CBS Evening News Wins Murrow Award For "Best Newscast"

Katie Couric's CBS Evening News, which has suffered through dismal ratings during her entire tenure as anchor (and for some time before that), got some much needed good press Tuesday when it was announced that it was the winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast for its August 9, 2007 broadcast.

ABC News was the big winner, taking in six awards, including one for Overall Excellence. CBS News won four awards, while NBC won just one (for writing).

Iraq coverage was also a major award winner, with Lara Logan's "Boots on the Ground" series winning the "Continuing Coverage" award and Kimberly Dozier's "The Way Home" feature winning the "Feature Reporting" award for CBS, and Bob Woodruff's "To Iraq and Back" winning the "News Documentary" award and Dan Harris' "Children of War" winning the "Hard News" award for ABC.

In a statement, CBS Evening News Executive Producer Rick Kaplan said he was very proud of both Couric and Logan:

"I'm very proud of all the women and men of CBS News who have been honored by winning so many of the Edward R. Murrow Awards. The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric winning a Murrow on what many would call an average news day just illustrates that the broadcast is a stand-out, on any given day. Katie and the team work diligently every day and it really is gratifying when your work is recognized. Lara Logan's series for the Evening News about American troops in Baghdad is just part of the great journalism Lara brings to viewers in her fearless and insightful reporting. My congratulations go out to everyone at the various CBS News broadcasts, radio and website who were recipients today."

List of network awards below:

Television Network/Syndication Service

Overall Excellence: ABC News
Continuing Coverage: CBS News, Boots on the Ground
Feature: Hard News: ABC News, Children of War
Feature Reporting: CBS News, The Way Home
Investigative Reporting: ABC News, Brian Ross Investigates: Prescription for Error
News Documentary: ABC News, To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports
News Series: ESPN Deportes, Sobrevivientes - Still Alive
Newscast: CBS News, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric
Sports Reporting: ESPN, ESPN SportsCenter: Sister Andrea Jaeger
Spot News Coverage: ABC News, Minneapolis Bridge Collapse
Videography: ABC News, Key to the World: Kiribati
Website: CBS News, cbsnews.com
Writing: NBC News - The Today Show, American Story with Bob Dotson

For the full winners list, click here.

Comments

[GeorgeKaplan]

The mob no longer likes KC. Some poor ratings and one commentary about sexism and she's toast. She may be in the wrong venue for her talent, but Keith O. was fired from every job he ever had till he landed Countdown.

[majorteddy]

What show might that have been? How to decorate your Chihuahua for Thanksgiving?

[majorteddy]

For what investigative story did she win this award? Oh, I remember it " How excessive taxation of my very disproportionately excessive, unwarranted salary compared to my meager talent and Mary Tyler Moore type slobbering caused me to sprain the cuticle on my pinkie finger".

[ohiomark]

Keith Olbermann must be pissed.

Here, he goes to all the trouble to steal Edward R. Murrow's tag line and tries to pass his show off as a "news" show and they go and give the "award" to Katic Couric. The same Katic Couric he roundly criticized for sticking up for Hillary.

Oh, the irony!!

[Melissa]

Love Katie. I'm glad she won, she deserved it!

[GeorgeKaplan]

You may or may not agree with KO, but you are correct his is NO news show. It's hard to find real news on cable... just talking heads spiting at one another.

[NoSillyName]

What the heck did Katie do on August 9th, 2007?!

Is Edward R. Murrow spinning in his grave?

[OhComeOnNow]

Were the judges bribed, and for how much?????

[LittleBrother]

Ah! THIS accounts for all those recent reports of whizzing and clacking noises in the vicinity of Murrow's gravesite.

[raker]

Is this Murrow award (The Smokie?) like a tee-ball award, given to everyone who shows up? I'd say it's closer to Orwell, being an award for excellence given to people who bring the most shame and infamy on the industry. Just like Russertgrief®— a trademark of the General Electric Company.

[WandaBooneshaft]

The Murrow? For ONE FREAKIN' BROADCAST?

It's official. The MSM is now completely irrelevant in America today.

[TrueBlueMajority]

in what parallel universe did this happen?

[mediamarv]

An award for a show that ran nearly a year ago??? I thought News meant, here and now.

Wonder how Mr. Murrow (who I grew up with on the radio.. ok, ok, with whom I grew up) would feel????

Just askin'.

[K-Dog76]

Best Newscast that nobody watches, because its news-lite... There must be a payoff somewhere

[Arielman]

Well, she did interview many of the candidates and it was shown online not that its part of the award I gather. The "Couric & Co." site and "Couric's Notebook" is good "journalism" in the midst of one of the most competitive times in it for our attention.
A cousin, George Murray, an award-winning news producer at NBC who directed "Huntley and Brinkley" when drafted from the film editing room, had worked for the US Army Signal Corps training films after serving as a US Army Captain in the Korean War, (pers. comm. from Edwin Newman noted television journalist and author of "Strictly Speaking") was a CBS news producer for the 1976 Republican and Democratic conventions in 1976. I think he would have been happy that there is now so much "enthusiasm" for the news and many sources of it, and of course the new Newseum. The BBC the other day unveiled a lighted modern "torch" (I think) on top of their news building dedicated to the journalists who have died in gathering the information we try to use to make decisions and understand the rest of the story. Congratulations.
However, the "fake" news guys in the current administration should be seen as a reason to be vigilant and wary. How many government reports have been falsely "fielded" and now, especially, a part of the secondary school curriculum, is this the new "Big Brother" they're watching? (lobby scandals)

[gloriar8]

The cotton candy queen won a news award?! And a Murrow Award, how stupid do they think we are! She is the most unworthy person to be called a journalist ever. Murrow is surely spinning in his grave.
Who and what'd they pay to give CBS these awards? It certainly wasn't on merit.

[moonwatcher]

Murrow must be turning over in his grave. Fair and balanced? Investigative? What show were they watching?