APM Reports' In the Dark Wins Second Peabody Award
ST. PAUL, Minn., June 10, 2020 – APM Reports’ investigative podcast In the Dark has been honored with a Peabody Award in the Podcast & Radio category for its coverage of the Curtis Flowers Supreme Court arguments, decision and aftermath. Announced today, the Peabody Awards honor the previous year’s most compelling stories presented by television, radio and digital media.
Thirty Peabody Awards were granted from the 60 nominees across categories.
In the Dark’s first season won a Peabody Award in 2016 for an investigation into the kidnapping and murder of Jacob Wetterling, a Minnesota boy whose disappearance in 1989 went unsolved 27 years.
In the podcast’s second season, In the Dark journalists identified significant flaws, misconduct and a constitutional rights violation in the investigation and prosecution of a 1996 quadruple homicide in Winona, Miss.
The accused man – Curtis Flowers – had been tried six times for the crime. When In the Dark journalists began their reporting, Flowers was on death row. After the initial release of In the Dark’s second season, attorneys for Flowers’ appeal included ample reporting from the podcast in their petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2019, the Court overturned Flowers’ conviction, and in December, Flowers was released on bail.
Downloaded more than 37 million times, In the Dark’s second season has received numerous accolades, including the 2020 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, which was granted last week to APM Reports for In the Dark’s coverage of the Flowers Supreme Court decision and aftermath.
In addition, In The Dark was the first podcast to receive the George Polk Award, won a 2020 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, earned a 2020 Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, and was nominated for a Peabody Award in 2019. For her work on In the Dark’s second season, host and lead reporter Madeleine Baran was named the Burton Award’s 2019 Outstanding Journalist in Law.
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About APM Reports
APM Reports, formed in November 2015, is a collection of investigative journalists and documentary producers, editors, data reporters, researchers and digital producers dedicated to producing high-quality reporting on issues that are often hidden from public view. At the heart of every APM Reports investigation lies a critical question — about powerful institutions and people, injustice and accountability – that deserves an unflinching commitment to finding answers in the public’s best interest. Visit apmreports.org for more.
About American Public Media
American Public Media® (APM) is the national programming and distribution division of American Public Media Group and reaches 19 million listeners via approximately 1,000 radio stations nationwide each week. APM is one of the largest producers and distributors of public radio programming in the world, with a portfolio that includes BBC World Service, Marketplace®, and the leading classical music programs in the nation. APM offers a diverse array of podcasts featuring the best in food, culture, entertainment, business and investigative journalism. For more information on APM, visit americanpublicmedia.org.
Source: Data are copyright Nielsen Audio, Nationwide DMA data, Persons 12+, Fall ‘19.