“Breakdown in Maine,” the documentary produced by FRONTLINE (PBS), the Portland Press Herald and Maine Public charting missed opportunities to prevent the 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, has been nominated for the George Foster Peabody Award for public service.
The film was part of a monthslong cooperative effort by the Press Herald, Maine Public and FRONTLINE (PBS) to investigate the opportunities law enforcement had to intervene and possibly prevent the state’s deadliest mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 18 and left at least 13 wounded. Friends, loved ones and colleagues of the shooter spoke about their attempts to find him help, as well as their own fears over his actions.
The film is one of four finalists, including submissions by the Marshall Project, PBS and others.
Peabody nominees were selected from more than 1,000 submissions by a group of 27 jurors, who unanimously chose this year’s slate, the award body said in a written announcement. The group is based out of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. This year’s ceremony will mark 85 years since the award was first introduced.
“This year’s nominees explore the local and global, the forgotten and the widely celebrated, the extraordinary and beautiful, and the ugliest and most horrible side of our inhumanity to others,” Peabody Executive Director Jeffrey Jones said in a written statement.
Winners will be announced May 1, with a celebration slated for June 1 in Beverly Hills, California.