NATAS Gives First Nods To 'Net Newsers

By P.J. Bednarski -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/5/2006 1:32:00 PM

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has nominated seven Internet videos for its first-ever Emmys honoring original news and documentary programming created specifically for "non-traditional" viewing platforms.

Significantly, five of the seven nominees are for videos produced for two newspaper Websites--nytimes.com and washingtonpost.com. From nytimes.com, nominees are: Op Ed Special Report: The Forgotten Genocide, from Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, documenting atrocities in Sudan's Dafur region; A Shifting Bolivia, two videos about Evo Morales, the new president of Bolivia, who proposes to legalize coca, the prime ingredient in cocaine; and Child Porn: Interviews With Justin Berry, a seven-part video about a 19-year-old youth who for five years ran a child porn site before he decided to discontinue it and help prosecutors go after customers.

Nominees from washingtonpost.com are Fueling Azerbaijan's Future, a documentary about the corruption and poverty of the oil-rich post-Soviet nation that is attempting a democratic reform; and Hurricane Katrina Coverage in New Orleans, several short documentaries about the lives of those caught in the catastrophe. The Katrina videos were also available on iTunes.

Also nominated for its hurricane coverage is nationalgeographic.com/National Geographic on msn.com for Hurricane Katrina Batters Gulf Coast, a series of four Webcasts about the disaster including one piece that consists only of pictures and video with no narration.

The other nominee is MTV News on overdrive.com for The Diary of Gideon in Pakistan, a documentary about producer/reporter Gideon Yago's experience covering the October 2005 South Asian earthquake that left nearly 87,000 dead and 3.5 million homeless in Pakistan and India.

The new Emmy Awards will be presented Sept. 25 when NATAS awards traditional news and documentary awards.