This year’s Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Political Journalism will honor MS NOW anchor Rachel Maddow, “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart and “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, among others.
The awards ceremony is scheduled to take place Dec. 12 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., with both Maddow and Pelley in attendance alongside fellow 2025 honorees Peter Alexander (NBC News) and Julio Vaqueiro (Noticias Telemundo). Stewart will not be able to attend the event in-person, but video messages recorded by both the “Daily Show” host and fellow honoree John Dickerson (“CBS Evening News Plus”) will be shown.
“The message sent by honoring these winners is that the press isn’t ‘the enemy of the people’ – it’s the firewall between the public and disinformation, abuse of power and corruption,” said USC Annenberg professor Martin Kaplan, founding director of the school’s Norman Lear Center, which administers the award.
Stewart is set to be the first-ever winner of the new Walter Cronkite Award for Comedic News and Commentary.
This year, the judges said they saw examples in honorees’ work of “pursuing truth unflappably despite official intimidation and ridicule; demonstrating fairness without succumbing to false equivalence or bothsidesism; and reporting stories even when key players refused to go on camera for fear of retribution.”
You can find the full list of honorees, below:
Network News, Analysis and Commentary
NBC News, “Holding the Powerful Accountable” — Peter Alexander, Chief White House Correspondent
60 Minutes, “Rule of Law” — Correspondent Scott Pelley, executive producer Bill Owens and producer Maria Gavrilovic
PBS Newshour, “On Democracy” — Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett, co-anchors
The Rachel Maddow Show, “Everyone, Everywhere, All at Once” — Rachel Maddow, host/commentator
CBS Evening News Plus, “John Dickerson’s Reporter’s Notebooks” — John Dickerson, CBS Evening News Plus anchor
Noticias Telemundo, “100 DÍAS DE TRUMP” (100 DAYS OF TRUMP) — Julio Vaqueiro, anchor, and Noticias Telemundo
Comedic News and Commentary
Jon Stewart — host, “The Daily Show”
Local News
KFOR-TV OKLAHOMA CITY “WE’RE CITIZENS” (NBC AFFILIATE/NEXSTAR)
Spencer Humphrey, investigative reporter
2025 BROOKS JACKSON PRIZE FOR FACT-CHECKING
“KSL-TV 5 Investigates: Truth Test,” Salt Lake City, Utah (NBC AFFILIATE/BONNEVILLE)
The Walter Cronkite Awards were established in 2001 and are presented biennially by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. They are intended to recognize exemplary political journalism conducted across both television and digital media that reinforces why maintaining a free press is paramount to protecting constitutional principles, defending the rule of law and holding power to account.
