Journalist Scott Pelley has been a mainstay at CBS News, and someone whom people might know as a correspondent on 60 Minutes, though he was once anchor of the network’s national evening news.
On Friday, he picked up one of the 2025 Walter Cronkite Awards, which are given out “biennially by the USC [University of Southern California] Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.” This year’s submissions theme, which is plenty progressive, is unlikely to shock readers:
This year’s competition invited submissions that demonstrate how a free press defends democracy
…
At a time when multiple independent polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans are deeply concerned about the future of democracy, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism on Television and Digital Media honor journalists whose work exemplifies the role of a free press in protecting constitutional principles, defending the rule of law, and holding power to account.
I think it’s crucial to acknowledge the baseline tone of the event before we proceed. More on what Pelley had to say in a minute.
Another honoree for the Walter Cronkite Awards, John Dickerson, recently left his own employment with CBS, after occupying the same news anchor chair as his colleague.
Ahead of the ceremony, held at Washington, D.C.’s National Press Club, Dickerson shared that the honored program, CBS Evening News Plus, has already left the airwaves, writing on a Facebook post above a screenshot of the announcement by USC Annenberg.
“We won a Cronkite award today for essays on Evening News Plus, which went off the air last Friday.”
Back to Scott Pelley. During his remarks on Friday afternoon, he made an obligatory swipe at the Trump administration over alleged destruction of the freedom of the press:
Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes claims they can’t get people on the show because of the “fear that has spread across the country.”
He then praises himself for soldiering on in the face of such immense difficulty.
The amount of importance these propaganda hacks still assign… pic.twitter.com/WeN6IskOIu
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) December 12, 2025
Sure, it’s the rote self-righteous/self-congratulatory stuff we’re used to hearing, including a not very veiled reference to the Left’s precious war on journalism and/or democracy as we know it, courtesy of that mean old Donald Trump.
But many of the journalist’s remarks were positive ones, including on the major changes happening with CBS’ parent company, Paramount, according to The Guardian’s media writer, Jeremy Barr:
While accepting a Cronkite Award this afternoon in D.C., Scott Pelley said the following about the current season of 60 Minutes: “Our company is now the new Paramount, and we were all very concerned at 60 Minutes about what that meant. It’s early yet, but what I can tell you is…
— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) December 12, 2025
“It’s early yet, but what I can tell you is we are doing the same kinds of stories with the same kind of rigor, and we have experienced no corporate interference of any kind.”
Pelley, even when expressing dismay at a few of his 60 Minutes colleagues leaving CBS after the previous season, showed optimism on being free to do the work his team desires to:
Pelley said that it was “heart-breaking” for the 60 Min team to lose Bill Owens and Wendy McMahon.
“However, I will say that, in that season, last season, all of our stories got on the air. We got them all on the air with an absolute minimum of interference — nothing that anyone in this room would have been alarmed by.”
SEE: The Stunning Question Bari Weiss Asked the 60 Minutes Team That Had Their Jaws Dropping
New Boss at CBS May Be Looking to Snag Talent From Other Networks – One Name Will Drive the Left Mad
As it sifted out, the boss did not snag a much rumored big name from another network (Anderson Cooper inked a new deal with CNN a handful of days ago)..
But it might have been another one. Weiss’ most recent move—something of a coup—was poaching ABC News national correspondent, Matt Gutman, for the same role at CBS, as The NY Post exclusively reported this week:
CBS News taps ABC News journalist Matt Gutman for ‘major role’ after being ‘relentlessly pursued’ by Bari Weiss: sources https://t.co/RVmp7K1u94 pic.twitter.com/NqFJWp5foI
— New York Post (@nypost) December 8, 2025
Also picking up the journalism award on Friday, as my colleague at sister site Hot Air, David Strom noted, were some familiar though, in one case, unusual faces: MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow and comedian Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show
1- Jon Stewart & Rachel Maddow will be among the honorees on Friday as USC Annenberg presents its Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Political Journalism. In addition, honorees will include Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, Peter Alexander of NBC News, pic.twitter.com/5p5zkm3ehW
— Howard Prince (@Howodd69) December 10, 2025
The X user above wrote in a thread that “[i]n addition, honorees will include Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, Peter Alexander of NBC News, Julio Vaqueiro of Noticias Telemundo, PBS NewsHour, & John Dickerson, who recently announced his departure from the network, after most recently serving as anchor of CBS Evening News.”
Strom wrote
But, as the Annenberg School of Journalism at USC proves, journalists now believe that being an umpire means being a booster for your team.
Stewart, one might hope, would admit that he is a comic, not a journalist. Like many comics, he uses his platform to make political points, but I have a secret hope that when he accepts his award, he will make fun of the Annenberg School for giving it to him.
While Pelley’s words could signal baby steps in how legacy media is improving itself in the Golden Age of Trump, so to speak, I wouldn’t hold my breath on Stewart showing humility in this case.
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