Liam Niemeyer, the Ohio Valley Resource reporter and assistant news director for WKMS, recently won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association, or RTDNA, the world’s largest professional organization devoted to broadcast and digital journalism.
The winning story focused on a Kentucky town in a moment of reckoning over its racist past. Niemeyer won the Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion category for his Dec. 11 piece, “A Blackface Photo Resurfaces, And A Kentucky Town Confronts Its Racial Trauma.”
Niemeyer’s fellow OVR colleague Brittany Patterson, at partner station West Virginia Public Broadcasting, also won a regional Murrow award in the investigative category for the Sept. 30 piece, “Bob Murray, Who Fought Black Lung Regulations As A Coal Operator, Has Filed For Black Lung Benefits.”
Niemeyer’s story was based on a Paducah school official who appeared in blackface as part of a Halloween costume. But rather than make the school official the main focus, Niemeyer framed his story within the context of the larger Black community experience in Paducah. The result was a richer view of the city’s racial history, and a deeper understanding of just why the use of blackface by a trusted public official was so hurtful. The piece launched an occasional series that’s continuing at the Ohio Valley ReSource, called “Black Lives in Red States.”
Niemeyer’s work now advances to the National Murrow Award Competition.
WKMS, the public radio station at Murray State University, has a story-sharing partnership with Hoptown Chronicle.
(This story first ran on WKMS, the public radio station at Murray State University.)
