The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

, described the award as "one of only a couple of journalism prizes that means anything". The award is described as follows:

History

20th century

The awards were established in 1949, in memory of George Polk, a

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

correspondent who was murdered in March 1948 while covering the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...

21st century

In 2008,

Josh Marshall Joshua Micah Jesajan-Dorja Marshall (born February 15, 1969) is an American journalist and blogger who founded ''Talking Points Memo.'' A Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal, he presides over a network of Left-wing politics, progress ...

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, ''

Talking Points Memo ''Talking Points Memo'' (''TPM'') is a liberal political news and opinion blog created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a "talking points memo" that was often discussed duri ...

'', was the first blog to receive the Polk Award in recognition of its reporting on the 2006 U.S. Attorneys dismissal scandal. In 2009, John Darnton, a former editor with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', was named curator of the George Polk Awards. In 2024, ''

'' was awarded three Polk Awards for the newspaper's "unsurpassed coverage of the war between

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

". Steven Thrasher criticized the issuance of the awards to the ''New York Times'', saying that the newspaper's article, " Screams Without Words", had been discredited.

List of award recipients

Award categories

* Foreign reporting * Radio reporting * Photojournalism * Economics reporting * Business reporting * Labor reporting * Legal reporting * National reporting * Internet reporting * Magazine reporting * Military reporting * State reporting * Education reporting * Local reporting * Television reporting * Documentary Film (introduced in 2014) In addition, the George Polk Career Award is given in recognition of an individual's lifelong achievements.

References

{{reflist American journalism awards Awards established in 1949 Career awards 1949 establishments in New York (state) Long Island University