Duquesne to present inaugural journalism award
PBS moderator Yamiche Alcindor will be honored
Duquesne University is honoring the moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week” with an inaugural award for principled journalism — recognizing trustworthiness as public faith in the news has faltered, university President Ken Gormley said.
He will present Yamiche Alcindor with Duquesne’s Award for Ethics and
Integrity in Journalism during a livestreamed event at 6 p.m. Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington. Ms. Alcindor, also a Washington correspondent for NBC News, represents high standards that the university promotes in its year-old Institute for Ethics and Integrity in Journalism, Mr. Gormley said.
“Her story so closely aligns with the story of Duquesne University,” founded by Catholic missionaries in 1878, he said. Her coverage of “people whose voices are note often heard” meshes with the Spiritan mission of “making sure that all voices are heard,” he added.
A former New York Times reporter and “PBS NewsHour” correspondent, Ms. Alcindor covered former President Donald Trump’s administration. She gained attention for her deft handling of his news conferences, where Mr. Trump pushed back on her questions, said Lynne Hayes-Freeland, a longtime broadcast reporter in Pittsburgh and a professional fellow at the institute.
“I think that all becomes significant, especially in 2022, when we’re still dealing with the issue of white nationalism and the former president. That was the [crux] of their interaction,” Ms. HayesFreeland said.
While that period was especially difficult for White House reporters who are women of color, Ms. Alcindor “rose above” — holding her own against criticism without being offensive, she said. She described Ms. Alcindor as fearless and courteous in a field where, “especially when it comes to politics, women of color are not necessarily warmly received.”
The National Association of Black
Journalists named Ms. Alcindor its journalist of the year in 2020.
“She brought her own seat to the table, sat down and got very comfortable,” said Ms. Hayes-Freeland, who became KDKA radio’s first full-time African American talk-show host in 2019. Ms. Hayes-Freeland has since retired from full-time broadcasting.
A committee at the Duquesne institute unanimously chose Ms. Alcindor for the ethics award, part of an overall mission to promote and support credible journalism delivered with context, fairness and accuracy, organizers said. The institute strives in part to encourage public trust in the media, which has appeared near record lows.
Seven percent of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in the news media, while 27% percent have “a fair amount,” according to Gallup polling data released in October. At the institute, directing fellow Tara Bradley-Steck said it can be difficult to distinguish between news coverage and commercial interests.
“I pity the poor public that doesn’t have the tools to be able to discern fact from fiction, news from editorial,” she said. “So we’re here to raise the bar; we try to do programs that illustrate what is involved in good journalism and how to be a more learned user of news.”
Attendance for the National Press Club event is capped at 75, Ms. BradleySteck said. Mr. Gormley will present the honor — which is to become an annual award — before leading a conversation with Ms. Alcindor, she said.
The public can watch live online at www. youtube. com/ watch? v=1z1aVw0Vtds. Ms. Alcindor declined an honorarium associated with the award, Ms. Bradley-Steck said.
Ms. Hayes-Freeland, who joined the institute in July, called Ms. Alcindor “a perfect example” of why the media warrant trust.
“I think society in general has embraced social media as journalism, and I feel pretty strongly that it’s not,” she said. “I think anything we can do to bring a spotlight back to what journalism was all about in the first place is a step in the right direction.”