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CalMatters’ collaborations with CBS-TV are again nominated for Emmy awards, following two previous Emmy wins, and bringing nominations three years in a row.
Both awards, given by the Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, are for work produced in partnership with CBS News and using deep reporting from CalMatters’ Digital Democracy, a tool that uses data and artificial intelligence to examine state government. This comes just a week after Digital Democracy was awarded the Punch Sulzberger Prize for Journalism Innovation in the national Poynter Journalism Prizes.
“Using new AI, grieving moms discover California lawmakers killed popular fentanyl bill by *not* voting” pairs CalMatters’ state government analysis with video reporting by Julie Watts of CBS News. The entry is nominated for politics and government news coverage and recognizes Watts and producer Dennis Lopez along with CalMatters’ reporters Sameea Kamal and Ryan Sabalow. Foaad Khosmood, a computer science professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and an architect of Digital Democracy, was also recognized.
The video tells the story of how advocates for fentanyl legislation were upset to learn through Digital Democracy that their bills died when legislators declined to vote. The broadcast followed a CalMatters’ story, “Power is never having to say ‘no.’ How California Democrats kill bills without voting against them” co-authored by Watts and CalMatters reporter Ryan Sabalow. The story used data from Digital Democracy to show that instead of directly voting against a bill, Democrats often killed bills by declining to vote.
And “Why some California Democrats take Big Oil money and vote against environmental laws” pairs CBS’ news analysis, powered by Digital Democracy, this time for a nomination for politics and government short-form content. The segment reveals “that California Republicans in Congress voted against most (92%) environmental bills in the last session, even though surveys show that most of the people they represent think lawmakers should do more to prevent climate change.”
The nomination recognizes CBS’ Watts along with Grace Manthey, Kurtis Ming, Jui Sarwate and Dennis Lopez – again with Khosmood.
Emmy winners will be announced June 14 in Sacramento.
CalMatters’ first Emmy win two years ago was for Watts featuring CalMatters reporter Julie Cart’s coverage of the devastating effects of endless wildfires on the mental health of California’s firefighters. And the second Emmy award last year was for CalMatters criminal justice reporter Nigel Duara and Julie Watts for their segment on how California investigates shootings by law enforcement officers of unarmed civilians.
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