Mpr News Wins Prestigious George Foster Peabody Award

Minnesota Public Radio
April 20, 2015

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/press/releases/release.php?ftrv_ident=2015/04/19/mpr-news-wins-prestigious-george-foster-peabody-award

Minnesota Public Radio News today received a George Foster Peabody Award for its radio documentary "Betrayed by Silence," an unflinching, deeply reported story that revealed how leaders of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis over decades systematically shielded priests who sexually abused children while claiming they were national leaders in prevention. The award is the highest honor in broadcast media. Along with receiving the Alfred A. duPont Award earlier this year, MPR News' reporting about the archdiocese has earned the top two national honors for broadcast journalism.

"We're humbled and grateful to receive the award," said Chris Worthington, MPR News managing director and the project's editor. "The individual stories throughout the investigation were superbly reported and important, yet difficult because of the victims' painful experiences. This final story was critical for a full understanding -- it went beyond what happened to show how and why it persisted over decades and who could've stopped it."

The documentary was reported and produced by Madeleine Baran and Sasha Aslanian. It was edited by Mike Edgerly, MPR News' news director.

"I'm grateful to the abuse survivors and their families and everyone who came forward to help us tell this important story," said Baran.

Journalists from MPR News will accept the award at a ceremony in New York May 31. MPR News is one of 40 winners that will be honored as the "Best of the Best" in television, radio, podcast and web programming in 2014. The awards ceremony will be filmed for broadcast to air on June 21.

The award is the sixth George Foster Peabody Award for Minnesota Public Radio | American Public Media. Both the Peabody Award and the Alfred I. DuPont Award mark a distinguished year for MPR News. "Betrayed by Silence" received Page One Awards for Story of the Year and for Best Continuing Coverage online by the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), which also named Baran as Young Journalist of the Year. Baran received a Gracie (Alliance for Women in the Media) award for Outstanding Investigative Program or Feature. In addition, the series received an RTDNA regional Edward R. Murrow Award, an Online News Association award for investigative data journalism, and awards from the Religion Newswriters Association and the Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association.

About MPR News: MPR News has long been recognized as one of the foremost journalistic organizations in the Upper Midwest, reaching news consumers across all platforms. Reaching more than 500,000 listeners each week, the MPR News radio signal can be heard by 95 percent of Minnesotans, it distributes stories daily to 35 newspapers statewide, shares news coverage with KARE 11 - Minnesota's largest television station -and has news bureaus around the state and in Washington, D.C. More at mprnews.org. Source: Data are copyright Nielsen Audio. Data are estimates only.

About the Peabody Awards: The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by TV and radio stations, networks, producing organizations, individuals, and the World Wide Web.

Since 1940 the Peabody award has steadily grown from being the "Pulitzer Prize for Radio" to recognizing excellence in a wide range of electronic media. In 1948 the Peabody Awards began recognizing television programs, and eventually cable TV was included beginning in 1981. By 2003, the first website had been included in the list of winners and 2012 saw the first Peabody Award given to a blog. From the first radio broadcast, electronic media has been constantly evolving. As the possibilities for storytelling multiply, the Peabody Awards will continue to draw attention to stories that matter in electronic media. We look toward the new forms of storytelling that will arise as we move deeper into the digital age.