Yesterday, we had the pleasure of being invited to the 7th Annual Emmy Awards for Business and Financial Reporting. While the atmosphere was definitely upbeat, it was also sign of the times that the ceremony which last year was held at the Rainbow Room was this year held at Fordham University. (The storied Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of New York's Rockefeller Center closed down in June, although the restaurant's website continues to optimistically boast "Rainbow Room: Then, Now, Forever".Nominees included Dan Rather, who looked in great form at 78 and is now working as a producer on the cable TV station HDNet, where he hosts a weekly one-hour show called Dan Rather Reports. (Rather was up for an "outstanding investigative reporting award, although it eventually went to CBS 60 minutes).

Main winners at the lunchtime event were The Newshour With Jim Lehrer (PBS), which won "Outstanding coverage of a current business news story" for "The Faces Behind The Numbers", a series of monthly mini-documentaries humanizing the official unemployment statistics.

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric won "outstanding investigative reporting of a business news story" for "Follow the Money", the first to report the extent to which banks use TARP funds to purchase other banks, contrary to the Department of Treasury's claims.

60 Minutes won "outstanding coverage of a current business story" for The Chairman, Ben Bernanke's first interview, in which he laid out the unprecedented actions he and the Fed are taking to help the economy.

BBC America won for "outstanding interpretation or analysis of a business news story" for "Return to White Horse Village", an examination of whether Beijing could take a village of subsistence farmers and drag it into modern China.

PBS Frontline won "outstanding documentary on a business topic" for The Madoff Affair, which unearthed details of the world's first global Ponzi scheme.

Other winners included Council On Foreign Relations/Mediastorm, for "Crisis Guide: The Global Economy," an interactive multimedia feature taking an in-depth look at the causes and consequences of the global economic crisis.

PBS' Nightly Business Report anchor Paul Kangas and Founder Linda O'Bryon received Business Emmy Lifetime Achievement awards.

Overall, CBS was the biggest winner at the event with 4 major awards, followed by PBS (2 awards), BBC America and CFR.org (1 award each).Yesterday, we had the pleasure of being invited to the 7th Annual Emmy Awards for Business and Financial Reporting in New York. While the atmosphere was definitely upbeat, it was also sign of the times that the ceremony which last year was held at the Rainbow Room was this year held at Fordham University. (The storied Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of the Rockefeller Center closed down in June, although the restaurant's website continues to optimistically boast "Rainbow Room: Then, Now, Forever".