CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric has won a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism from the USC’s Annenberg School. Couric won a Special Achievement for National Impact on the 2008 Campaign award for her interviews with Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin. Judges called the interviews a “defining moment in the 2008 presidential campaign.”
“We congratulate Katie Couric for this recognition by the prestigious Annenberg School for Communication,” said CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus. “Katie’s journalistic achievements are unique, unmistakably her own, and in keeping with the highest tradition of Walter Cronkite and CBS News excellence.”
ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” is a second-time winner for its “On the Trail” series, which took the host out of the studio where he interviewed all of the presidential contenders in the two years leading up to the election.
“NOW on PBS” won for its campaign reporting, as well. The judges recognized the “excellent coverage” in the report “New Voters in the New West,” which showed how both political parties went after first-time voters on college campuses and among New Mexico’s large Hispanic population.