Awards

2008 RTNDF First Amendment Awards

RTNDF First Amendment Awards

The 2008 RTNDF First Amendment Awards Dinner were held March 6, 2008, at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington. To read about this year's event, click here. To view photos of the event, click here.

The 2008 honorees were:

• Tom Curley, Associated Press
  

  First Amendment Leadership Award
  Presented annually to a business or government leader who has made a significant contribution to protecting freedom of the press, the First Amendment Leadership Award will be given this year to Tom Curley, president and CEO of The Associated Press. Curly has held that post since 2003, and helped establish the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of news organizations and journalism-related groups to promote accessible, accountable and open government (of which RTNDA is also active). Before taking the helm at AP, Curley served as president and publisher of USA Today. From 1998 to 2003, he also served as senior vice president of the newspaper's owner, Gannett. But Curley has worked in every department of the newspaper; he was the original news staffer on the project that led to the creation of USA Today, after former Gannett chairman Al Neuharth assigned him in 1979 to study the feasibility of a national newspaper.

  Past recipients of the First Amendment Leadership Award include Roger Ailes, Floyd Abrams, Katharine Graham, Don Hewitt, Howard Stringer, Roone Arledge, Robert Johnson and Ted Turner.

• Paula Madison, NBC Universal
  

  First Amendment Service Award
  Given to someone of distinction who works in an off-air, management capacity, the First Amendment Service Award will be given this year to Paula Madison, executive vice president of diversity for NBC Universal. As the first senior executive in the company’s history to hold a position solely devoted to diversity, Madison is the liaison between the company and key national and local leaders. She is responsible for working with the company’s business executives to ensure NBCU develops programs and culture that will enable the company to better reflect the makeup of its increasingly diverse, globally-based customers, clients and audiences. Madison served as a news manager at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, where she became the first African American woman to be general manager at a network-owned station in a top five market, and where she became the executive vice president of diversity, in addition to her station responsibilities. The Emmy- and Murrow Award-winning broadcast journalist also previously served as a news manager at WNBC-TV in New York and worked in television newsrooms in Houston, Tulsa and Dallas.

  Past recipients of the First Amendment Service Award include Philip Balboni, Susan Zirinsky, Fred Young, Gary Wordlaw, Lee Giles and Marty Haag.

• Bob Schieffer, CBS News
  

  Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award
  Named for the late senior correspondent for Broadcasting & Cable, the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award will be given this year to Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News and anchor/moderator of the network’s Sunday public affairs program Face the Nation. Schieffer is also a regular contributor to the CBS Evening News, for which he served as interim anchor from March 2005 to August 2006. For the past three decades, Schieffer has covered Washington for CBS, one of the few broadcast or print journalists to have covered all four major beats in the nation's capital—the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and Capitol Hill—and has been a floor reporter at all of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions since 1972. He is the 2003 recipient of RTNDA’s Paul White Award.

  Past recipients of the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award include Kimberly Dozier, Bob Woodruff, Ed Bradley, Andrea Mitchell, Judy Woodruff, Sam Donaldson, Jim Lehrer, Mike Wallace and Diane Sawyer.

• Richard Wiley, Wiley Rein, LLP
  

  Special Recognition
  A special award will be given this year to Richard Wiley of Wiley Rein, LLP in Washington. The former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission leads Wiley Rein’s 80-attorney Communications Practice, the largest in the nation. As FCC chairman, he advocated increased competition and lessened regulation in the communications field. He is also credited with playing a pivotal role in the development of HDTV in this country, serving for nine years as chairman of the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service. He represents a number of major communications-oriented organizations, including: Viacom/CBS, Gannett, Belo, Emmis, Gray Television, Verizon, SBC, BellSouth, Motorola, LG and the Newspaper Association of America. Wiley also is a frequent author and lecturer on telecommunications and information law.

RTNDF presents this award annually to a business or government leader who has made a significant contribution to the protection of the First Amendment and freedom of the press.

• 1992 Allen Neuharth
• 1993 Frank Stanton
• 1994 James Quello
• 1995 Tom Johnson
• 1996 Howard Stringer
• 1997 Robert L. Johnson
• 1998 Roone Arledge
• 1999 Bob Wright
• 2000 R. E. "Ted" Turner
• 2001 Don Hewitt
• 2002 Katharine Graham
• 2003 Floyd Abrams
• 2004 Charles Grassley and Patrick Leahy
• 2005 Jim Keelor
• 2006 Hurricane Katrina Station Groups:
  Belo Corp. (WWL-TV), Clear Channel Broadcasting (WBUV-FM, WKNN-FM, WMJY-FM, WQYZ-FM, KHEV-FM, WNOE-FM, WODT-AM, WQUE-FM and WYLD-AM/FM), Emmis Communications (WVUE-TV), Entercom Communications (WWL-AM), Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. (WDSU-TV), Liberty Corporation (WLOX-TV) and Tribune Broadcasting (WGNO-TV)
• 2007 Roger Ailes

RTNDF presents this award annually to a radio or television journalist or news executive who has made a major contribution to the protection of First Amendment freedoms. It is named for the late Broadcasting & Cable senior correspondent, Leonard Zeidenberg.

• 1992 James Snyder
• 1993 John Chancellor
• 1994 David Brinkley
• 1995 Walter Cronkite
• 1996 Carole Simpson
• 1997 Jane Pauley
• 1998 Mike Wallace
• 1999 Christiane Amanpour
• 2000 Diane Sawyer
• 2001 Jim Lehrer
• 2002 Sam Donaldson
• 2003 Judy Woodruff
• 2004 Andrea Mitchell
• 2005 Ed Bradley
• 2006 Gwen Ifill
• 2007 Bob Woodruff and Kimberly Dozier

This award honors professionals in local or network news who work in an off-air, management, largely behind-the-scenes capacity.

• 1998 Betty Cole Dukert
• 1999 Marty Haag
• 2000 Lee Giles
• 2001 Gary Wordlaw
• 2002 Fred Young
• 2003 Susan Zirinsky
• 2004 Walter Ulloa
• 2005 Wendy Walker Whitworth
• 2006 William Wheatley
• 2007 Philip Balboni