Award Recipients Announced 74th Annual Radio & Television Congressional Correspondents’ Dinner

The RTCA is pleased to announce the following awards to our radio and television journalists:

Jamie Dupree, Cox Media Group
2018 Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress
The Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress honors the distinguished career of a Washington broadcaster who represents career achievement and dedication to Congressional coverage. The award recognizes rare, exceptional careers and signifies the admiration of the many broadcasters who follow behind and benefit from the work of the recipient. Jamie Dupree is the Senior Washington Correspondent for the Washington Bureau of the Cox Media Group. Jamie has been around the Congress for most of his life. His parents started as staffers on Capitol Hill in 1959. Jamie was a House Page in 1980. He came back to Capitol Hill as a reporter in 1986, and has been with Cox since 1989. His radio reports can be heard on Cox stations in Atlanta, Orlando, Jacksonville, Dayton, Ohio, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Athens, Georgia. His Washington Insider blog is also used by two Cox newspapers, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Dayton Daily News. Jamie’s career was derailed during the middle of the 2016 campaign, when a mysterious medical issue took away his voice. While doctors have not been able to restore his voice, a company in Scotland used his years of audio archives to build a Jamie Dupree voice app, which now allows him to file radio reports again, in a computer generated voice known as “Jamie Dupree 2.0.” Jamie has been slowly writing a book about his family’s time on Capitol Hill, which sometimes goes by the title, “Alcohol is a Depressant, But so is the Senate.

NBC News Capitol Hill Bureau
2017 Joan Shorenstein Barone Award
The Joan Shorenstein Barone Award recognizes excellence in Washington-based Congressional or political reporting in the past year. The award honors the memory of Joan Shorenstein Barone, a CBS producer known for her tenacity, detailed memory and relentless pursuit of answers from politicians. NBC News Capitol Hill Bureau team reporting on sexual harassment on Capitol Hill was led by Correspondent Kasie Hunt and reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell with contributions from associate producer Marianna Sotomayor, producer Alex Moe, producer Frank Thorp, correspondent Garrett Haake and producer Rich Gardella. In the era of #metoo, every sector of society was touched and Congress was no exception. As sexual harassment allegations began surfacing on Capitol Hill, NBC News relentlessly pursued the story, leading the coverage on an issue that has long plagued Capitol Hill.

BBC Correspondent Quentin Sommerville and cameraman Darren Conway
2017 David Bloom Award
The David Bloom Award celebrates exceptional enterprise, investigative or enterprise reporting done in the past year, with a particular eye toward journalism that is fresh, daring or undertaken in difficult circumstances. The award honors the memory of David Bloom, a dogged, creative and gutsy correspondent and anchor for NBC News. BBC Correspondent Quentin Sommerville and cameraman Darren Conway in “The Fight for Raqqa” traveled to Syria to report on the final stages of the battle for the Syrian city of Raqqa, the last major stronghold of so-called Islamic State.

Garney Gary, C-SPAN
2018 Jerry Thompson Award
The Jerry Thompson Award recognizes extraordinary careers in photojournalism production, focusing on the qualities of selflessness, mentorship and commitment to quality. The award honors the memory of Jerry Thompson, a longtime videographer for CNN known for his generous friendship, willingness to help others and consistently pushing above and beyond expectations. Garney Gary has worked at C-SPAN as field technician since 1982 covering Capitol Hill including Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings and Iran Contra investigation, nine election cycles from the 1984 Reagan/Mondale Presidential race through Trump/Clinton 2016 contest as well as other public affairs programming in the U.S. and overseas. Additionally, Garney traveled the country as a videographer for the C-SPAN Bus.