Oh, those wacky awards

It's award season, and just like the Oscars, some selections leave you scratching your head.

One year we had the best hard news reporter in the state, hands down. Even the competition would tell me how good he was. Anyway, he sends in his best three stories for a contest (stories that eventually landed him in a major market) and we all thought it was a stone cold lock that he'd win.

He didn't. What made it even worse, was that one of the worst reporters we'd ever seen won. Even the people that worked with this person used to laugh at her overly dramatic presentations.

I asked the ND how this could happen. "You wanna help me judge awards next year?" he asked.

"Huh? You mean there's no panel of high powered journalists that spend hours pouring over the entries? No ivory tower group of people with thirty years experience?"

Uh, no.

Here's how many award systems work. Let's say you work in Louisiana. You'll be directed to send your entries to another state, say, Montana. Maybe the people in Montana send theirs to Indiana. And Utah sends theirs to Louisiana.

The ND ends up with giant boxes of tapes to judge. Sometimes the ND is too busy, or just doesn't want to bother. So the task gets delegated.

One year I was the Assistant ND, and judged another state with the help of one reporter and a sports anchor. Another year we ordered pizza and I watched in the conference room with the ND, a weatherguy, an anchor, and a sales person. At another station, the ND poked his head out of the office and asked "Anybody want to judge some award stuff?"

While it is nice to win awards, and many are truly deserved, you have to take them with a grain of salt. You really have no idea who is judging and how much time and honest effort was spent doing it. Most people who do judge try to do an objective job. Just bear in mind that awards are subjective, and everyone is entitled to an opinion.