Receives First-Ever Murrow Award For Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for “The Color of Public Money”
CAI, Local NPR for the Cape, Coast & Islands Also Wins Two Awards
BOSTON (May 6, 2021) – GBH News has won six Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, including the Overall Excellence award for the second year in a row. The public media outlet is the first recipient of the new Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion award, and also was recognized in the categories of Feature Reporting TV, Sports Reporting, Investigative Reporting and Excellence in Sound.
CAI, Local NPR for the Cape, Coast & Islands and a part of GBH, is also one of the first winners of the Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion award in the Small Market Radio group for the station’s reporting Covering Race and Systemic Racism on Cape Cod, the Islands, and the South Coast. The award recognized the quality and depth of reporting across newscasts, features, and public affairs programming. CAI was also recognized in the Excellence in Writing category.
Awarded by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), the Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards pay tribute to important and high-impact local journalism and are among the most prestigious awards in the news industry. Regional winners automatically advance to the national Edward R. Murrow Awards, which are expected to be announced in July.
“During a year when reporters have faced intense challenges, including navigating and covering a global pandemic, racial reckoning and a deeply divided political season, GBH News cand CAI journalists consistently delivered high quality, contextualized and distinctive local news stories,” said Pam Johnston, General Manager of GBH News. “The exceptional work done across our newsroom, and recognized today by the RTDNA, shines a light on the impact and importance of trusted local journalism.”
In addition to the award for Overall Excellence, GBH News and CAI were honored with Murrow awards in the following categories:
- For its investigative series “ The Color of Public Money,” GBH News is the first-ever recipient of the new Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion award, which recognizes storytelling that brings awareness, solutions or dialogue to diversity, racial injustice or inequality. “The Color of Public Money” uncovered vast racial inequities in Massachusetts’ spending on public contracts. The series inspired a groundswell of support from Black business leaders and spurred change at the highest level of the Massachusetts government, including a decision by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to create a new state agency with authority to enforce more equitable state spending with minority-owned businesses. The series is an ongoing project of the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting that has included contributions from across the GBH newsroom, led by reporters Chris Burrell, Phillip Martin and Kirk Carapezza and editor Paul Singer.
- Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen’s Open Studio segment “ Boston’s Apollo” won the Feature Reporting TV category. Bowen’s reporting on issues of identity and erasure as questions surfaced in an Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum exhibition about the relationship between painter John Singer Sargent and his longtime Black model, Thomas McKeller.
- Senior Investigative Reporter Jenifer McKim’s story “ Parole in MA: Free to Go But Not To Leave won the Investigative Reporting category. The story uncovered a loophole that prevents paroled prisoners from leaving Massachusetts prisons if they are suffering from certain types of mental illnesses. This story started in the Boston University investigative journalism clinic that McKim teaches, and students played an important role in the original reporting.
- Reporter Craig LeMoult’s story “ Respiratory Therapist Gives COVID-19 Patients Their Breath Back,” won the Excellence in Sound category. The piece profiled a respiratory therapist working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in a pediatric intensive care unit.
- Reporter Adam Reilly’s piece “ As Winter Sports Resume Parents and Schools Face a Painful Choice won the Sports Reporting category. Told in part through his daughter’s experiences, the story looked at the return of Massachusetts indoor high school sports during a surge of COVID cases.
- Natalie Mariano’s piece “ Restoration: One Veteran's Search for Forgiveness,” won the Excellence in Writing category in the Small Market Radio group. Mariano’s moving piece shared the story of Vietnam Nam War veteran Steve Maxner and his journey to seek atonement through found stones, driftwood, shells and other found beach objects.
About GBH News
GBH News is among the fastest-growing local news providers in Greater Boston and draws on the talent of a multiplatform newsroom that includes GBH 89.7, Boston’s Local NPR; television; and digital reporting. The GBH newsroom continues to invest in substantive local coverage and has established dedicated desks for higher education, politics, innovation and investigations as well as unique partnerships to expand on that commitment, including with WNYC’s The Takeaway, The World from PRX and The GroundTruth Project. GBH News partners with CAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station; and New England Public Media in western Massachusetts to connect the Commonwealth with trusted journalism. GBH News maintains bureaus at the Massachusetts State House; Dorchester, Boston’s largest neighborhood; and Worcester. The Forum Network, part of GBH News, collects thousands of video and audio lectures from the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policymakers and community leaders and makes them available online to the public for free.
