WFAA8's Shipp, Harris continue to major in major awards
11/04/08 10:59 AM
By ED BARK
Veteran WFAA8 investigative reporters Brett Shipp and Byron Harris now have enough combined Alfred I. duPont-Columbia and George Foster Peabody awards to form an NBA roster. That would be 12.
Shipp won his third and fourth duPonts Tuesday while Harris will receive his fourth. It's the first time in duPont history that a local station has been recognized for three stories in a single year.
Harris, who won a duPont last year, also has a Peabody award in his trophy case. He joined WFAA8 in 1974.
Shipp, who won a Peabody last year, already has three of those. Formerly with KDFW-TV (Channel 4) before Fox bought the station, he joined WFAA8 in 1994.
Harris's latest duPont is for his investigations of the Export-Import Bank, an obscure, taxpayer-funded federal agency. He uncovered an alleged $243 million in "bogus loans."
One of Shipp's two newest duPonts is for a much-publicized and controversial investigation of grade-fixing at South Oak Cliff High School, which eventually had to forfeit its 2006 state basketball title by order of the DISD.
He also won a duPont for a series of reports on Atmos Energy's alleged lax approach to repairing dangerous gas leaks that in the past have caused fatal explosions. In one such case, an elderly couple was killed in their home.
The duPont and Peabody awards are uniformly recognized as the TV news equivalents of the Pulitzer for print journalism and the Oscar for feature films.
No local station in the country has two reporters with this many of them. And it's an almost certain bet that no station ever will.