Walter Cronkite Award for in Journalism
Monday, Nov. 4, 2019 Sheraton Phoenix Downtown
Walter Cronkite Award for in Journalism Introductory Remarks Christopher Callahan Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication University Vice Provost, Downtown Phoenix Campus Thanking Our Supporters Fran Mallace Group Vice President, Cox Communications/Cox Media Co-chair, Luncheon Committee, Cronkite Endowment Board Introduction of Lester Holt Marcella Baietto Cronkite student Presentation of the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism Dr. Mark S. Searle Executive Vice President and University Provost, Arizona State University Remarks by Honoree Lester Holt
Lester Holt is an award-winning journalist and anchor of “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.” He has anchored the flagship NBC broadcast since 2015. He also leads NBC’s special reports, major breaking news and primetime political coverage, and has served as principal anchor of “Dateline NBC” since 2011. Holt was a moderator for the first Democratic presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle. According to Nielsen Media Research, that debate was seen by more than 18 million viewers on television alone, making it the most-watched Democratic debate ever. Holt’s work has been recognized with multiple Emmy Awards, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award. In 2016, he was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. Known for his outstanding work in the field, Holt has anchored the evening newscast and reported on breaking news events from around the globe. He anchored from Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and reported from the Korean Peninsula on growing tensions between the United States and North Korea just weeks before the 2018 Winter Olympics. Holt reported from Manchester, Brussels and Paris on terrorist attacks in Europe, and anchored from South Africa during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. He also reported from Cairo on the political and civil unrest in Egypt, covered the earthquake and nuclear crisis in Japan, and reported on the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Holt anchored from Cuba during the opening of the U.S. embassy, President Barack Obama’s visit there and the funeral of Fidel Castro. Additionally, he was embedded with U.S. forces reporting on military operations in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2012. One of Holt’s trademarks is his on-the-ground reporting focused on everyday people. He reported in Texas and Florida following the 2017 hurricanes and from Las Vegas after the Mandalay Bay shooting, providing first-person accounts of the devastation. Holt has covered more than a dozen natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He has covered every Olympics for NBC News from the ground since the 2002 Winter Olympics. After studying government at California State University in Sacramento, Holt started his television journalism career in 1981 as a reporter at WCBS-TV in New York. He then moved to Los Angeles to report for KCBS-TV (then KNXT) before returning to WCBS in 1984. He moved to Chicago in 1986, where he served for 14 years as the afternoon and evening news anchor for WBBM-TV. Holt started at NBC News in 2000, anchoring “Newsfront” and then “Lester Holt Live” on MSNBC and later served as the cable network’s lead anchor for major news events. He rose to co-anchor of “Weekend TODAY” in 2003 and in 2007 was named weekend anchor of “NBC Nightly News.”
Three 2019 Cronkite graduates (from left), Mia Armstrong, Jakob Wastek and Rebecca Spiess, are recipients of prestigious Fulbright awards to study and work abroad.
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication The Cronkite School is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier professional journalism programs. Rooted in the time-honored values of accuracy, responsibility, objectivity and integrity that characterize its namesake, the school fosters journalistic excellence and ethics among students as they master the practical professional skills they need to succeed in the digital journalism world of today and tomorrow. The Cronkite School’s 2,400 students consistently lead the country in national competitions. Over the past decade, Cronkite has been No. 1 in the nation in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence competition and the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts awards and has finished in the top 10 in the Hearst Journalism Awards each year. Cronkite students annually win more than 100 journalism and public relations awards. Students are guided by a faculty that is made up of world-class media scholars, award-winning professional journalists and strategic communications executives. Cronkite professors include five Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalists, digital media thought leaders, top TV producers and correspondents, major metropolitan newspaper editors and strategic communications experts. They are master teachers, writers and scholars who often speak around the globe on the most important topics facing journalism today. The Cronkite School leads the field of journalism education with its innovative use of the “news teaching hospital” method, providing both unparalleled learning opportunities for students and important news content to the community, state, region and nation. Arizona PBS, one of the nation’s largest public television stations, is the largest media outlet operated by a journalism school in the world. Arizona PBS serves as a hub for the Cronkite School’s full-immersion professional programs and a testing ground for new approaches in journalism. Cronkite students choose from more than a dozen professional immersion programs, applying what they have learned in the classroom in real-world learning environments. Students cover public affairs from news bureaus in Phoenix, Los Angeles and Washington, and they cover sports from bureaus in Phoenix and
Los Angeles. Carnegie-Knight News21 multimedia journalists conduct national data-driven investigations. For Arizona PBS, Cronkite students produce a nightly newscast that reaches 1.9 million households as well as a robust multimedia news website. In Cronkite Noticias, bilingual students produce Spanish-language broadcast and digital stories on important issues. Cronkite received a $3 million grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation to establish the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism that will train the next generation of investigative reporters. Students in the Public Relations Lab develop campaigns for client companies, while Digital Audiences Lab students harness social media, SEO and analytics to grow and engage audiences for clients. In the New Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab, they use digital technologies to forge the future of journalism. The Cronkite School also has a student-produced TV news magazine airing on Arizona PBS, in prime time, that spotlights the innovative research at ASU. And the school has created a Facebook-supported collaborative aimed at helping people find new ways of understanding and engaging with news and information. One of the newest professional programs is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Southwest Health Reporting Initiative to provide high-quality news about health to audiences throughout the Southwest. Cronkite also is home to PBS NewsHour West and Indian Country Today, national media organizations housed inside the journalism school. Elsewhere at the school, the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism provides education and training to professional journalists, and Cronkite Global Initiatives brings international journalists to the school for study and training. All of these initiatives take place in a state-of-the-art building that is unequaled in journalism education. ASU’s investment in the school has generated national and international attention from educators and media professionals who place the school in the top tier of all U.S. journalism schools. The Times of London, The New York Times and USA Today have pointed to the Cronkite School as a leading example of changes taking place at journalism schools across the country. These prestigious publications have called the Cronkite School a pioneer, kindling a notion of new media that will shape how news is delivered and how people will stay informed in the future.
Walter Cronkite The journalism program at Arizona State University was named in honor of former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite in 1984. The relationship started when Tom Chauncey, longtime owner of the CBS affiliate in Phoenix, and his son, Tom Chauncey II, leading supporters of journalism education at ASU, contacted their old friend in an effort to advance the program. An endowment on behalf of the program was soon established, and the school was named after “the most trusted man in America.” Over the next quarter of a century, Cronkite lent much more than his name to the school. He was closely involved — advising leadership, guiding students and faculty and traveling to Arizona each year to personally give the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism to one of the nation’s top journalists. Although Cronkite died on July 17, 2009, before he was able to visit the school that bears his name in its new downtown Phoenix location, he remains an everpresent part of the school’s heartbeat and direction. His legacy lives on in the spirit and passion with which the school teaches both the skills to do journalism in today’s media environment and the time-honored ethics and news values necessary to do it in the manner that would make our namesake proud.
Thank You for Your Support Thank you to our 2019 Cronkite Award Luncheon table sponsors. Your gift represents an investment in the success of our students and in the future of journalism.
Cronkite Circle $10,000
12 News The Arizona Republic / azcentral Morgan Murphy Media / Elizabeth and Richard Burns Cox Communications Deeann Jo Griebel NBC News Ellie and Michael Ziegler
President’s Circle $6,000 ABC15 Bonneville Media FOX Sports Arizona Raza Development Fund
Dean’s Circle $3,500
ABC15 APS Arizona Broadcasters Association Arizona Coyotes Arizona Diamondbacks Arizona Highways Magazine Arizona’s Family 3TV – CBS 5 ASU – Office of Government & Community Engagement Ballard Spahr Brodeur Partners Morgan Murphy Media / Elizabeth and Richard Burns Bushtex, Inc. Tom Chauncey / Gust Rosenfeld Clear Channel Outdoor Hardt and Associates iHeartMedia Napoli Management Group OH Partners RIESTER Your Phoenix CW Tables listed as of October 21, 2019
Endowment Board of Trustees
Executive Committee Anita Helt, president Vice president and general manager, ABC15 / KNXV-TV David Bodney, past president Partner, Ballard Spahr LLP Christopher Callahan Dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Tom Chauncey, chair, Nominations Committee Attorney, Gust Rosenfeld Christine Dotts, co-chair, Luncheon Committee Senior vice president, Brodeur Partners Win Holden, chair, Assessment Former publisher, Arizona Highways Magazine Fran Mallace, co-chair, Luncheon Committee Group vice president, Cox Communications Diane Veres, chair, Mentoring President and general manager, Clear Channel Outdoor Board Members Ray Artigue, chief advisor, Artigue Advisors Richard Barone, vice president, Cox Media Arizona Elizabeth Murphy Burns, president and CEO, Morgan Murphy Media Greg Burton, executive editor, The Arizona Republic Ahron Cohen, president and CEO, Arizona Coyotes Andrew Deschapelles, president and general manager, Telemundo Arizona Dean Ditmer, president and general manager, 12 News / KPNX-TV Elvira Espinoza, chief communications officer, Raza Development Fund Kristin Gilger, senior associate dean, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Derrick Hall, president and CEO, Arizona Diamondbacks Scott Harkey, president, OH Partners Brian Hogan, senior vice president and general manager, FOX Sports Arizona Gordon James, owner, Gordon C. James Public Relations Kevin James, vice president/general manager, KPHO-CBS5 & KTVK-3TV Susan Karis, vice president sales, Hubbard Radio Phoenix Chris Kline, president and CEO, Arizona Broadcasters Association Beau Lane, founder and CEO, LaneTerralever Linda Little, president, Arizona Region, iHeartMedia Lynn Londen, CEO, AZTV Channel 7 Michael Mallace, radio professional Mary Mazur, general manager, Arizona PBS Rob Merritt, vice president of communications, BIG YAM Mary Morrison, Mary M Media Tim Riester, president and CEO, RIESTER Mark Rodman, vice president and general manager, Fox 10 / KSAZ-TV, Phoenix Ray Schey, publisher, Phoenix Business Journal John Schurz, president and general manager, Orbitel Communications Susan Bitter Smith, executive director, Southwest Cable Communications Association Robert Stieve, editor, Arizona Highways Magazine Scott Sutherland, vice president and market manager, Bonneville Media Traci Wilkinson, vice president and general manager, KASW-TV Your Phoenix CW Peter Witty, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, Cable One Clancy Woods, president, D Mobile
Previous Cronkite Award Recipients Each fall, a leading figure in journalism is presented with the prestigious Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. The Cronkite Endowment Board of Trustees selects the recipients. 2018 Anderson Cooper 2017 Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill 2016 Scott Pelley 2014 Robin Roberts 2013 Bob Schieffer 2012 Bob Costas 2011 Christiane Amanpour 2010 Diane Sawyer 2009 Brian Williams 2008 Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil 2007 Jane Pauley 2006 Tom Brokaw 2005 Dave Barry 2004 Charles Osgood 2003 Andy Rooney 2002 Al Michaels 2001 Bob Woodward 2000 Cokie Roberts 1999 Tom Johnson 1998 Ben Bradlee 1997 Roone Arledge 1996 Charles Kuralt 1995 Bill Moyers 1994 Bernard Shaw 1993 Helen Thomas 1992 Don Hewitt 1991 George Will 1990 Ted Turner 1989 Malcolm Forbes 1988 Allen H. Neuharth 1987 Katharine Graham 1986 Otis Chandler 1985 Bill Mauldin 1984 William Paley and Frank Stanton
TOGETHER, OUR POTENTIAL IS LIMITLESS
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004-1248 cronkite.asu.edu