KFOR Team honored as finalist for duPont Columbia Award

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - News 4 and Ali Meyer have been honored with a prestigious national journalism honor for two decades of reporting on the wrongful conviction of an innocent man.

KFOR is the only news station to cover the case of Glynn Simmons from the very beginning, since 1974.

For the past 20 years, News 4's Ali Meyer has led the way with dozens of special reports about racial bias and questions about the police investigation of the Edmond Liquor Store murder of 1974.

Last year, Simmons was exonerated of the crime.

KFOR reporting made headlines around the world because Simmons is now the longest-serving wrongfully incarcerated person in U.S. history.

Simmons served 48 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

An Oklahoma judge declared him innocent of the crime in December of 2023.

This week, KFOR learned Ali Meyer and the team at News 4 have been honored as a finalist for the 2025 Alfred L. duPont Columbia University Award.

The duPont Award is one of the highest honors in journalism, celebrating stories that are deeply reported and well told.

The Columbia University School of Journalism selected only 30 finalists nationwide, including news programs produced by HBO, PBS, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

News 4 is one of only nine local newsrooms receiving this honor.

Before his death earlier this year, Public Defender Bob Ravitz wrote about Ali Meyer's work on the Simmons' case, "I have talked to Ms. Meyer countless times over the last 20 years on this case and I can assure you she was the person responsible for keeping this case in the news and played a crucial role in his eventual exoneration. While it is shocking to most people that an innocent man spent 48 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, if it hadn't been for Ms. Meyer's work, I believe he would still be in prison."

Winners will be announced January 22, 2025 at Columbia's Low Library.

Congratulations to Ali Meyer and the 16 other KFOR journalists who have worked on this reporting over the course of two decades.