Moyers Wins Top Broadcast News Award

Bill Moyers, the feisty Southern interviewer who has made a career of incisive questioning, has been awarded broadcast journalism’s top prize, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton.

Moyers got the award for his more than 20 years in broadcasting, but several programs from last season were specially cited by the jury. His “High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” a 90-minute report that examined the Iran-Contra story on the PBS series “Frontline,” won a silver baton of its own.

“In many respects Bill Moyers embodies values brought to broadcast journalism by Edward R. Murrow,” Columbia University President Michael Sovern said. “He is a unique voice, still seeking new frontiers in television, daring to assume that viewing audiences are willing to think and learn.”

In all, 12 Silver Batons were awarded for excellence in broadcast journalism, six of them for programs aired on public television or radio.

Four Silver Batons were for Gulf War coverage: to Peter Jennings and ABC News, Peter Arnett of CNN, National Public Radio and WFAA-TV in Dallas.

Other Silver Batons winners:

* PBS for “Frontline: Innocence Lost,” on sexual abuse allegations at a day-care center.

* Ken Burns, independent television producer, for “The Civil War,” PBS.

* Pierre Sauvage, independent television producer, for “Weapons of the Spirit,” about a French village that hid Jewish refugees from the Nazis, PBS.

* National Geographic Society for “Explorer: The Urban Gorilla,” TBS.

* KPIX-TV, San Francisco, for “Wards of the State,” about juvenile offenders.

* KBDI-TV, Denver, a public-television station, for “Tierra O Muerte,” about a Mexican-American community.

* KWWL-TV, Waterloo, Iowa, for “Cloud of Concern,” about chemical leaks.