KLAS, WEWS, KPHO, KING Win Peabodys

Four commercial TV stations today were among 38 winner of Peabody Awards announced this morning: Landmark’s KLAS Las Vegas, E.W. Scripps’ WEWS Cleveland, Meredith’s KPHO Phoenix and Belo’s KING Seattle.

Noncommercial KBDI Denver, ABC News and CBS News also won the prize for excellence in electronic media in all its manifestations — news, documentary, entertainment and public affairs.

Only one broadcast network show took the honor: NBC’s Parks and Recreation.

But broadcast syndication’s Jeopardy!, which debuted on NBC 48 years ago, also was a winner. It’s produced by Sony Pictures Television and distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

The Peabodys are considered among the most prestigious awards in broadcasting, cable and now the Internet. They are administered by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The awards will be presented on May 21 at a luncheon at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York. Actor Patrick Stewart will emcee.

The 38 winners (with Peabody’s description):

KLAS — Desert Underwater, a thorough, comprehensible examination of why the housing bubble burst and hit Las Vegas.

WEWS — For Operation Deep Freeze, a story about Navy personnel unknowingly exposed to atomic radiation while on duty in Antarctica.

KPHO — For Toxic Secrets, a powerful series of reports about American soldiers and South Korean children exposed to Agent Orange three decades ago.

KING — For Their Crime, Your Dime, a high-impact investigation of food stamp and welfare fraud.

KBDI — For Who Killed Chea Vichea?, an investigation of the murder of a top labor leader in Cambodia, a major producer of low-cost clothing.

ABC News — For Brian Ross’s  Peace Corps – A Trust Betrayed, a stunning expose of widespread sexual abuse and official cover-ups within the esteemed humanitarian agency.

CBS News — For Inside Syria, a trio of enterprising undercover reports by Clarissa Ward that aired on the evening news.

PBS’s American Experience — For three documentaries: Triangle Fire, Freedom Riders and Stonewall Uprising.

PBS’s Independent Lens — For Bhutto, a comprehensive Independent Lens biography of martyred Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto.

PBS’s American Masters — For Charles and Ray Eames – The Architect and the Painter.

PBS’s POV — For My Perestroika, a documentary that examined Russia’s difficult transition from communism through the prism of five schoolmates who lived through it.

NPR — For StoryCorps’ remembrances of 9/11.

NPR — For  Arab Spring from Egypt to Libya, vividly reported by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro.

NPR — For Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families, a three-part investigation that found more than 30 states flaunting federal laws that forbid the separation of Native American children from their families or tribes.

Sony Pictures Television — For Jeopardy!

TED.com — A website devoted to making creative thinkers’ ideas available to one and all.

SABC1 — For Intersexions, a public-service drama aimed at curbing the spread of AIDS in South Africa.

TVB Jade — People’s Republic of Cheating and Misjudged Cases, a pair of investigative reports.

Public Television Service (Taiwan) — For A Year in the Clouds, a documentary about life in a remote mountain village.

Fuji Television — For the The Untold Stories of the Tsunami in Japan, which emphasized human interest as much flood footage.

BBC — For Somalia: Land of Anarchy, a report from deep inside a country decimated by never-ending war.

BBC.com — A news site that draws on reports from the BBC’s 72 overseas news bureaus.

NHK — For Surviving the Tsunami, a meticulous post-mortem of the tidal wave and nuclear disaster with an eye to lessons for the future.

CNN — For comprehensive Arab Spring coverage that included the reports Egypt – Wave of Discontent and Uprising in Libya.

CNN — For its GPS series, featuring Fareed Zakaria’s commentary and analysis regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well as a special report, Fixing the American Dream, addressing problems with the U.S. educational system.

CNN — For CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute, the program that caps a year-round program created to identify and reward people around the world who affected the lives of others in a significant way.

Al Jazeera English — For its wide-ranging coverage of the escalating wave of protests it labeled the “Arab Awakening.”

HBO — For Game of Thrones, a fantasy-drama that immerses viewers in a richly imagined dark-ages society.

HBO — For Tremé, a note-perfect evocation of everyday life, love and music in post-Katrina New Orleans.

HBO — Earth Made of Glass, a documentary that examined the painful legacy of Rwanda’s genocide.

Showtime — For Homeland, a psychologically intense anti-terrorist drama.

Showtime — For Rebirth, a poignant film about five different people who experienced and rebounded from the 9/11 attacks.

NBC — For Parks and Recreation, a sweet and prickly take on friendship and rivalry within a small town’s parks department.

IFC — For Portlandia, a fresh and amiable send-up of Oregon’s trendy city.

Austin City Limits — A venerable showcase for roots, rock, country and pop music with an unflagging commitment to quality.

The Colbert Report — For its deadpan anchor’s “Super PAC” segments lampooning the rise of megabucks politics.

GlobalPost.com — For its On Location posts of world events neglected by other media outlets.

Human Rights Watch — For a pair of online reports: Acting Up: Russia’s Civil Society and Gold’s Costly Dividend: The Porgera Joint Venture.