David McMahon Accepting the 2013 Peabody Award for “The Central Park Five”
Distinctly different in style and tone from Ken Burns’ stately historical documentaries, The Central Park Five has outrage simmering below its surface, and rightly so. It’s a needed continuation of the exoneration of five black and Latino teenagers who spent more than a dozen years in prison for a notorious 1989 rape before the real assailant confessed. Using archival video, photographs and fresh, first-person interviews, Burns, his daughter, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon demonstrate how the accused five, the youngest only 13, were relentlessly pressured into confession by some of New York’s finest interrogators even as the city’s TV stations, tabloid press and public officials one-upped each other with wild accusations.
Read full winner’s citation here: http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/the-central-park-five-pbs
