Notable winners of 2008 Peabody awards

The prestigious Peabody Awards, which recognizes the most outstanding achievements in electronic media, including radio, television and cable, were announced last week.

These are my notable ones from the 2008 winners list (and I'm not being biased in picking two from NBCU):

Onion News Network (www.theonion.com)
The Onion
The satirical tabloid's online send-up of 24-hour cable-TV news was hilarious, trenchant and not infrequently hard to distinguish from the real thing.

I've been a consumer of Onion for over a decade now...to enjoy segments like “Prague’s Franz Kafka International Named World’s Most Alienating Airport.”

NBC Coverage of 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and Zhang Yimou (NBC)
NBC Olympics
An exponential magnification of what was once known in television as a "spectacular," the Beijing opening ceremony was crafted and choreographed by creative director Zhang Yimou, executive produced by Dick Ebersol, produced by David Neal and directed by Bucky Gunts.

This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money (Public Radio International/NPR)
Chicago Public Radio's This American Life, National Public Radio, News Division
The first-ever collaboration of "This American Life" and NPR's news division, this report was impressive for the arresting clarity of its explanation of the financial crisis we're in, and even more so for its having aired so early - May 2008.

Entourage (HBO)
Leverage and Closest to the Hole Productions in association with HBO Entertainment
Hollywood gets an affectionately merciless tweaking in this picaresque about an ambitious male starlet, his posse of pals, and his multi-faced agent.

Saturday Night Live Political Satire, 2008 (NBC)
SNL Studios in association with NBC Universal Studios
The late-night legend stole the election-year thunder from its satirical competition on cable and may have swayed the race itself.

Nanking (HBO)
A Ted Leonsis Production in association with HBO Documentary Films
Human decency rises to confront human atrocity in this powerful, newly documented remembrance of a small group of Westerners who saved thousands of Chinese during the 1937 "rape of Nanking" by Japanese invaders.