Layoffs and cutbacks have taken their toll in local television newsrooms but quality TV journalism ain’t dead yet. Want proof? Six local stations won the prestigious duPont-Columbia silver baton this year–the most in more than 20 years. The winners are doing journalism the old-fashioned way, with tenacious reporting and superior storytelling. Today, we begin a series of posts to highlight the best of the best.
Denver’s KMGH-TV won a 2010 duPont for a 30-minute special that exposed a crisis in the city’s emergency response system in the aftermath of a plane crash at Denver International Airport. All aboard survived, but one man died after waiting more than 30 minutes for an ambulance.
“Through inside sources and open records requests to city agencies, KMGH was able to piece together data of ambulance response times showing system-wide problems in Denver’s emergency ambulance service including the routine manipulation of emergency call data and the lack of a full-time ambulance at the airport,” the duPont judges said. “The city made significant changes to emergency response procedures after these reports aired.”
