“NBC NIGHTLY NEWS” ANCHOR AND MANAGING EDITOR BRIAN WILLIAMS ACCEPTS THE 2009 WALTER CRONKITE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM

November 19, 2009 by J!-ENT 

New York – November 18, 2009 – Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” received the 2009 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism from Arizona State University today. ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism bestowed its 26th Cronkite Award to Williams at a luncheon ceremony at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel.

In his acceptance speech, Brian Williams thanked ASU, noting:

“In our corner of the world, we are able to report good news. While our company, NBC, represents the oldest three letters in the MSM, we have more NBC Nightly News viewers this year than we did last year — even at the height of the most exciting Presidential race in modern times. In part, it’s because people know where to find real news; they know we will cover the story.”

“I am convinced that had Walter Cronkite come along today, there’s a chance we wouldn’t know his name. In the midst of so much clutter, so much noise — I’m not sure the modest man from Missouri would have been able to punch through. Instead, as it happened, God and history combined to give us Walter Cronkite — he was the right man, in the right job, at the right time.”

“Cronkite was the first man of the Mad Men era: when ties were thin and glass frames were thick.”

“The honor you give me here today is the highest of my career. I get to have my name mentioned alongside the best there ever was — the man I wanted to be.”

Williams became the seventh anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News” in 2004, replacing Tom Brokaw, who won the Cronkite Award three years ago.

Williams is the most honored network evening news anchor, the recipient of four Edward R. Murrow awards, five Emmys, the duPont-Columbia University Award and the George Foster Peabody Award. He also holds six honorary doctorates. His award-winning work has included coverage of Hurricane Katrina, which the New York Times called “a defining moment as a network reporter and anchor.”

Previous Cronkite Award recipients include TV journalists Tom Brokaw, Bill Moyers and Jane Pauley; newspaper publishers Katharine Graham Al Neuharth and Otis Chandler; television executives Bill Paley, Frank Stanton and Ted Turner; and newspaper journalists Ben Bradlee, Helen Thomas and Bob Woodward. Last year’s winners were Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil of PBS.

The Cronkite School was named in honor of the former CBS Evening News anchor in 1984. The nationally recognized school, which offers professional programs on the undergraduate and master’s levels, annually ranks in the Top 10 of the Hearst intercollegiate journalism competition.