CBS News finally ponies up for Edward R. Murrow sponsorship after The Media Mix calls.
The Overseas Press Club dinner honors the best in international journalism - CBS News support was missing in action until Friday.
Members of the Overseas Press Club were stunned to learn this week that CBS News was a no show when asked to renew their long running sponsorship of the Edward R. Murrow award at the journalism organization’s annual dinner at Cipriani, New York on April 20.
The OPC awards, in their 87th year, depend on major journalism organizations to fund the event. With the dinner just two weeks away, a club member had stepped in to contribute $1,500 to cover the expense, one person involved in event planning told me.
Twenty four hours after I contacted CBS News a spokesman responded: “We are sponsoring the award.” The approval had simply fallen through the cracks, because of staff changes. The network however has not bought a table - yet.
CBS News’ parent Paramount Skydance is in the midst of a massive cost cutting exercise aimed at finding $6 billion in synergies as part of its planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of CNN. The New York Post reported a plan to shake-up “60 Minutes.” That follows a decision by CBS News’ editor-in-chief Bari Weiss to shut down CBS News Radio, which has broadcast since 1927. The final broadcast is set for May 22.
Edward R. Murrow is noted for his CBS Radio addresses from London bringing Americans news about World War II. Those broadcasts ended with the words, “Goodnight, and Good Luck.”
Speaking ahead of CBS News’ change of heart, this person familiar with the dinner said it was “disgraceful” that CBS had failed to back its own award.
The Overseas Press Club has delivered the Edward R. Murrow honor since 1977, according to its website. It is one of the most prestigious awards in international television journalism and honors the, “best TV, video or documentary about international affairs with a run time of up to 20 minutes.” The 2024 honor was picked up by PBS NewsHour for their reporting on Haiti.
This year’s keynote speaker is Associated Press’ executive editor Julie Pace. NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is hosting, while PBS’ Raney Aronson-Rath, the executive producer and editor-in-chief of Frontline, will pick up the President’s Award.
A host of big name journalism organizations support the event including NBC, Bloomberg, the New York Times, WSJ, Frontline, HBO, AP, Reuters, the LA Times. The source noted CNN’s absence from the list.
The Overseas Press Club did not return a request for comment but at least CBS News did the right thing here and the Edward R. Murrow award continues to live another year.
Shameless Self Promotions: I got together with NPR’s Roben Farzard last week to talk about the Paramount merger with Warner Bros. Discovery and swap tips about who might run a potential CNN-CBS mash-up. Of course the two companies can do little until the deal is rubber stamped. I also penned a guest column for The Ankler about what Wall Street is thinking of this debt laden merger. You can read the piece here. Let me know what you think? The stock is still under $10 (back where Warner Bros. Discovery stock price got stuck for two years) but ended the week up 7%.
Murdoch Chroniclers Unite: In case you didn’t catch it, the Liz Garbus documentary series “Dynasty” is airing on Netflix. (I got my 15 seconds of fame.) https://www.netflix.com/title/81712688