Media

Cronkite School Of Journalism Takes Away Charlie Rose's Award

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: November 25, 2017 7:27 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 6:03 am

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, based at the Arizona State University, named for a man many people think is the greatest TV journalist of all time, took away the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism given to him in 2015.

Christopher Callahan, Founding Dean and Professor, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University wrote:

This unprecedented action is taken with the utmost seriousness and deliberation. We are not in the business of trying to rewrite history. The Cronkite Award is bestowed each year to celebrate a great journalist, our school, our students, our alumni and our profession. It is a lifetime achievement award. It does not come with term limits. It is given in perpetuity. The idea of “taking back” a Cronkite Award is so foreign that the possibility was never even considered when the award was first created by Walter, the school and the Cronkite Endowment Board of Trustees more than 30 years ago.

We give the award each year based on the knowledge we have of a recipient at that time. When new information about a recipient surfaces, the question we ask is not whether the award would be given again with a new set of facts, but whether the transgressions are so egregious that they demand nothing less than a reversal of history.

One has to presume this is among the first actions reversing awards given to Rose which must number in the dozens.