Written by Eric Holder, University of Georgia, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Public Relations department head, the Peabody Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE— Charles Gibson, co-anchor, ABC News’ Good Morning America and PrimeTime Thursdaywill host the 62nd George Foster Peabody Awards to be held May 19, 2003 at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York. The awards presentation will air nationally for the first time on cable’s A&E;, Sunday, May 25. Barbara Walters, who had planned to host this year’s Peabodys, will be out of the country on assignment that week.
“We are delighted to have Mr. Gibson host this year’s ceremony,” said Horace Newcomb, Director of the Peabody Awards. ‘Needless to say, having a journalist of his caliber underscores what the Peabodys mean to those of us who make electronic media a way of life.”
As host, he joins a list of media luminaries, including Bill Moyers, Ted Koppel, Christiane Amanpour, and the host for the 61st Awards in 2002, Walter Cronkite. The luncheon ceremony will honor 2002’s most outstanding work in radio, television, and new media.
The official announcement of this year’s thirty-one winners was made at a live press conference on April 2 from Georgia Public Television Headquarters in Atlanta Georgia. The press conference can be viewed on the Peabody Awards website, www.peabody.uga.edu.
Mr. Gibson joined ABC News in 1975 and co-anchored Good Morning America from 1987-1998. He returned to his chair at the morning show in 1999 where he now co-anchors with Diane Sawyer. In addition, he is co-anchor of PrimeTime Thursday. On Good Morning America, Gibson has covered “front page” events, reporting live from Middle East during the Gulf War, from Oklahoma City on the fifth anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building; and from the steps of Columbine High School following the shootings in Colorado. A graduate of Princeton University, Gibson has been honored with the 1992 John Maclean Fellowship, awarded to Princeton alumni “who have made a major contribution to American society.” The National Endowment for the Humanities named Mr. Gibson a National Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan in 1973, and he has served as a board member of the Michigan Journalism Fellows since 1988.
Administered by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, the George Foster Peabody Award is among the most prestigious prizes in the fields of electronic media. Since the first presentations in 1941 no more than 36 Peabodys have been awarded in any single year.