Photo credit: Janet Donovan
Vivian Salama (Wall Street Journal): Recognized for her extensive reporting on foreign policy and national security, covering over 85 countries across five continents; Margaret Brennan (CBS News): Honored for her role as moderator of Face the Nation and her award-winning coverage of major national events; Francesca Chambers (USA Today): Acknowledged as a “Star to Watch” for her decade-long reporting on the White House; Elisabeth Bumiller (The New York Times): Celebrated for her leadership as Washington bureau chief and her impactful political reporting – all winners at the White House Correspondents’ Weekend 12th Annual Washington Women in Journalism Awards held at the Larz Anderson Home on Massachusetts Avenue hosted by Gloria Story Dittus, Chairman of Story Partners and Cathy Merrill, President and CEO of Washingtonian.
Yep, it’s that time of year for DC’s version of the Oscars, but for politics and journalism with a crazy mix of serious awards and total party chaos.
“I am going to hand this off to Matt Shay who runs the National Retail Federation. He has been very, very busy. If you don’t know, there’s a lot going on that affects manufacturing and retail in the United States, and we are very, very proud to have NRF as our lead sponsor,” said Cathy who did indeed hand it off to Matt.
“It’s hard to believe this has been 12 years,” said Matt. “It’s been 12 interesting years. It continues to be – and I think for me at least and for many of us – the event that signals the beginning of White House Correspondents’ Dinner week. It’s become sort of an official kickoff. It didn’t used to be nearly this many of us sitting around together in Gloria’s living room and kitchen and dining room. But it’s a wonderful event because we get to celebrate journalism and wonderful women journalists.
We found this in our kitchen which is the pocket guide to the The Constitution and The Bill of Rights, which every high school kid must have. It reminded me that while we’re here having cocktails and enjoying a beautiful evening in a beautiful place and many beautiful people having these lovely conversations, this is really about celebrating the right of the press to do its job.”
“We take the first amendment for granted,” Matt added. “It’s like air. It’s just there. And that’s not the way it is around the world. We should all feel very fortunate not only that we live in a country that has those kinds of rights and responsibilities, but that we have wonderful journalists like those we celebrate tonight and have celebrated for the past 12 years who in the face of I think increasingly skeptical subjects and audiences continue to do their job in a very transparent way, in a very objective way and very consistently in a 24 hour news cycle that is sometimes not as welcoming maybe as it once was. And so it’s wonderful to be here and to celebrate Elizabeth and Margaret and Vivian and Francesca and to do it with all of you and with our great partners. So congratulations to our honorees and thank you all for being here this season.”
“So it has been an interesting journey from the back of my house to this wonderful house,” said Gloria, “and it’s so thrilling to look around the room and see so many past honorees here. There’s so many of you here and it’s just really been an honor and I want to thank the {sponsors} that really helped make this happen.”
Awards were not only for women. Francesca Chambers thinks her husband Michael Moroney deserved his own medal for bravery — for standing outside endless White House press conferences, surviving on lukewarm coffee and pure marital devotion – basically a roadie for democracy.
