CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King is being honored with Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Since 1984 the award, named after the late legendary CBS News anchor, has recognized prominent journalists’ accomplishments and leadership throughout their careers.
King is being recognized for her decades’ worth of work that spans notable interviews as well as covering numerous significant events. She interviewed the embattled R&B singer R. Kelly, former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama and her mother, Marian Robinson, in their first TV interview together.
She landed the only national TV interview with former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke after he announced that he would run for president.
King has also interviewed former House Speaker Paul Ryan; Tina Turner; Cher; Taylor Swift; Dave Chappelle; Amy Schumer; Elizabeth Smart; Dylan Farrow; Elon Musk, and the first interview with Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz following the controversial arrest of two Black men in a Philadelphia Starbucks.
In addition, King has covered George Floyd’s murder, the Derek Chauvin verdict, the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 in Newtown, Ct., the Republican and Democratic conventions in 2016, and the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy on the Texas border.
She has reported on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., prior to the museum’s opening and the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize same-sex marriage.
“Gayle King’s career and accomplishments are remarkable, and her professionalism embodies everything that Walter Cronkite valued in journalism,” said Cronkite School Dean Battinto L. Batts Jr. “Her approach to covering important events and interviewing politicians, leaders, and celebrities is unparalleled. It’s an honor to present Gayle with this prestigious award.”
“I am honored to accept the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. The work myself and other journalists do is important, but I don’t do it alone. My colleagues at CBS News also share in this honor, and I’m inspired by the unique and meaningful stories we tell,” King said. “Thank you for this award, and I hope to inspire others when I meet the students at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in February.”
Her colleagues at CBS Mornings celebrated her recognition earlier this morning.
Congratulations to our @GayleKing, who is being honored with @ASU’s prestigious Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism! pic.twitter.com/6CsPcjQR12
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) September 13, 2022
King is also an editor-at-large of Oprah Daily and hosts a live, weekly radio show titled Gayle King in the House on SiriusXM.
She will be honored during a ceremony in Phoenix on Feb. 21, 2023, at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown.