Awards & Accolades

Gwen Ifill was presented with the eighth-annual “Be More” Award from PBS this week, a prize celebrating individuals in public television who “embody the spirit of helping Americans to discover more.”

Ifill is moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week” and senior correspondent for “NewsHour.” She received the award from PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger at the PBS annual meeting in Denver.

“Gwen is one of the best journalists in the country,” Kerger said in a statement. “She is among the most trusted people on television, someone to turn to for insightful, in-depth coverage of news and issues that matter. She represents journalism at its best: she’s skeptical about everything but cynical about nothing.”

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

The NABJ has announced the finalists for the 2012 Salute to Excellence Awards. CBS News leads the way this year, notching 12 nominations, including four for “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley.”

NBC News is right on CBS’ heels with 10 nominations, including five for “Today,” which was the most-nominated show. ABC News received four nominations and PBS got one.

CNN, with four nominations, and Al Jazeera English, with two, were the only cable news networks to be nominated.

The winners will be announced at NABJ’s Salute to Excellence Gala on June 23 in New Orleans (a full list of the finalists is here). ABC’s Pierre Thomas will receive NABJ’s Journalist of the Year Award at the event.

Martha Raddatz of ABC News will receive Qunnipiac Unversity’s 19th annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award next month.

Raddatz has been ABC’s senior foreign affairs correspondent since 2008. In a statement, Lee Kamlet, dean of Quinnipiac University’s school of communications, said Raddatz’s reporting is “accurate and fair, the two elements that are indispensable to a journalist’s credibility.”

Past recipients of the award include Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Christiane Amanpour. Raddatz will be presented with hers on June 7.

The Weather Channel meteorologist and “Wake Up With Al” co-host Stephanie Abrams received quite a surprise on the program, as she found out she was being inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame.

Al Roker brought on the director of education for Space Camp, as well as a former Space Shuttle commander, to break the news.

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Fox Business Network’s John Stossel joined the Stuttering Foundation at their New York gala last Tuesday celebrating National Stuttering Awareness Week.

Stossel, who has fought a stutter his whole life, still battles the speech impediment, utilizing breathing and speaking techniques. At the gala, the ogranization’s president Jane Fraser presented Stossel with the Foundation’s “Converting Awareness into Action” Award.

“John has been a long-time friend of the Foundation and a true champion for people who stutter. He readily admits that stuttering is still a concern for him and shows his courage every evening as he faces the camera,” said Fraser.

ABC/CNN’s Christiane Amanpour is among the honorees at WFUV Radio’s annual Spring Gala tonight. Amanpour is being honored with the Charles Osgood Lifetime Achievement Award in Broadcast Journalism.

“I’m delighted and honored to win this award,” says Amanpour “It’s a reminder, through the example of Charles Osgood, that great storytelling as well as persistently searching for the truth is the best kind journalism.”

Al Michaels is being honored with the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting and Chris Isaak is WFUV’s “Artist of the Year.”

WFUV is Fordham University’s NPR station. The ceremony will be held tonight at Gotham Hall.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the nominees for the Daytime Emmy Awards on the fourth hour of NBC’s “Today” this morning.

As it happens, “Today” was nominated in the “Outstanding Morning Program” category along with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

ABC’s “The View” and NBC’s “Today” each had six nominations, while Warner Bros. “Anderson” snagged three nominations, and “Live with Regis & Kelly” secured two nominations. CNN’s Dr.  Sanjay Gupta also secured a nomination for “Sanjay Gupta, MD.”

ABC soap “General Hospital” led the way among all programs, garnering 23 nominations.

The awards will be presented June 23rd in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton. A broadcast partner has not yet been announced, but as we reported, HLN is the likely candidate. The full list of nominations is available here.

Ann Curry was one of the eight women honored at the New York Women in Communications 2012 Matrix Awards luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria today.

In her acceptance speech, Curry praised her female colleagues in television — “Barbara, Jane, Connie, Lesley, Diane” — as well as her “great bosses, especially the exceptional men I get to work for today.”

“I’m not sucking up, even though recent ratings events might dictate that I should,” Curry joked.

NBC News president Steve Capus and “Today” show EP Jim Bell were at the NBC table, alongside Al Roker and Hoda Kotb. Curry’s award was presented to her by her “Today” show predecessor Meredith Vieira.

Barbara Walters, Katie Couric and Lesley Stahl also served as presenters during the luncheon. FishbowlNY has more on the 2012 Matrix Awards.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Fresh off of his new contract with NBCUniversal, “Today” co-anchor Matt Lauer is named one of the “Time 100″ most influential  people. As is customary for Time’s list, Lauer was profiled by a well-known colleague, in this case, “America’s Got Talent” judge, radio host and fellow Hamptons-dweller Howard Stern.

We all wondered, Was it over? It’s over, it’s over, he’s losing his hair! It’s got to be over! But we were wrong! The strength was still there, perhaps stronger still, crashing pillars to earth with innate strength and charm and class — Matt Lauer, 54, the anti-Samson, going up against pretty guys and girls, the hairy people. He was still the smartest, the strongest, the classiest. How? Why? This is a guy who never gives up! Why? How? ‘Cause he works his ass off and cares about everything he does. Adversity, begone! Katie leaves. Meredith leaves. Knuckleheads come and go. Matt is there and stronger still. Our leader, diving into treacherous TV morning waters unscathed by sharks, unstung by stingrays, impossible to harm ’cause our Matt is cool and relaxed and so we’re cool and relaxed and we can deal with the complexities of a presidential interview, a great sports event or the wacko.

Later on, Stern gets inappropriate, as he is want to do. Read the rest here, and see the rest of the “Time 100″ here.

Lauer also stopped by the Weather Channel’s morning show “Wake Up with Al,” yesterday, welcoming co-anchor Stephanie Abrams to New York.

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The Society of Professional Journalists has announced the winners of the Sigma Delta Chi awards.

ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer” wins the Breaking News award for ABC’s coverage of the Japan earthquake and tsunami. ABC’s Brian Ross wins the Investigative Reporting award for his “Peace Corps: A trust betrayed.” Also, ABCNews.com, in conjunction with The Center for Public Integrity won an Investigative Reporting award for “Green energy: Contracts, connections and the collapse of Solyndra.”

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta and his team win a Documentary award for “Terror in the dust.” and CNN’s Freedom Project wins a Public Service award. CBS’s Scott Pelley wins for Feature Reporting for his “60 Minutes: Hard times generation.” And NBC’s Bob Dotson wins the Online Column Writing award for his American Story series on msnbc.com.

Judges chose the winners from more than 1,700 entries in categories covering print, radio, television and online. The awards recognize outstanding work published or broadcast in 2011. The complete list of winners is here.