The award-winning PBS documentary series was honored with both the Institutional Award and for its 2019 film For Sama.
The George Foster Peabody Awards announced today that the PBS investigative documentary series FRONTLINE was the recipient of two 2020 Peabody Awards – honoring the series with both this year’s prestigious Institutional Peabody Award, and for its 2019 film For Sama.
In giving the Institutional Award to FRONTLINE, the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors recognized FRONTLINE’s legacy — how the documentary series quickly established itself “as the preeminent home for hard-hitting, thoughtful, and consequential journalism on television” after it’s 1983 launch by founder and former executive producer David Fanning — and how in recent years, FRONTLINE has “not rested on its laurels,” but has flourished under the leadership of executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath. The jurors noted that under Aronson-Rath’s leadership the organization has “not only thrived by continuing its robust output of films (with even greater diversity of filmmakers), but also expanded its reporting and distribution channels by venturing boldly into the digital era.”
The jurors also praised FRONTLINE for exploring new forms of journalism, developing virtual reality and web-based stories and launching “THE FRONTLINE DISPATCH,” FRONTLINE’s original investigative podcast series. This award acknowledges the series consistent, stalwart excellent journalism “at a time when trust in the media is challenged, when journalists are casually cast as the ‘enemy of the people,’ and when fact-based reporting is often overshadowed by opinion and ideology masquerading as truth.”