Television station KUSA in Denver, Colo., has won the 2015 Cronkite/Jackson Prize for Fact Checking Political Messages, named for the founding director of FactCheck.org, Brooks Jackson. The fact-checking award was selected by a jury convened by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, home of FactCheck.org.
The award was one of the Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Television Political Journalism, announced by the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The Cronkite awards have been given biennially since 2000, and this is the second time that the awards have included the Cronkite/Jackson prize. The current prizes cover the 2014 election season.
The Cronkite/Jackson jury said KUSA “continues to produce the best fact checking segments on local TV.” They praised the station for scriptwriting, presentation and production techniques, calling them “a model for others.” Political reporter Brandon Rittiman’s presentation is exemplary: “He doesn’t rush through complicated material,” the jury said, “he gives viewers time to absorb the images, the text and his findings.”
APPC director Kathleen Hall Jamieson said, “KUSA’s commitment to fact checking is unrivaled. KUSA produced 55 fact-checking segments in 2014, even more than the 44 it produced in 2012.” KUSA won a second award this year, for large market TV coverage, and it was the winner of the 2013 Cronkite/Jackson Prize.
Other winners this year included TV stations in Austin, New Orleans, San Diego and Milwaukee. For more information visit the Cronkite Award site or read the release.
