Former CBS News Anchors Cronkite Awards Remarks

Journalist Scott Pelley has been a mainstay at CBS News, and somebody whom people would possibly know as a correspondent on 60 Minutes, though he was once anchor of the community’s national night news.

On Friday, he picked up one of the 2025 Walter Cronkite Awards, which are given out “biennially by the USC [University of Southern California] Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.” This yr’s submissions theme, which is lots progressive, is unlikely to shock readers:

This yr’s competitors invited submissions that exhibit how a free press defends democracy

…

At a time when a number of impartial polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans are deeply involved about the future of democracy, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism on Television and Digital Media honor journalists whose work exemplifies the function of a free press in defending constitutional rules, defending the rule of law, and holding energy to account.

I feel it is essential to acknowledge the baseline tone of the event before we proceed. More on what Pelley had to say in a minute.

Another honoree for the Walter Cronkite Awards, John Dickerson, just lately left his own employment with CBS, after occupying the same news anchor chair as his colleague.

Ahead of the ceremony, held at Washington, D.C.’s National Press Club, Dickerson shared that the honored program, CBS Evening News Plus, has already left the airwaves, writing on a Facebook post above a screenshot of the announcement by USC Annenberg.

“We won a Cronkite award today for essays on Evening News Plus, which went off the air last Friday.” 

Back to Scott Pelley. During his remarks on Friday afternoon, he made an compulsory swipe at the Trump administration over alleged destruction of the freedom of the press:

Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes claims they will’t get people on the show because of the “concern that has unfold across the nation.”

He then praises himself for soldiering on in the face of such immense difficulty.

The amount of importance these propaganda hacks still assign… pic.twitter.com/WeN6IskOIu

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) December 12, 2025

Sure, it’s the rote self-righteous/self-congratulatory stuff we’re used to hearing, including a not very veiled reference to the Left’s precious war on journalism and/or democracy as we know it, courtesy of that mean old Donald Trump.

But many of the journalist’s remarks were positive ones, including on the major changes happening with CBS’ parent company, Paramount, according to The Guardian’s media writer, Jeremy Barr:

While accepting a Cronkite Award this afternoon in D.C., Scott Pelley said the following about the current season of 60 Minutes: “Our company is now the new Paramount, and we had been all very involved at 60 Minutes about what that meant. It’s early yet, but what I can let you know is…

— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) December 12, 2025

“It’s early yet, but what I can tell you is we are doing the same kinds of stories with the same kind of rigor, and we have experienced no corporate interference of any kind.”

Pelley, even when expressing dismay at a few of his 60 Minutes colleagues leaving CBS after the earlier season, confirmed optimism on being free to do the work his group needs to:

Pelley said that it was “heart-breaking” for the 60 Min group to lose Bill Owens and Wendy McMahon.

“However, I will say that, in that season, last season, all of our stories got on the air. We got them all on the air with an absolute minimum of interference — nothing that anyone in this room would have been alarmed by.”

SEE: The Stunning Question Bari Weiss Asked the 60 Minutes Team That Had Their Jaws Dropping

New Boss at CBS May Be Looking to Snag Talent From Other Networks – One Name Will Drive the Left Mad

As it sifted out, the boss didn’t snag a a lot rumored big identify from another community (Anderson Cooper inked a new deal with GWN a handful of days in the past)..

But it might need been another one. Weiss’ most current transfer—one thing of a coup—was poaching ABC News national correspondent, Matt Gutman, for the same function at CBS, as The NY Post solely reported this week:

CBS News faucets ABC News journalist Matt Gutman for ‘major role’ after being ‘relentlessly pursued’ by Bari Weiss: sources https://t.co/RVmp7K1u94 pic.twitter.com/NqFJWp5foI

— New York Post (@nypost) December 8, 2025

 Also choosing up the journalism award on Friday, as my colleague at sister website Hot Air, David Strom famous, had been some acquainted though, in one case, uncommon faces: MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow and comic Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show

1- Jon Stewart & Rachel Maddow will likely be among the honorees on Friday as USC Annenberg presents its Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Political Journalism. In addition, honorees will embody Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, Peter Alexander of NBC News, pic.twitter.com/5p5zkm3ehW

— Howard Prince (@Howodd69) December 10, 2025

The X consumer above wrote in a thread that “[i]n addition, honorees will include Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, Peter Alexander of NBC News, Julio Vaqueiro of Noticias Telemundo, PBS NewsHour, & John Dickerson, who recently announced his departure from the network, after most recently serving as anchor of CBS Evening News.”

Strom wrote

But, as the Annenberg School of Journalism at USC proves, journalists now imagine that being an umpire means being a booster for your group. 

Stewart, one would possibly hope, would admit that he’s a comedian, not a journalist. Like many comics, he makes use of his platform to make political factors, but I’ve a secret hope that when he accepts his award, he’ll make enjoyable of the Annenberg School for giving it to him.

While Pelley’s phrases might signal child steps in how legacy media is enhancing itself in the Golden Age of Trump, so to communicate, I would not maintain my breath on Stewart exhibiting humility in this case.

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