Peabody Awards: Katie, Take My Breath Away
Yesterday afternoon, Gawker's Special Events Reporter Briyah and Photographer Eliot spent their lunch hour covering the 63rd Annual Peabody Awards which honor excellence in electronic media. Suffice to say, Matt Drudge was not in attendance. Their full report begins with a plate of bread slices.
It's not every day that a young reporter gets to go to the Waldorf "=" Astoria. There was that time when I went for a high school prom. But this time went much more smoothly because my date wasn't a tool. [Photographer's note: Can't mean me – she must have gone with Bill Moyers.] I was there for the annual University of Georgia's annual Peabody Awards, given for excellence in electronic journalism.
When I arrived at the pressroom, two TV cameramen were sleeping, two print reporters from Georgia were gently clucking, and several photographers were commiserating over the assignment. "I mean, there's only so many of these award things I can take, but you want me to shoot Steven Tyler and Aerosmith - I'm there!", one observed. I perused the selection of sweaty cold cuts laid out for the press, and noted that at the Waldorf, even the fourth estate gets its crusts cut off.
I waited for the awards to start. At about 12:30, our host Katie Couric went on stage. She looked great in a light blue skirt suit showing off those fabulous gams.
I had been reading an article in the press room about how awkward the Today show team looks going from a serious piece about the war in Iraq to interviewing a loser from "The Apprentice." It seems Katie is bothered by the situation as well. "This is one afternoon when ratings don't matter and quality does. I think we all need that," she said." Cue solemn applause!
Tom Brokaw, the first Important Person of the afternoon, walked onstage to accept his Peabody. Katie ran over to give him a hug, which was cute. Tom won for a report called "A Question of Fairness," about two University of Michigan students - one white, one black who share very different ideas on affirmative action.
He came back to the press room where I eavesdropped on him talking to a reporter from NBC (edgy choice, Tom). "I never think about the awards, I always think the quality of the work should speak for itself." Oooo-kay.
Brokaw and 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft both made sure to get their facetime in with the motley conga-line of video media in attendance. At this time it's unclear whether they were bumped from last night's "Inside Edition" by the follow-up on Jessica Simpson's lasik surgery - did anyone TiVo it?
War photographer James Nachtwey accepted the award for the documentary "War Photographer". The film features sequences shot with a tiny video camera attached to Nachtwey's still camera as he "looks for the decisive moment" in Kosovo, Ramallah, and other fraught locations. Nachtwey has risked his own life plenty of times in his career for a good photograph. He took off three months to recover from an injury but now he's back in action and still traveling. I asked him where he would put his Peabody. It turns out he was only accepting it for the film's director, Christian Frei. He said, "If I ever win one, I'll let you know." Ouch! But this handsome man with the soft voice already has a Pulitzer so I don't feel too bad about that mistake.
Mel Karmazin accepted the award for Viacom and MTV's campaign to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS as well as other STDs. Gee, thanks Mel. You're really dialling down the sluttiness quotient for America's youth. (Britney who? Christina what?)
After a woman accepted an award for PBS, Couric looked befuddled and said, "Did she just use the word 'peripatetic'? You PBS people are such showoffs!" Cue laffs!
Weijun Chen won for "To Live Is Better Than to Die", a film about the "bleak struggle of three children and their parents against the AIDS epidemic in rural China." He told the audience that he had written a speech the previous evening, because when he gets onstage, "my heart turns into a wild horse." The ladies from Georgia informed Chen that "People in Georgia dont really understand what this award means."
David Simon, creator of HBO series "The Wire", electrified the crowd by saying "fuck" from the stage. Cue gasps!
The funniest moment of the awards at the end when the BBC sitcom "The Office" won their Peabody. An American version of "The Office" has already been taped and is awaiting NBC's approval. It could be hilarious. Then again, look what happened to "Coupling."
Show co-creators Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais mailed in their thanks via videotape. Merchant chided the blase Gervais: "It's a Peabody Award. The only previous winners for comedy were 'Diff'rent Strokes' and 'America's Funniest, Wackiest, Criminal Pets.'"
Transom.org, a [boring] resource and outlet for both aspiring and established [boring] producers of [boring] public radio, was the first ever website to win a Peabody. There was a mention of a piece entitled "The Day my Mother's Head Exploded". This trumps Tina Fey exactly how?
