Frontline and the nonprofit investigative newsroom California Watch each won George Polk Awards, the prestigious journalism honors presented annually by Long Island University.
Correspondent Martin Smith and producer Michael Kirk of the pubTV investigative icon series won for coverage of “Money, Power and Wall Street.” The judges said, “In blunt, first-hand accounts, viewers were given an unprecedented look inside key decisions that affected the lives of ordinary people around the country and a play-by-play road map of what ultimately would shatter the global economy.” Assisting Smith and Kirk were producers Marcela Gaviria, Mike Wiser and Jim Gilmore.
Reporter Ryan Gabrielson of California Watch won for his “Broken Shield” series, for what the judges called his “dogged persistence in exposing how California’s Office of Protective Services does an abysmal job of curbing abuse at state clinics.”
The awards will be presented April 11 at a luncheon at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City by Christiane Amanpour of CNN and journalist Carl Bernstein.