Awards & Accolades

The NATAS announced the nominees for the 7th Business and Financial Reporting Emmy Awards today.

CBS received the most nominations, with 15. PBS was next with four, followed by CNBC and BBC America with three each.

• Eight of CBS's 15 nods were nominations for segments on "60 Minutes." Four others were for "Evening News with Katie Couric."
• Two of CNBC's documentaries were nominated for awards as well as "Boom, Bust, Blame: The Inside Story of America's Economic Crisis" on CNBC.com.
• Two of Elisabeth Leamy's reports for ABC's "Good Morning America" were nominated for an investigative reporting Emmy.
• "BBC World News America" was nominated for three awards, including two for "interpretation or analysis."

The awards will be presented at a luncheon on December 7th. You can see the full list, along with the Promotion Announcement nominations, here.

The ballroom at New York's Grand Hyatt was packed last night with local and national tvnewsers celebrating the best in the business as recognized by the RTNDA - Radio and TV News Directors Association.

At the start of the event, Stacey Woelfel, the chairman of the organization, announced this would be the final RTNDA Murrow Awards dinner, until he clarified saying that as of Monday the organization is known as the RTDNA -- the Radio, Television, Digital News Association.

Presenters included CBS' Russ Mitchell, NBC's Natalie Morales and Hoda Kotb, CNN's John Roberts and ABC's Brian Ross. In all, 51 news organizations were recognized for excellence in TV, Radio and Digital journalism.

CBS Evening News EP Rick Kaplan accepted the Murrow award for Best Network Newscast for the second year in a row. NBC News president Steve Capus accepted for Overall Excellence. And NBC's Richard Engel accepted an award for his continuing coverage of the war in Afghanistan - specifically for his Tip of the Spear reports. Engel, who last week made headlines for declaring, "it's probably time to start leaving the country," kept his comments brief last night thanking his NBC News colleagues. Engel is now headed back to Kabul.

One of the highlights of the evening came when "60 Minutes" producers Tom Anderson and Jenny Dubin accepted their award.

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AskMen has released their list of the 49 most influential men of 2009. Fox News' Shepard Smith was the only newser on the list, appearing at the #31 spot (right between Tiger Woods and Hugh Jackman). In addition to pointing toward Smith's high ratings and big salary, AskMen also noted his memorable coverage:

He anchored FOX's Presidential Election Night coverage last November, and more recently, kept viewers up-to-date on the moment-by-moment developments immediately following news of Michael Jackson's death. Perhaps the most memorable Shepard Smith moment of the year came on April 22 when, during a passionate discussion on the use of torture on Freedom Watch, an internet-only program, the FOX anchor let loose with a few choice words, including the forbidden "F" word.

Related: Who's number one? The very fictional Don Draper from AMC's "Mad Men." Hot off the blogs, you can catch TVNewser delivering the "Mad Men" recap from Sunday's episode on AgencySpy's "The Week in Advertising."

The NewsHour's Judy Woodruff has been honored by the alumni association at her alma mater, Duke University, with its Distinguished Alumni Award. The award was presented Thursday at Founders' Day ceremonies in Durham, North Carolina.

The honor is given to alumni "who have made significant contributions in their own fields, in service to the university, or for the betterment of humanity," according to Duke Magazine. Woodruff, class of '68, was selected from nominations made by Duke alumni, faculty members, trustees, administrators, and students.

Woodruff served on Duke's board of trustees from 1985 to 1997.

• CBS's Steve Kroft has been named a Trumpeter Award winner by the National Consumers League. The award will be bestowed tonight in Washington, D.C. to Kroft and to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. The Trumpeter Award is the League's "highest honor, given to leaders who are not afraid to speak out for social justice and for the rights of consumers," according to a NCL press release.

• NBC's Matt Lauer will receive the Lew Klein Excellence in the Media Award at an October 20 luncheon in Philadelphia. Proceeds from the event benefit the Lew Klein Excellence in the Media Fund for professorships and scholarships at Temple University's School of Communications and Theater.

The Radio-Television News Directors Association has announced the presenter list for this year's awards:

• Hoda Kotb, NBC News
• Russ Mitchell, CBS News
• Natalie Morales, NBC News
• John Roberts, CNN
• Brian Ross, ABC News

The awards dinner honoring recipients of the Edward R. Murrow and UNITY Awards will take place on October 12.

Marc Bryan-Brown Photography

TVNewsers flocked to Lincoln Center last night for the 30th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards. In addition to the competitive awards, Barbara Walters was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award.

A tribute to Walters came first from Katie Couric. Then ABC News President David Westin presented the award. "Barbara Walters is a true legend in television news," Westin said. "Even more special, she keeps on adding to that legend each and every day. It is an honor to present the Lifetime Achievement award to Barbara Walters, but it is even more of a pleasure to give it to such a good friend."

Marc Bryan-Brown Photography

The President's Award went to CNN Productions for their "longstanding commitment to long-form documentaries." The award was accepted by Jon Klein with Christiane Amanpour and Soledad O'Brien who've each hosted documentary series for the network. CNN Productions EP Mark Nelson also accepted.

The biggest network winner was PBS, which was awarded six Emmys. CBS News won five. In a note to the staff this morning, CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus wrote, "The diversity of subject matter for which CBS News won awards is indicative of our strength and leadership in every area of journalism."

"NBC Nightly News" had a big night, picking up two awards for their Afghanistan coverage and one for breaking coverage of the financial collapse last September. In an internal email, EP Bob Epstein congratulated the staff on their hard work writing, "This is a terrific night for everyone at Nightly and NBC News."

Other notable winners:

• "CBS Evening News" won an investigative journalism award.
• NBC News won for election night coverage.
• "60 Minutes" won three newsmagazine Emmys.
• "ABC News Primetime" and "Nightline" each won a newsmagazine award.
• "CBS News Sunday Morning" won a feature story Emmy.

You can see the full list of winners here.

Network totals:

ABC: 2 / CBS: 5 / CNN: 1 / NBC: 5 / PBS: 6

The Peabody Awards program at the University of Georgia announced four new board members today.

Former Newshour correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault, former PBS VP Alyce Myatt, former ABC, NBC and Miramax executive Allen Sabinson and recently retired Hearst-Argyle news executive Fred Young.

The Peabodys, electronic media's most coveted prize, is now accepting entries for the calendar year 2009. The entry deadline is January 15, 2010. Original broadcast, cablecast and Webcast programs are eligible.

The 2009 medallions will be announced March 31, 2010.

Frank Radice resigned as president of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences yesterday just hours before the group's annual News & Documentary Emmy ceremony.

"It was due to significant differences between myself and management," the former NBC executive told The Hollywood Reporter.

Radice held the position for less than nine months. He joined NATAS in December as CMO and was elevated to president Jan. 1.

"I am proud of what we accomplished this past year," Radice said. "From the daytime show, the partnership with ATI, to the funding of the Jim McKay scholarship, to the video blogs. All in all, a great year."

• We'll have more on the winners at last night's News & Documentary Emmys this afternoon...

Esquire published its list of the "75 Best People in the World" this week: "This is a list of men and women who, by virtue of skill or character, make us happy — happy that they're among us, happy that they do what they do, happy that they're successful. Each of them possesses exceptional talent, of course, but each also satisfies two special requirements: Would we like to have a drink with this person? And would we trust this person with our puppy?"

On the internet, it's pretty rare that a bunch of writers get together to just make a list of celebrities that they claim to actually like, so enjoy it while it lasts. Here are the newsers (or news related celebs) that made the list:

Shepard Smith - An anchor you want to watch, with a touch of the madness of Rather.

Rachel Maddow - A whip-smart voice of reason in the racket that is cable news.

Lara Logan - If only all war correspondents were as enterprising and brave as this one.

Pat Buchanan - Weird and possibly dangerous, but he's seen a thing or two. Plus, he'd be kind to the dog.

Lester Holt - The one anchor who's both contemporary and weighty.

Rupert Murdoch - The evil emperor of global media, but he also gets drunk and loses his wedding band. And he loves newspapers. How bad can he be?