WASHINGTON, November 12: The CBS News show, “60 MINUTES” will receive the 2009 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism from the National Press Foundation.
“The show continues to excel at long-form accountability journalism at a time when all broadcast news organizations are beset by changing economics and demographics,” the judges said.
The judges highlighted the role of 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager in continuing the “high standards established by the show's creator, Don Hewitt with the first broadcast in 1968.” Hewitt received the Taishoff award in 1985, just the third year of its existence.
The award marks the first time the Taishoff award has been given to an entire news show, rather than an individual. “It is warranted this year,” the judges said, citing the show's continuing coverage of the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. economy.
60 Minutes, perhaps the most honored broadcast show ever, has consistently been among the most watched shows in America; for the week of November 2 it was the 5th most-watched show nationally, as monitored by Nielsen Reports, with a season average of 14.3 million viewers. The only shows ahead of it that week were the last two World Series games, a Sunday Eagles/Cowboys football game, and an episode of another CBS show, NCIS.
The award is named in honor of Sol Taishoff, the founder and editor of Broadcasting Magazine who was passionately concerned about free speech issues for broadcasters.
The judges on the Taishoff Committee were Frank Sesno, former CNN anchor and now director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University; Juan Williams, a political commentator for National Public Radio and Fox News; Barbara Cochran, president emeritus the Radio Television Digital News Association; Kevin Goldberg, an attorney with Fletcher, Heald & Hildredth, who has a focus on First Amendment, copyright and trademark issues; and Capt. Robert Taishoff, USN.
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