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Waiting for the Kent Brockman Award

From the Scrapbook.

Sep 7, 2009, Vol. 14, No. 47
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Waiting for the Kent Brockman Award

The tendency of journalists to present each other with multiple awards--usually named for journalists, living and dead--reminds THE SCRAPBOOK of the scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen, complaining about the self-congratulatory culture of Hollywood, imagines a prize for "Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler." Of course, given the downward trajectory of the news business these days, who can blame them for a little logrolling?

We thought of this last week when we learned the glad tidings that Katie Couric, news reader of the CBS Evening News, will be awarded the 2009 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media, recognizing her "lifetime achievement." This is yet another feather in her cap for Katie, who garnered an Edward R. Murrow Award last year, as well as this year's Walter Cronkite Award (Special Achievement for National Impact), and the 2009 Gracie Allen Award, given by American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) for "exemplary contributions to the [broadcast] industry." (For our younger readers, Gracie Allen was half of the old vaudeville/TV comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen.)

THE SCRAPBOOK's initial reaction to this news was to ask, what's next? If there are journalism awards named for such professional blowhards as Neuharth, Murrow, and Cronkite, there must be one coming soon for, say, Chris Matthews or Keith Olbermann. For that matter, why not name an achievement award for the best anchorman on television, Kent Brockman of The Simpsons?

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