Phil Donahue to receive Ohio Citizen Action Award

Ohio Citizen Action will present the 2008 Howard M. Metzenbaum Ohio Citizen Action Award this year to Phil Donahue on Sunday, September 14^th at 7:00 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Art's Cinematheque. There will be a showing of Donahue’s stirring documentary Body of War, a question and answer session with Donahue and a coffee and dessert reception.

The Metzenbaum Award is the highest honor given by Ohio Citizen Action. Since 1995 the award has been presented to Ohioans who best reflect Senator Metzenbaum's example of principled tenacity. This year's award will be presented by Senator Metzenbaum's daughter, Susan Hyatt.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Phil Donahue launched his audience participation television talk show in Dayton in 1967. The show, which was honored with 20 daytime EMMY awards, ran for 29 years and changed the face of daytime television. He is currently touring the nation as co-producer/director of the documentary Body of War. This film follows the story of Tomas Young, a 25 year-old paralyzed U.S. soldier, who was wounded after serving for less than a week in Iraq.