The duPont-Columbia awards were given out February 8, with 16 winners. Columbia University gives out the awards for the best journalism in the nation. 

Among TV stations, KARE Minneapolis won for prison-themed KARE11 Investigates: Cruel & Unusual, KNXV Phoenix won for police investigation Full Disclosure & Politically Charged, KNTV San Francisco for housing investigation The Moms of Magnolia Street, and KXTV Sacramento for Fire-Power-Money: Holding PG&E Accountable, a look at the utility giant.

Blindspot: Tulsa Burning, which looked at the race massacre of 1921, got a duPont-Columbia for History Channel, WNYC Studios and KOSU, and HBO’s pandemic documentary In the Same Breath got one as well. 

CBS News won a prize for Military Sexual Assault: Norah O’Donnell Investigates and Vice News for The Shockwave, about an explosion in Beirut. PBS won for the Independent Lens/Topic special Philly D.A., POV/American Documentary/LBx Africa film Softie, about an activist in Kenya, and POV/American Documentary/Third Shift Media film Through the Night, about a family-run day care operation. 

The winning podcasts were Waste Land from NPR/Planet Money/Frontline on PBS, about a marketing scam related to plastic; homeless-themed According to Need–99% Invisible, from Stitcher Media and PRX; and The Line from Apple and Jigsaw Productions, about the war crimes trial of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher. 

The New York Times won for Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol and Amazon Studios/Participant Media/Storyville Films for My Name is Pauli Murray, about the author and activist.

Judy Woodruff and Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosted the duPont-Columbia program. 

Stations WVUE New Orleans, WBBM Chicago and KUSA Denver were finalists for duPont Columbia awards. ■

WNBC New York, KING Seattle, KSTP Minneapolis and WFAA Dallas were among the 15 winners of the 2021 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, given out for outstanding reporting in the public interest. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and Washington Post columnist Michele Norris hosted the virtual awards. 

WNBC was honored for “The Epicenter of the Coronavirus Pandemic.” KING won for “Bob’s Choice,” about a terminal cancer patient who decided to end his life. KSTP won for George Floyd coverage. WFAA Dallas won for “Verify Road Trip: Climate Truth.”

PBS was honored repeatedly. PBS’s American Experience won for the space race report “Chasing the Moon.” PBS’s Frontline got a trophy for “For Sama,” about makeshift hospitals in Aleppo, Syria. PBS won for “Decoding COVID-19” and Independent Lens won for the documentary Bedlam, about a psychiatric ER. 

NBC News Digital was honored for the law enforcement documentary “A Different Kind of Force--Policing Mental Illness.”

Netflix was honored for the film Crip Camp, about a summer camp for disabled teens in the civil rights era. 

Showtime docuseries Vice won for India Burning, about Muslims in India. 

“Courageously documenting the turbulent events of 2020, journalists performed a critical public service by reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice, the role of the internet in our politics, and much more,” said Cheryl Gould, duPont jury chair and former NBC News executive. “We are proud to honor these duPont winners and finalists for their outstanding work and their commitment to fact-finding and truth-telling in these unsettled times.” 

The Radiotopia podcast Ear Hustle got a duPont-Columbia, as did WNYC Studios for the Radiolab posts The Flag and the Fury and The Other Latif. 

The Washington Post won for “Lafayette Reconstruction,” about the clearing of Lafayette Park in Washington before President Trump’s visit. 

It represented WNBC’s first duPont-Columbia award. “Covering the evolution of the coronavirus outbreak was one of the toughest challenges our newsroom had ever faced.  As our journalists came to work every day, they were personally coping with the effects of the virus on their families as well,” said Amy Morris, WNBC VP of news. “Every member of our news team played a critical role. Our mission was to inform our viewers and along the way were also able to find some moments to share incredible stories of hope.”

The Columbia University Journalism School has named its 2018 Alfred I. duPont - Columbia University Awards recipients, with Netflix new to the winners circle.

Five of the awards, given for journalistic excellence, went to local TV stations, including two for Tegna-owned stations; three to commercial broadcast networks; two to PBS; and two to cable networks. Streaming service Netflix's award was for 13TH, the critically acclaimed documentary about the targeting of African Americans by the legal system as criminals, directed by Ava DuVernay.

The annual juried awards recognize excellence in broadcast, digital and documentary journalism. About a dozen news stories and films are honored each year for the strength of their reporting, storytelling and impact in the public interest.

The cable networks honored were HBO, for Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, and National Geographic Networks. CBS News's two included one for 60 Minutes in its 50th year, and ABC received one for a documentary on the Los Angeles riots. PBS's awards were for Frontline and World Channel.

Five local TV stations were honored for investigative reporting: ABC15 Arizona (Phoenix) for exposing abuse of the Americans with Disabilities Act; KARE 11 (Minneapolis) for three separate hard-hitting investigative stories; KHOU-TV (Houston) for revealing Houston’s wasteful police body camera program; KNTV (San Jose, Calif.) for an investigative series that chronicled the misuse of school police officers to discipline students; and WITI-TV (Milwaukee) for bravely challenging public opinion about laws intended to safeguard children that paradoxically may put them at greater risk.

“Like many of our Tegna stations, KARE and KHOU have produced incredibly meaningful work that impacts the lives of many," said Tegna president David Lougee. "Their projects are strong examples of the positive impact of local journalism on communities and the importance of storytelling for the public interest. We are committed to continuing to invest in our local stations to ensure they have the journalistic freedom to pursue investigations that make communities stronger without bias or agenda.”

Stacy Owen, president and general manager of KNTV, said: “We are honored to be recognized with this very important award and proud that our investigative unit helped to inspire security changes at schools in our own backyard and all across the country. The sweeping changes that resulted from our investigation reinforces our station’s mission of shining a light on questionable practices and holding the powerful accountable to make the Bay Area a better place to live for all.”

The awards will be given out Jan. 16, hosted by CBS This Morning's Gayle King and CNN's Jake Tapper.

Click here for a list of all the winners and their stories.