Friday, April 06, 2001 10:32 PM
Hollywood – The Los Angeles Press Club Board of Directors has unanimously voted to honor veteran CBS newsman and Managing Editor Dan Rather, and the CBS news tradition, with their highest honor, the Joseph M. Quinn Award for Journalistic Excellence and Distinction, as part of the 43rd annual Southern California Journalism Awards.
Rather is being honored for “his consistently outstanding journalism on the CBS Evening News, as anchor of ‘48 Hours,’ and as correspondent on ‘60 Minutes 2,’ and in all of his TV and radio broadcasts, and his thoughtful articles and books.”
The L.A. Press Club honor also celebrates all of the hard working journalists, often scattered around the globe, who have worked for CBS over seven decades in TV, radio and editorial production, from the era of Edward R. Murrow through today.
The award proclamation points out that “Mr. Rather in particular deserves special recognition for maintaining a focus on ‘hard news’ at a time features and soft news seem to be more in fashion. The L.A. Press Club is made up of hard working journalists who believe in that hard news tradition, and honor it.”
Dan Rather is expected to be on hand to receive his award at a gala dinner on Saturday evening, June 9, 2001, in Los Angeles. The event is also expected to be a gathering of CBS news people past and present, from around the world.
The prestigious annual Southern California Journalism Awards competition was founded by former LAPC president Joseph M. Quinn, a veteran journalist, war correspondent and for many years Editor of the City News Service. Mr. Quinn passed away in 1977 and two years later the LAPC Board voted to name its top honorary award after him.
In addition to the Quinn Award, honors will be presented in categories covering newspapers, TV, radio, magazines, news bureaus, newsletters, corporate publications, student journalists and online media. For information and a contest application visit www.lapressclub.org, or call (323) 469-8180.
Past recipients of the Quinn Award include Walter Cronkite, Jim Murray, Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel, Bill Boyarsky, Howard Rosenberg and Army Archerd.
Dan Rather has had a legendary career as a journalist. After teaching journalism, working for United Press International, and in local radio and TV, the Texas native joined CBS in 1962. Rather broke the news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to a stunned nation, and since has often been in the center of the world’s defining moments. He covered most of the major events during the second half of the Twentieth Century, from Vietnam to Bosnia, from hurricanes to the fall of the Soviet Union, from civil rights to the White House. He has covered a dozen American presidential campaigns, and regularly had exclusive interviews with world leaders at crucial moments in history.
Often referred to as “the hardest working man in broadcast journalism,” Rather currently works on three national TV programs, does a daily radio broadcast, a weekly newspaper column and continues to write articles and books. He is the Managing Editor and anchor of the daily CBS Evening News, anchor and reporter for the weekly show “48 Hours,” and a correspondent for the weekly “60 Minutes 2.” He authored his sixth book, “Deadlines And Datelines” in 1999, which became his third work to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Through network ownership changes, shifting political climates and a proliferation of media, Dan Rather has stood for solid journalism and reporting based on facts.
“Ratings come and go,” Rather said in a 1996 magazine article. “Good journalism doesn’t. And what I try to be about is good journalism. It may strike some people as sophomoric or corny, but that’s the way I feel. The way I judge us competitively is not by what the ratings are, but by what I think about the integrity of the broadcast. What do I think about my own performance on a given story. Quality is my measurement.”
