The
George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalism awards presented annually by
Long Island UniversityLong Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
History
The George Polk Awards were established in 1948 in memory of
George PolkGeorge Polk was an American journalist for CBS who disappeared in Greece and was found dead a few days later on Sunday May 16, 1948, shot at point-blank range in the back of the head, and with hands and feet tied. Polk was covering the civil war in Greece between the right wing government and...
, a
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
correspondent who was killed covering the
Greek Civil WarThe Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...
. In 2009,
John DarntonJohn Darnton is an American journalist and author.-At The New York Times:After attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Darnton joined The New York Times as a copyboy in 1966...
was named curator of the George Polk Awards.
Winners
Partial list
Recipients of the George Polk Awards include:
Eddie AdamsEddie Adams was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American photographer and photojournalist noted for portraits of celebrities and politicians and his coverage of 13 wars.-Combat photographer:...
,
Christiane AmanpourChristiane Amanpour, CBE is anchor of ABC News's This Week and formerly chief international correspondent at CNN, where she worked for 27 years. She is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Early years:...
(multiple winner),
Roger AngellRoger Angell is an American essayist. He has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker and was its chief fiction editor for many years...
,
James BaldwinJames Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
,
Red BarberWalter Lanier "Red" Barber was an American sportscaster.Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds , Brooklyn Dodgers , and New York Yankees...
,
Erik BarnouwErik Barnouw was a U.S. historian of radio and television broadcasting.According to the Scribner Encyclopia of American Lives, Erik Barnouw was born in Den Haag in the Netherlands, the son of Adriaan , and Ann Eliza Barnouw...
,
Donald L. BarlettDonald L. Barlett is an American investigative journalist and author who collaborated with James B. Steele. According to The Washington Journalism Review they were a better investigative reporting team than even Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Together they have won two Pulitzer Prizes, two...
(multiple winner),
Richard BeharRichard Behar is an award-winning American investigative journalist who has written on the staffs of leading magazines including Forbes, Time and Fortune over a 22-year period from 1982-2004. His work has also appeared on CNN and PBS...
(multiple winner),
Larry BenskyLarry Bensky is a literary and political journalist with more than forty years experience in both print and broadcast media, as well as a teacher and long-time political activist...
,
Ed BradleyEdward Rudolph "Ed" Bradley, Jr. was an American journalist, best known for twenty-six years of award-winning work on the CBS News television program 60 Minutes...
,
Jimmy BreslinJimmy Breslin is an American journalist and author. He currently writes a column for the New York Daily News' Sunday edition. He has written numerous novels, and columns of his have appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of New York City...
, Joel Brinkley,
Robert BrusteinRobert Sanford Brustein is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright and educator. He founded both Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he remains a Creative Consultant, and has been the theatre critic for...
,
Walter CronkiteWalter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
,
William O. DouglasWilliam Orville Douglas was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. With a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, he is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court...
,
Stephen EvansStephen Evans is a British actor and comedy writer in theater, film, radio and television. He graduated with a BA degree in Theatre at Dartington College of Arts in Devon ....
,
Leila FadelLeila Fadel is an American journalist, currently serving as Cairo bureau chief for the Washington Post.-Career:Fadel worked at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as a crime and higher education reporter....
,
Stefan ForbesStefan Forbes is an American writer and film director. His first feature film was the 2008 documentary film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, about the life of political operative Lee Atwater. Boogie Man played at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, played in 40 U.S...
,
Thomas FriedmanThomas Lauren Friedman is an American journalist, columnist and author. He writes a twice-weekly column for The New York Times. He has written extensively on foreign affairs including global trade, the Middle East, and environmental issues and has won the Pulitzer Prize three times.-Personal...
, Fred Friendly,
Anne GarrelsAnne Garrels is a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio in the United States.-Career:Garrels graduated from Harvard University's Radcliffe College in 1972...
, Henry Louis Gates,
Amy GoodmanAmy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...
,
Adam GopnikAdam Gopnik, is an American writer, essayist and commentator. He is best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker—to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism—and as the author of the essay collection Paris to the Moon, an account of five years that Gopnik, his wife...
, Michael R. Gordon,
Philip GourevitchPhilip Gourevitch , an American author and journalist, is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker and the former editor of The Paris Review. His most recent book is The Ballad of Abu Ghraib , an account of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison under the American occupation...
,
Alan CowellAlan S. Cowell is a British journalist and a correspondent for The New York Times. Since 2008 he has been senior correspondent for NYTimes.com based in Paris....
,
Roy GutmanRoy Gutman is an American journalist and author.In 1966, Gutman graduated from Haverford College with a major in History. In 1968, Gutman graduated from the London School of Economics with a masters degree in International Relations.Roy Gutman joined Newsday in January 1982 and served for eight...
,
David HalberstamDavid Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam...
,
Michael HastingsMichael Hastings is an American journalist and a writer. He was a regular contributor to Gentlemen's Quarterly and now is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine...
,
Seymour HershSeymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
(multiple winner),
Peter JenningsPeter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...
,
Pauline KaelPauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
,
Matthew KauffmanMatthew Kauffman is an American investigative journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.From a very young age, Kauffman was fascinated with journalism, earning him a job at his local newspaper. In 1979, Matthew attended Vassar College, where he reported for the College Newspaper...
,
Murray KemptonJames Murray Kempton was an influential, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist.-Biography:Kempton was born in Baltimore on December 16, 1917. His mother was Sally Ambler and his father was James Branson Kempton, a stock broker...
,
Ronald KesslerRonald Borek Kessler is an American journalist and author of 19 non-fiction books. He is chief Washington, D.C. correspondent of the conservative news and commentary website Newsmax.com.-Personal life:Kessler was born in New York City in 1943...
(multiple winner),
John KifnerJohn Kifner was a reporte for the The New York Times. After serving as an editor on his Williams College student newspaper, The Williams Record, Kifner joined The New York Times as a copy boy in 1963 and soughtt reporting assignments...
(multiple winner),
Ted KoppelEdward James "Ted" Koppel is an English-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline from the program's inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005. After leaving Nightline, Koppel worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel before resigning in 2008...
,
Joshua KorsJoshua Kors is an investigative reporter for The Nation. He covers military and veterans' issues.-Life:Kors is from Walnut Creek, California, where he attended Las Lomas High School...
,
Charles KuraltCharles Kuralt was an American journalist. He was most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.Kuralt's "On the Road"...
,
Joseph LelyveldJoseph Lelyveld was executive editor of the New York Times from 1994 to 2001, and interim executive editor in 2003 after the resignation of Howell Raines. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books.In all, Lelyveld worked at...
(multiple winner),
Norman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
,
Mary Ellen MarkMary Ellen Mark is an American photographer known for her photojournalism, portraiture, and advertising photography. She has had 16 collections of her work published and has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. She has received numerous accolades, including three Robert F...
,
Jim McKayJames Kenneth McManus , better known by his professional name of Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist....
,
Carey McWilliamsCarey McWilliams was an American author, editor, and lawyer. He is best known for his writings about social issues in California, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II...
,
Chris MortensenChris "Mort" Mortensen , an award-winning journalist, provides reports for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio and ESPN.com...
,
Bill MoyersBill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
(multiple winner),
Edward R. MurrowEdward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
,
Lisa MyersLisa Myers is the senior investigative correspondent for NBC Nightly News.A 1973 graduate of the University of Missouri's Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri, she joined NBC in 1981. From 1979 to 1981, Myers was White House correspondent for The Washington Star...
,
Allan NairnAllan Nairn is an award-winning American investigative journalist who became well known when he was imprisoned by Indonesian military forces under United States-backed strongman Suharto while reporting in East Timor. His writings have focused on U.S...
,
Jack NewfieldJack Newfield was a muckraking journalist, employed by The Village Voice, the Daily News and the New York Post. He covered the emergence of the New Left and the civil rights movement, and was a close friend of Robert F...
,
John Bertram OakesJohn Bertram Oakes was an iconoclastic and influential U.S. journalist known for his early commitment to the environment, civil rights, and opposition to the Vietnam War. He was born in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, the second son of George Washington Ochs Oakes and Bertie Gans...
(multiple winner),
Gayle ReavesGayle Reaves is a Pulitzer Prize- and George Polk Award-winning journalist, currently the managing editor of the Fort Worth Weekly alternative weekly newspaper serving the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex....
,
James RestonJames Barrett Reston , nicknamed "Scotty," was an American journalist whose career spanned the mid 1930s to the early 1990s. He was associated for many years with the New York Times.-Life:...
,
Leo RostenLeo Calvin Rosten was born in Łódź, Russian Empire and died in New York City. He was a teacher and academic, but is best known as a humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism and Yiddish lexicography.-Early life:Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in what is now...
,
Morley SaferMorley Safer is a Canadian reporter and correspondent for CBS News. He is best known for his long tenure on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which began in December 1970.-Life and career:...
,
Harrison SalisburyHarrison Evans Salisbury , an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist , was the first regular New York Times correspondent in Moscow after World War II. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
,
Diane SawyerLila Diane Sawyer is the current anchor of ABC News' flagship program, ABC World News. Previously, Sawyer had been co-anchor of ABC Newss morning news program, Good Morning America ....
,
Daniel SchorrDaniel Louis Schorr was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio...
,
George SeldesGeorge Seldes was an American investigative journalist and media critic. The writer and critic Gilbert Seldes was his younger brother. Actress Marian Seldes is his niece....
,
Eric SevareidArnold Eric Sevareid was a CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents—dubbed "Murrow's Boys"—because they were hired by pioneering CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow....
,
William ShawnWilliam Shawn was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from 1952 until 1987.-Education and Early Life:...
, William Shirer,
Howard K. SmithHoward Kingsbury Smith was an American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original Edward R. Murrow boys.-Early life:...
,
Red SmithFor other uses, see: Red Smith Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith was an American sportswriter who rose to become one of America's most widely read sports columnists.-Career:After graduating from Green Bay East High School, site of Packers home games until 1957, Smith moved on to...
,
Edward SorelEdward Sorel is an illustrator, caricaturist, cartoonist, and graphic designer.Sorel is noted for his wavy pen-and-ink style, which he describes as "spontaneous direct drawing," since he does not use pencil or tracing for guidance...
,
Susan SontagSusan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
, James Steele (multiple winner),
Tom MurphyThomas "Tom" Murphy is a British born journalist. Tom has worked as a producer / cameraman specializing in current affairs and documentaries, filming in many different environments, hostile and otherwise, throughout the world....
,
Joe StephensJoe Stephens is an American professional basketball player. He had a brief career in the NBA in the late 1990s.A 6'7", 210 lb...
(three-time winner),
I. F. StoneIsidor Feinstein Stone was an iconoclastic American investigative journalist. He is best remembered for his self-published newsletter, I. F...
,
Studs TerkelLouis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
,
Nina TotenbergNina Totenberg is an American legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio focusing primarily on the activities and politics of the Supreme Court of the United States. Her reports air regularly on NPR's newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition...
, and the unknown filmmakers who filed the death of
Death of Neda Agha-SoltanFootage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan drew international attention after she was killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast over the Internet and the video became a rallying point for the opposition...
.
Categories
- Foreign Reporting
- Radio Reporting
- Photojournalism
- Economics Reporting
- Business Reporting
- Labor Reporting
- Legal Reporting
- National Reporting
- Internet Reporting
- Magazine Reporting
- State Reporting
- Education Reporting
- Local Reporting
- Television Reporting
In addition, the George Polk Career Award is given in recognition of an individual's lifelong achievements.
Josh MarshallJoshua Micah Marshall is an American Polk Award-winning journalist who founded Talking Points Memo, which The New York Times Magazine called "one of the most popular and most respected sites" in the blogosphere...
's
blogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
,
Talking Points MemoTalking Points Memo is a web-based political journalism organization created and run by Josh Marshall, journalist and historian covering issues from a "politically left perspective,". It debuted on November 12, 2000...
, was the first blog to receive the Polk Award in 2008 for their reporting on the
US Attorney ScandalThe dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy was initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White...
.
Winners