AWARD DATE: 1967
AWARD NAME: Best TV Reporting From Abroad
AWARD RECIPIENT: Ted Yates
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: NBC News
AWARD HONORED WORK: “Indonesia: The Troubled Victory” and “Laos: The Forgotten War”
Ted Yates, a casualty of the Arab-Israeli war on June 6, 1967, had a facility for infusing each documentary he completed for NBC with a quality peculiarly his own. The realism was often harsh,
sometimes ironic, never contrived.
In 1966 the OPC named him recipient of the Ed Stout award for best reporting on Latin America, on the basis of his feature on the civil war in the Dominican Republic, made, as was noted then, while he and his cameramen and crew were “being shot at by friends on both sides.”
He had gone to Israel from Asia, where he had shot the two graphic programs, “Indonesia: The Troubled Victory” and “Laos: The Forgotten War,” with his co-workers Robert Rogers, associate producer, and Julian Townsend, cameraman. For these programs Ted Yates was judged this year’s winner for the best television reporting from abroad.
Yates was born in Sheridan, Wyoming; was an alumnus. of the University of Virginia, and had been in television practically from its infancy, starting with the Dumont TV Network in 1949. In the intervening years his productions had been.honored with most of the major awards given for television news programs.
The loss of a man like Ted Yates is a grievous one for family, friends, and news associates. He will
be remembered for what he did. He will be missed for what more he would have done.
Citation for Excellence: James Fleming, producer ABC News, for “Africa.”