Kevin Reece
Recipient of the BEST TELEVISION REPORTER award in The Charles E. Green Awards (2019)
Kevin Reece
WFAA-TV Dallas/Fort Worth
Judge’s Comments:
The stories Kevin Reece brings to WFAA-TV are as simple and as complex as life itself. While other reporters work hard to edit their pieces, Reece seems to weave his - layering fragments of sight and sound into virtual tapestries of ordinary people's extraordinary inner lives. In Reece's hands, the familiar tale of a young woman headed off to college turns into an epic journey of a girl with a stutter and special needs facing down anyone narrow-minded enough to think she can't reach for her dreams in "the bright Texas sky." Courtney Osborne struts across campus with a "howdy" for every Aggie she spots. And when she declares herself a "badass" you can't help but cheer.
Reece has a keen eye for detail - he spots tornado-shredded sheet metal "wrapped around trees 30 feet in the air" - and a poet's love for the human experience - "the little girl . . . sharing her gift for all the universe to see." He manages to establish an astonishing bond with people he interviews, getting them to share long-held pain, loneliness and tragedy. But exactly how he does that remains something of a mystery - because Kevin Reece is rarely seen in most of these stories. Unlike some reporters, Reece doesn't get in the way of his narrative. He lets his characters speak for themselves. He seems to know that they - not he - are the story. Even when on-camera in driving rain in front of a house fire, Reece gently turns the subject back to the people who really matter. "It's certainly miserable out here right now," he says. "That's obvious. But much more so for the firefighters tonight and the owners of this home."
There is no commodity in television news than time itself - the precious minutes and seconds in a broadcast. So WFAA-TV is to be commended for the resources an air time it gives to Kevin Reece.
Mary E. Walsh
Producer
CBS News
Judge’s Bio:
Mary Walsh is the national security producer for CBS News; her work includes producing stories for the CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes. She has been assigned to the Pentagon since 1993 and has covered the American military all over the United States and in many parts of the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Turkey, Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Germany, the Philippines, and Korea.
As CBS News producer in Tokyo from 1989 to 1993, Walsh was responsible for news coverage in all parts of Asia – with a focus on China, Korea, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Japan. She was based in New York in 1987-89 and Atlanta in1985-87. Highlights from those years include covering the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, the bombing of Pan Am 103 and too many hurricanes to count.
Walsh began her career at CBS News in 1979 as an assistant to the Political Director in Washington D.C. She covered Geraldine Ferraro’s vice-presidential campaign in 1984 and Vice President George H.W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 1988.
She has won three Alfred I. DuPont awards from Columbia University, six Emmy awards, an Overseas Press Club Award, the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for Excellence in Journalism, a Wilber Award from the Religious Communicators Council, the University of Texas School of Communication 2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award and the 2013 Rosalie Wynn Hearst Distinguished Public Service Award.
A graduate of the University of Texas where she was editor of the Daily Texan, Walsh began her career as a journalist at the Rome Daily American in Italy in 1977.
To see excerpts of Kevin Reece’s award-winning coverage, please play the clip below: