Renowned broadcast journalist and author Tom Brokaw received lifetime achievement honors at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism's first Excellence in Journalism Awards – and returned the favor by offering young reporters words to live by in the Internet age.
"Don't be afraid to take your hands off the keyboard, put your boots on the ground, put your hands in the dirt, spend your night in scary places, and prove to your generation that life is not virtual," Brokaw said.
The May 12 gala drew more than 250 luminaries from the media and business worlds, and raised some $300,000 for the J-School, which opened in 2006 as the only publicly supported graduate journalism program in the Northeast.
Three top graduates from the J-School's first class also received awards at the event, which kicked off with a cocktail reception in the J-School’s state-of-the-art newsroom before moving next door for a dinner ceremony at The Times Center.
TV journalist and anchor Connie Chung, who served as mistress of ceremonies, introduced the three young winners of the Excellence in Journalism Awards:
- Angela Hill, who was the J-School's first student commencement speaker and recently was hired as an associate producer at ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.
- Daniel Massey, a winner of the first Dennis Duggan Memorial award and now a staff writer at Crain’s New York Business.
- Tanzina Vega, who was offered – and accepted a post – as a Web producer for at NYTimes.com just hours before the May 12 ceremony.
"The award recognizes their achievement in their year and a half at the school," Dean Stephen B. Shepard said of Hill, Massey and Vega. "They were all at the top of their class, based on their journalistic ability, leadership potential, and grades."
The co-chairs for the event included: Victor Ganzi, president and CEO of Hearst Corporation; Bruce Mosler, president and CEO of Cushman & Wakefield; international management consultant Jane Hartley; and Wall Street executive Ralph Schlosstein.
The award ceremony also was supported by seven media sponsors: Bloomberg, NBC News, News Corporation, Newsweek, The New York Observer, The New York Times Company, and Time magazine.
Brokaw was given his Lifetime Achievement Award by CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, who hailed the newsman as a "marvelous example to our students."
Brokaw, who started his journalism career in 1962 and spent 21 years as the anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News, spoke about the rapid changes and challenges facing the news business.
But he emphasized that strong reporting needs to be a constant.
Journalism, he said, "will take new forms...But it will always require people who are willing to leave the building and the keyboard to do the hard work of gathering the news."
"This is transformational technology, but this technology is a tool that is not only an extension of our minds but also of our hearts."
