Annual Cronkite luncheon goes on without namesake

November 21st, 2008, 3:11 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Le Templar

WALTER CRONKITE

I don’t like the various death watches that take place in American society as people wait for some aging celebrity personality to take one last breath. But it was hard not to think of the inevitable today when Win Holden, publisher of Arizona Highways, announced to a noontime crowd at the Arizona Biltmore resort that Walter Cronkite would be absent from the annual luncheon that carries his name to raise money for the institution that has become his legacy to journalism education. The 92-year-old television newsman must be ailing indeed for him to miss this event at a most auspicious moment for Arizona State University and its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The school moved into a brand new, $85 million home in downtown Phoenix earlier this fall, and today was the 25th installment of the luncheon, the school’s biggest fundraiser each year.

The luncheon has been so successful over the years because of Cronkite’s personal involvement, which has helped ASU to convince the biggest names in American journalism to make the trip to Phoenix (usually from New York or Washington), accept an award and offer some inspiring thoughts. This year, the stars were Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil of PBS, and both men went to great lengths to emphasize what a special honor they were receiving.

“For people like us in television broadcasting, to be named among the best by Walter Cronkite is as good as it gets,” Lehrer said.

In Cronkite’s absence, ASU President Michael Crow took on a more prominent role in the proceedings. Crow staunchly defended his decision to invest heavily in upgrading the Cronkite School — highlighted by the new 250,000 sq. ft. headquarters. He repeated the statements of American founders who argued democracy can flourish only when the public has been properly informed by a free press committed to pursuit of the truth and to holding government accountable.

“We’re not crazy,” Crow said. “We’re dead serious, we’re dead serious, that the future of a free society, that the future of what we stand for, depends on the education of (journalism students) …”

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