By Stone Martindale Feb 21, 2007, 4:34 GMT
"When the Levees Broke" was Spike Lee's heart wrenching look at the aftermath of the most devasting natural disaster Americans have had to face.
01/12/2007 - Spike Lee - 12th Annual Critics' Choice Awards - Santa Monica Civic Auditorium - Santa Monica, CA © Chris Hatcher / Photorazzi
Director Spike Lee was named today as a winner of the annual George Polk Awards for his HBO documentary on life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Lee was honored for "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," along with producer, Sam Pollard.
The Houston Chronicle reports that they won the award for documentary television for illuminating the US government's sub-par performance in the aftermath of the killer August hurricane of 2005.
Other 2006 winners included New York Times correspondent Lydia Polgreen, honored in foreign reporting for her reports on the Sudan's Darfur region.
The Polk Awards, are 12 top journalism awards created in 1949 in honor of CBS reporter George W. Polk, who was killed while covering the Greek civil war, will be presented April 12 in New York.
Other winners were:
Senior investigative correspondent Lisa Myers and producer Adam Ciralsky of NBC's Nightly News for network television reporting. The pair exposed a secret effort by the Army to drop new technology aimed at protecting soldiers from rocket-propelled grenades.
Hartford (Conn.) Courant reporters Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman for military reporting. Their four-part series detailed the military's lack of mental health screening and the high suicide rate among American troops.
Robert Little, national correspondent for The (Baltimore) Sun, for medical reporting. His three-part series, "Dangerous Remedy," probed the use of an experimental drug on more than 1,000 soldiers.
Los Angeles Times reporters Kenneth R. Weiss and Usha Lee McFarling for environmental reporting. Their series linked a variety of health issues worldwide to industrial pollution and other factors that are destroying oceanic ecology.
Charles Forelle, James Bandler and Mark Maremont of The Wall Street Journal for business reporting. Their piece on backdating stock options triggered a federal investigation into more than 130 companies.
The Oregonian's Jeff Kosseff, Bryan Denson and Les Zaitz for national reporting. They exposed a multibillion-dollar federal program that was supposed to help people with severe disabilities find work but instead rewarded corporate executives.
Debbie Cenziper of The Miami Herald for metropolitan reporting. Her yearlong investigation into the Miami-Dade Housing Agency prompted the firing of top housing officials, along with a criminal investigation.
Editor Ray Ring of the High Country News of Colorado for political reporting. His investigation of the financing behind a campaign against land use regulations led to a defeat of the proposals by voters or courts in five states.
The Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California-Berkeley, American Public Media and Living on Earth for radio reporting.
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