Reporter Chris Vanocur and KTVX-TV have won a 1998 George Foster Peabody Award for their reporting on the Olympic bribery scandal.
The 33 award winners, announced Wednesday, were chosen from among nearly 1,300 entries. The awards are administered by the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications.On Nov. 24, KTVX aired the first report on what would become a worldwide scandal. It detailed a draft of a letter written by the Salt Lake Bid Committee's vice president, Dave Johnson.
The letter said the Salt Lake Olympic Committee had helped pay the college tuition of the daughter of a member of the International Olympic Committee.
The story triggered investigations that revealed Salt Lake bid executives had curried favor with IOC members by giving them $1.2 million worth of cash, medical care and travel, scholarships and other gifts. The IOC voted to give Salt Lake the 2002 Winter Games in June 1995.
Vanocur's father, Sander Vanocur, who was a news correspondent for NBC and ABC and now works at the History Channel, was excited about his son's award.
"It may be the first time I can remember my father bouncing off the walls," Vanocur said of his dad's response.
Earlier this month, KTVX took top honors in the 1998 Investigative Reporters and Editors awards. It was chosen from among the medium's below-top 20 market category for unraveling the Olympic bribery scandal.