Lorne Michaels and ‘Louie’ Are Among Peabody Award Winners

Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live,” as well as Scotusblog, the widely followed Supreme Court news source, and the FX series “Louie,” created by the comic Louis C.K., were among the recipients of the 2012 George Foster Peabody Awards, announced on Wednesday.

The awards, considered to be the most prestigious of their kind in electronic media, were announced by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Among the documentaries that were honored were “Why Poverty,” a collection of eight films that were shown around the world, including on PBS in the United States; “MLK: The Assassination Tapes,” which was broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel; and “Sheikh Jarrah, My Neighborhood,” a film shown on Al Jazeera.

Other award winners in news included “60 Minutes”; CNN, for its coverage of the conflict in Syria; The New York Times, for an article and interactive feature called “Snow Fall”; WNYC radio, for “The Leonard Lopate Show”; and ABC News, for its coverage of the damage from Hurricane Sandy and the attention it paid to bone marrow donation when one of its co-hosts, Robin Roberts, needed a transplant.

Several films and television shows on HBO were among the 39 recipients of a Peabody, including the comedy “Girls”; the made-for-TV movie “Game Change”; the sports newsmagazine “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel”; and two documentaries, “The Loving Story” and “Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present.”

“Southland” on TNT, “Switched at Birth” on ABC Family and “D.L. Hughley: The Endangered List” on Comedy Central were also recognized.

Brian Stelter writes about television and digital media. Follow @brianstelter on Twitter and facebook.com/brianstelter on Facebook.