupol,” one from Afghanistan in “Afghanistan Undercover” - both documentaries produced by FRONTLINE, and a third silver baton for Ken Burns’ compelling six-hour series “The U.S. and the Holocaust” (Florentine Films/WETA).
Other award-winning investigations included “Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha” from The New York Times. Two other longform documentaries were winners, including Brook Lapping’s “Putin vs the West”; and “Beyond Utopia” (Ideal Partners).
There are also three award-winning podcasts this year: “Mother Country Radicals," produced by Zayd Ayers Dohrn (Crooked Media); “Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went so Wrong,” a six-part series by Education Reporter Emily Hanford (APM Reports) and “The 13th Step” from New Hampshire Public Radio and Reporter Lauren Chooljian.
“Every year I am uplifted by the sense of purpose these journalists bring into the rotunda at this ceremony,” said duPont Director Lisa R. Cohen. “Their work is a model for our students, and journalists everywhere.”
Founded in 1942, the duPont-Columbia Awards uphold the highest standards in journalism by honoring winners annually, informing the public about those journalists' contributions, and supporting journalism education and innovation. The duPont Awards have honored, for over 80 years, many of the most important stories of our time from the Civil Rights era and Vietnam to today’s racial reckoning and local accountability reporting. Since 1968, the duPont Awards have been administered by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. A jury made up of
industry veterans selected 30 finalists and 15 winners. The pool of entries includes traditional national and local news outlets from across the country, as well as streaming and entertainment outlets.
The 2024 duPont-Columbia Jurors are: Madhulika Sikka (Jury Chair), Nina Alvarez, Lee Kamlet, Mark Lukasiewicz, Geraldine Moriba, David Rummel, Robert Smith, Betsy West and Mark Whitaker.
The 2024 duPont-Columbia Award winners are:
Against All Enemies | Scott Friedman & KXAS-TV (NBC)
A chilling local investigation uncovered the wide-ranging influence of one man's extremist ideology on local law enforcement in Texas that was used to foment radicalization and obstruction of federal law enforcement among sheriffs across the country. Watch the series here.
AGAINST ALL ENEMIES
20 Days in Mariupol | The Associated Press | PBS FRONTLINE
An AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggled to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion and captured images of war's trauma that shook the conscience of the world.
Accountability After Uvalde | Tony Plohetski & KVUE TV | The Austin American-Statesman
A local reporter was the first to obtain video from inside Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School of the haunting 77-minute delay by law enforcement during a mass shooting, which helped collapse a false narrative and brought transparency to police failures.
Afghanistan Undercover | PBS FRONTLINE
After the Taliban returned to power, correspondent Ramita Navai and photographer Karim Shah went back to Afghanistan with hidden cameras to report on the deteriorating situation for women, including those imprisoned for “immorally” traveling without a male family member.
Aftershock | ABC News Studios | Onyx Collective | Hulu
This compelling documentary goes behind the shocking fact that more women die in the United States from preventable childbirth complications than in any other industrialized country and that Black women die at three times the rate of white women.
Beyond Utopia | Ideal Partners
A harrowing journey was brought to life in this immersive documentary about a North Korean family of defectors, including an elderly grandmother and young children, who are smuggled across five countries, over mountains and through the jungles to freedom.
BURNED | KUSA 9NEWS Denver
In the wake of Colorado’s devastating Marshall Fire, this tech-savvy local news team gathered hundreds of cell phone videos and security footage to produce a series of revealing reports, a documentary and an interactive website showing exactly how the fire started and why a warning system failed.
Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha | The New York Times
Using cutting-edge technology, this stunning forensic account systematically investigated and revealed the likely culprits for the murders of dozens of Ukrainian civilians under Russian military occupation in the town of Bucha.
Mother Country Radicals | Crooked Media
This podcast series tells the dramatic story of the 'The Weathermen,' a violent, radical movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s, as told by the aging militants to the podcast producer, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, who himself is the son of the groups’ leaders.
Putin vs the West | Brook Lapping | Les Films D’ici
In the words of those in the room where it happened, from Prime Ministers and Presidents and more, this fascinating documentary examined the challenges Western powers have had in coming to a consensus on how to deal with Vladimir Putin.
Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong | APM Reports
In this six-part podcast series, education reporter Emily Hanford unraveled the two decades-long mystery behind the declining ability of American schoolchildren to read.
The 13th Step | New Hampshire Public Radio
Reporter Lauren Chooljian revealed a toxic culture of sexual misconduct in a local addiction treatment network and faced threats, broken windows and an ongoing legal brawl in retaliation for her reporting.
Environmental Reporting: (Combined) | The Power of Water & Trashed | ABC News
The Power of Water | ABC News
From flooding caused by climate change in South Sudan to decaying infrastructure in rural Mississippi and the Navajo Nation, ABC News journalists produced a comprehensive and moving look at what has left people around the nation and the world struggling for access to nature's most essential resource.
Trashed: The Secret Life of Plastic Recycling | ABC News
With an ingenious multi-station plan to track plastic bags placed in recycling bins, and a hard-hitting interview with an industry spokesman, ABC News exposed the hollowness of plastic recycling claims.
The Sixth | Andy Pierrotti & WANF-TV | InvestigateTV
The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is supposed to guarantee the right to an attorney and a speedy trial, but this investigative series showed a shortage of public defenders in Georgia and many other states, where defendants languish in jail for months, even years.
The U.S. and the Holocaust | Florentine Films | WETA
This eye-opening, six-hour series laid bare America's often shameful response to the unfolding nightmare for European Jews that became the Holocaust, and revealed deeply ingrained threads of racism and anti-semitism in America.
