NBC
News Anchor Brian Williams - 26th Cronkite Award Recipient
Text/Information
Compilation and Photos by Ed and Bette Sharpe (C)2009

Available light shot
by Ed Sharpe Glendale Daily Planet
PHOENIX -
Brian Williams, the anchor and managing editor of “NBC
Nightly News,” the nation’s top-rated evening network
newscast, received the 26th Walter
Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, Arizona State
University Wednesday November 18th at
the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel.
Williams
spoke the award luncheon, where the ceremony included a
wonderful video segment done by Cronkite students showing many
of Williams activities in the news field and was capped off
with videotaped congratulatory messages from Jon Stewart and
fellow New Jersey native, Bruce Springsteen.
“As
someone who grew up idolizing Walter and having come to know
him in adult life, I know that there is no greater name in our
profession,” Williams said. “I only hope I am
worthy of the meaning and tradition of this honor. Walter
Cronkite is the only reason I entered the field of television
journalism.”
Williams recounted how growing up,
his parents didn't serve dinner until after Cronkite ended his
newscast with his signature line: "And that's the way
it is." Williams expressed Walter was the
major influence on him and commented, "Professionally,
the day he died, I lost my North Star."
Williams pondered if Walter Cronkite
would have succeeded in the age of cable news, blogs and
Twitter and stated, "I am convinced that had he come
along today, I don't think he would have cracked through. I
think there's too much noise, too much to cut through for a
modest man from Missouri," Williams told an audience in
Phoenix. "But God and history combined to give him to us
right when we needed him."
Williams did not discuss any details
of cable TV operator Comcast Corporation preparing to buy a
controlling stake in NBC Universal. Whar he did take time to
emphasize was that g NBC News had more viewers than it did a
year ago.
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. In addition, Williams, in
2007, became the first network anchor – active or retired
– to host "Saturday Night Live."
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.”
In
2007 Time magazine named him one of the 100 “People Who
Shape Our World.” “Williams
understands the new state of play in the media and even has a
blog of his own,” former Time Managing Editor Walter
Isaacson wrote. “Yet he is traditionalist enough to protect
the concept of a national conversation, based on a shared
common ground of facts and reporting and ideas.”
Williams
started his TV news career at KOAM-TV in Pittsburgh, Kansas,
before moving to major markets of Washington, Philadelphia and
New York.
He
joined NBC News in 1993 and the next year was named the
network’s chief White House correspondent. From 1996 to 2003
he was anchor and managing editor of “The News with Brian
Williams,” an hour-long nightly newscast on MSNBC and later
CNBC. He also anchored the Saturday edition of “NBC Nightly
News” before succeeding Tom Brokaw in late 2004.
He
has covered most of the major stories of the past 16 years for
NBC, including the Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraqi War and the
past four presidential elections.
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.
Cronkite
Dean Christopher Callahan said Williams is the ideal role
model for today’s journalism students, “a great
journalist who covers the news with depth and understanding in
the best tradition of Walter Cronkite. We’re thrilled that
Mr. Williams will be this year’s Cronkite Award
recipient.”
Callahan
credited John Misner, president-elect of the Cronkite
Endowment Board of Trustees and president and general manager
of KPNX-TV, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, for securing the
Williams’ visit.
“It’s
extraordinarily difficult with Mr. Williams’ nightly news
responsibilities to travel to Phoenix during the week, but his
acceptance of the Cronkite Award is a great testament to both
his very real affection for Mr. Cronkite and the hard work of
John Misner,” Callahan said. “This will be a
wonderful opportunity for our students to hear from today’s
leading broadcast journalist.”
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.
In
the past three years the school has added an array of new
programs, including the Carnegie-Knight News21 Journalism
Initiative, the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for
Business Journalism, the Knight Center for Digital Media
Entrepreneurship, the New Media Innovation Lab, the Reynolds
High School Journalism Institute and Cronkite News Service.
The
school also has added 20 new full-time professors, including
former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, four top newspaper editors –
Leonard Downie Jr. of The Washington Post, Tim McGuire of the
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Rick Rodriguez of the Sacramento Bee
and Linda Austin of the Lexington Herald-Leader – and
digital media leaders Dan Gillmor, Jody Brannon and Retha
Hill.
Related
Links
·
NBC
Nightly News (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/)
·
Bio
of Brian Williams from NBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3667173/
·
Brian
Williams Profile in “The Time 100” (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1595332_1616821,00.html)
·
Cronkite
Award (http://cronkite.asu.edu/walter/cronkiteaward.php)
·
Cronkite
Luncheon (http://cronkite.asu.edu/walter/luncheon.php)
·
NBC
News Anchor Brian Williams - 26th Cronkite Award Recipient
- (http://www.glendaledailyplanet.com)
·

Photo by Ed Sharpe
- Glendale
Daily Planet
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Photo by Bette Sharpe
- Glendale
Daily Planet
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Photo by Bette Sharpe
- Glendale
Daily Planet
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ASU Cronkite
School of Journalism Dean Christopher Callahan, Brain Williams
NBC News - 2009 Award recipient, ASU President Crowe
and
Photo by Bette Sharpe - Glendale
Daily Planet
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ASU Cronkite
School of Journalism Dean Christopher Callahan,
Brain Williams NBC News - 2009 Award recipient and
ASU President Crowe
Photo by Bette Sharpe - Glendale
Daily Planet
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Brain Williams - NBC
News with Cronkite Journalism students to the right. - Photo by Bette Sharpe - Glendale
Daily Planet
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(Left) Ed Sharpe -
Glendale Daily Planet / KKAT-IPTV
( Right) Brain
Williams - NBC News.
((Photo by - I handed my
still camera to an NBC staff person to capture the
moment!)
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