Pioneering NBC and ABC News correspondent Sander Vanocur, longtime NPR news broadcaster Carl Kasell, Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus and C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb will be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the D.C. Pro Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists, on June 12, 2012.
The four veteran journalists will speak at the chapter’s annual Dateline Awards dinner in the ballroom of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, Washington D.C.
Sander Vanocur began his journalism career as a London reporter for The Manchester Guardian, also working as a commentator for the North American Service of the BBC and a stringer for CBS News. He later reported for the New York Times before joining NBC News in 1957. He was one of the questioners in the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960 and then spent three years as White House Correspondent before being named National Political Correspondent, covering the 1964 and 1968 presidential elections. Beginning in 1969 he was host of the magazine program First Tuesday and also earned a place on President Nixon’s expanded enemies list.
Vanocur left NBC in 1971 to become Senior Correspondent for PBS. He went to ABC News in 1977 and later became Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, assigned to the State Department. In 1982, he covered the Falklands War between Great Britain and Argentina. He also was ABC's Chief Overview Correspondent during the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections. In 1986, Vanocur became anchor of ABC News' Business World program and covered the annual World Economic Summits. He left ABC in 1991 and since has devoted himself to teaching, lecturing, consulting and hosting programs for the History Channel and other organizations.
Carl Kasell spent ten years as morning anchor and later news director at WAVA Radio in Arlington, Va., before joining NPR as a part-time newscaster for Weekend All Things Considered in 1975. He became a full-time newscaster for Morning Edition at the program’s inception in 1979 and kept that position (and its brutal pre-dawn hours) for 30 years.
When NPR premiered its weekly news quiz show, Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!, in 1998, Kassel took on the job of official judge and scorekeeper, a position he holds today. He is a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.
Ruth Marcus is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Post, specializing in American politics and domestic policy. Marcus has been with the Post since 1984. She joined the national staff in 1986, covering campaign finance, the Justice Department, the Supreme Court and the White House. From 1999 through 2002, she served as deputy national editor, supervising reporters who covered money and politics, Congress, the Supreme Court, and other national issues. She joined the editorial board in 2003 and began writing a regular column in 2006. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2007.
Earlier in her career, Marcus wrote for the National Law Journal. Later she graduated from Harvard Law School, after which she joined the Post.
Brian Lamb has interviewed every president since Lyndon Johnson. Following Navy service, he worked as a radio reporter, press officer and White House telecommunications staffer. In the 1970s he went to work for Cablevision and began publishing a newsletter called The Media Report. During those years he submitted to cable executives an idea for a non-profit channel that would broadcast Congressional proceedings.
The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, or C-SPAN, began programming in 1979. The network receives no government funding. Its operations are paid for by the cable and satellite affiliates that carry its programming. As chairman and CEO, Lamb has presided over C-SPAN’s expansion to three cable channels, a radio network and Internet streaming. Lamb has become the familiar face of the operation, anchoring coverage of many important events, talking to newsmakers and, beginning as the 15-year host of the program Booknotes, interviewing thousands of authors.
Also at the Awards Dinner on June 12, SPJ’s DC Pro Chapter will present its annual Dateline Awards for journalism excellence.
Tickets for the June 12 dinner are now available for $80 for SPJ members (plus one guest per member) and $110 for nonmembers.
Contact dinner chair Andy Schotz LawnGyland@aol.com for questions or reservations.