Gold Key Award to Be Presented to Bill Moyers & Family in Recognition of Public Television Series

National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence
Thursday, 1 October 1998

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD) will present the family of Bill Moyers, one of America's most respected journalists, with its highest achievement award, the Gold Key, for their collaboration on "Close To Home: Moyers on Addiction," a series of programs broadcast last spring on public television.

"Rather than react with the shame and stigma that all too commonly infect people who experience addiction among their loved ones, the Moyers family--father Bill, mother Judith and son William Cope--devoted their considerable resources to producing what was surely one of the most comprehensive looks at chemical dependency as a public health problem ever seen on television," observed NCADD Board Chair Max A. Schneider, MD, in announcing the award. "Prevention and treatment rarely have had so influential advocates in the media."

William Cope Moyers will accept the Gold Key on behalf of the Moyers family on November 7 at NCADD's annual Achievement Awards dinner to be held during the Conference of Affiliates in Santa Barbara.

Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-MA) will receive NCADD's Humanitarian Award for championing legislation to prevent alcohol- related problems, particularly among youth, during his six terms in Congress. Representative Kennedy introduced the Sensible Advertising and Family Education Act, known as the SAFE bill, which sought to attach a series of rotating health warnings to all forms of alcoholic beverage advertising. He also tried to eliminate tax deductions for alcoholic beverage advertising.

Jean Kilbourne and John Howard Wilson also will be honored with NCADD Achievement Awards for their years of work in the alcoholism field. Ms. Kilbourne, a media analyst and educator who served on the NCADD board of directors from 1985 to 1995, is an enormously popular speaker on college campuses, where she lectures on the way advertising glorifies the use of alcohol. Her film, "Calling The Shots," remains the definitive analysis of alcoholic beverage advertising imagery. Mr. Wilson has been a member of the NCADD board since 1989 and chaired it from 1994 to 1996. He and his wife, Priscilla, also have been very active with NCADD's Affiliate in Mobile, where they established a popular annual luncheon featuring celebrities in recovery.

For more information, or to contact National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence, see their website at: www.ncadd.org