For elite journalists, being in comparison with Walter Cronkite is taken into account a terrific honor, so when the Norman Lear Middle on the USC Annenberg College for Communications and Journalism introduced their 2025 Walter Cronkite Awards for excellence in political journalism on Wednesday, it gave perception into who the trade views as one of the best of one of the best. For everyone else, the 2025 winners have been a reminder that for these journalists, preventing President Trump is one of the simplest ways to get avenue cred.
The primary winner was NBC White Home correspondent Peter Alexander for “holding the highly effective accountable.”
In response to the judges, “Alexander’s stay reporting and interviewing ‘meets the problem of fearlessly partaking’ with the U.S. President and his workers within the Oval Workplace and White Home Press Room. Noting his ‘deep dedication to the pursuit of reality,’ they praised his ‘important work to right false narratives’ … he stays composed underneath strain, persevering and ready with the information.’”
Talking of fraud and false narratives, Alexander lately instructed Trump’s feedback about Somalis have been associated to impending ICE operations and never the welfare fraud scandal.
One other award winner was CBS’s 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, govt producer Invoice Owens, and producer Maria Gavrilovic for a “story about govt orders concentrating on regulation corporations that the president treats as political enemies ‘a superb and stunning have a look at the context and the breadth of the risk’ of wielding energy in opposition to the judicial system.”
They have been additionally praised for airing that “every week after this system’s govt producer resigned after 24 years with the present, prompted by elevated company supervision of its information content material within the face of a $20 billion lawsuit from President Trump and the pending FCC approval required for CBS proprietor Paramount International’s merger with Skydance Media. ‘This skillful examination stands up for the Fourth Property’s duty to not fold underneath strain’”
Subsequent have been PBS Information Hour anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett for his or her “On Democracy” collection. “Judges referred to as this ‘good idea’ for a collection of interviews with consultants, students and activists ‘the perfect that information can do.’ … it delivered numerous viewpoints that “lower via the noise.”
In actuality, Information Hour featured 98 liberal company from July 18 to September 18, however solely 21 conservatives.
MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow was additionally honored for being “the primary and solely nationwide tv program to cowl the Arms Off protest motion on April 7 as ‘a priceless contribution to the historic file of this presidency,’ hailing the ‘partaking and informative’ episode reporting on 1,400 peaceable demonstrations as a ’robust use of the medium’ exhibiting viewers they’re not alone in dissent.”
Again on CBS, Night Information anchor John Dickerson’s pretentious end-of-show monologues have been praised for “defending civil service and dangers to healthcare, to the DOJ, DOGE and DEI. Dickerson does a journalist’s job of ‘bravely’ calling out false narratives ‘with humanizing element and precision.’ His ‘clear explanations’ inform us how and why it issues that democratic values are underneath assault, and his ‘historic grounding’ presents information with ‘calm and rational supply,’ making his writing much more ‘highly effective and efficient.’”
The Every day Present’s Jon Stewart was acknowledged for “persevering with a comedic custom in American journalism” and being “a grasp of his class,’ as proven within the entry’s evaluation of DOGE, Stewart exposes how its chainsaw strategy eroded safeguards that defend democracy as an alternative of truly chopping fats.”
It’s ironic that Stewart was the primary comedy host to be acknowledged by the award provided that he spent a part of Monday’s present mocking Trump for successful the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize, which he claimed was only a method for FIFA to appease Trump.
Additionally receiving an award was Noticias Telemundo anchor Julio Vaqueiro for “exploring the large adjustments enacted, from immigration to tariffs,” and KFOR Oklahoma Metropolis for “this ‘gorgeous’ three-part collection a couple of U.S. citizen and her daughters detained and humiliated by Homeland Safety brokers ‘a poignant instance of discovering an vital native story that illustrates a nationwide one and digging deep into it and never letting go.’”
Not solely was there no award given to anybody who investigated the left, however there was additionally no award given to anybody who did one thing non-Trump associated. The 2025 Walter Cronkite Awards ended up being simply one other occasion of journalists patting themselves on the again for allegedly retaining democracy alive.
