PantherVision Murrow Award Pride

Please help send a remarkable group of students attend a once-in-a-lifetime awards banquet in New York City.  A dozen student reporters for UWM PantherVision, my class-based television newscast, have won an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association.  It is one of the most prestigious and coveted awards in broadcast journalism, and the competition is among the best PROFESSIONAL television news organizations in the country.  The majority of broadcast journalists work their entire careers without winning a national Murrow award (I never won one in my 20 years at three television stations), yet these students earned one before they even left the classroom.  

As you might imagine, travelling to New York for the awards banquet is expensive.  The price of a ticket to the event alone is $375.  The hotel is $345 a night.  And then there's airfare. 

Yet they should be there to be honored along with the best in the industry.  Other winners are ABC, CBS and NBC news coorespondents.  60 Minutes is receiving an award.  And so are the best journalists from outstanding television stations such as KARE in Minneapolis, KING in Seattle, WFAA in Dallas. 

This group of students walked into my classroom with no experience, and walked out carrying high the torch of the Fourth Estate. Their commitment to holding the powerful accountable, giving voice to the voiceless, and exposing wrongs offers rays of hope for the future of broadcast journalism. 

Please help them enjoy their accomplishment!