Just waiting for the cronkite awards to begin. The award is presented in excellence in tv political journalism. Jonathan karl, ben collins, and Margaret Brennan are along the recipients. It will begin shortly on cspan. Professor martin kaplan. [applause] thank you. I know that hand is the voice of god, and god appreciates it. Good afternoon. Thank you. Thrilled to have you here. An amazing day. A lot of people worked really hard to make it happen. And you are those people. If you are watching us now on cspan, or on facebook live, if you are here in the room, please enjoy your salads. Above all, welcome to the 12th biannual Walter Cronkite awards for excellence in Television Political journalism. On behalf of the unc Annenberg School for communication and our Sister School at the university of pennsylvania, the Annenberg School s annenberg Public Policy center, we are thrilled to have you. You dont need me to tell you that these are Tumultuous Times for television, journalism, and politics, although im really glad we picked a new from the big lie to ai, it can feel like nothing is stable, that everything is in play. But doesnt that make this the Perfect Moment to appreciate the First Amendment . Look around this room. Look around your tables. A lot of competitors here, in a good way, but along with the competition a common purpose. Everyone here is a stewart, a trustee, defender of free press. Around the world, hundreds of journalists have been abducted, jailed, even killed, for just doing their job, telling the truth. You cronkite Award Winners, today as we honor your excellence, grit, and service, we also honor the freedom that protects the journalism you practice. So right off the bat, join me in a round of applause for our cronkite winners, you, their colleagues, mentors, prodigies, family, and friends, and for the tenacious miracle of of free press. [applause] speaking of you winners, when you come up to this podium to speak, i want to thank you in advance for demonstrating that staying within cruel time limits is a snap for tv pros like you. Im marty kaplan for coming on 25 years, ive had the privilege of directing the Norman Lear Center and hosting the norman lear chair at Usc Annenberg. One of the lear centers first initiatives was to establish this award. Why did Walter Cronkite lend his name to it . For one thing, he and norman valued their friendship and had in normas respect for each other enormous respect for each other. Norman is still going strong, next month he will turn 101. Hes watching, by the way. [applause] on his behalf, he appreciates the hand. It went beyond friendship. Both of them were in love with america. Both of them were troubled by many of the same things. The corrosive influence of money in politics. The conquest of journalism by the Business Model of entertainment. The Alarming Number of non voters and low information voters. Heres how he put it at the 2005 awards. We are not intelligent enough, educated well enough to perform as necessary the necessary act of selecting our leaders for the future. Weve got to improve that situation. And it is going to be to a large degree up to us in television and radio, broadcasting, to get that job done. If we fail at that, our democracy, our republic is in serious danger. If television fails to inform us, our democracy, our republic is in serious danger. That idea, that mission for tv news, those stakes for democracy has been the dna of this award in every president ial election and Midterm Election since 2000. Last year, for the first time, the cronkite awards call for entry called on a single topic, disinformation. We invited entries about what disinformation is, where it comes from, how it spreads, the consequences, and how to combat it. The singular focus on disinformation hit a nerve. We received nearly 100 entries. The most ever for a nonpresident ial election year. Disinformation is an apt focus in particular for the cronkite award. Not because it feels like disinformation is everywhere all at once, but because the namesake of this award is Walter Cronkite. Every weeknight for 19 years, up to 30 million americans watched cronkite anchor the cbs evening news. A poll named him the most trusted man in america. When cronkite went to vietnam in 1968 to see for himself whether the u. S. Government was telling the truth about winning the war, his report to the American People no it was not was an Inflection Point in the war, politics, and job of journalism. Todays Award Winners are heirs to that legacy. They did the work they won for, as they and their colleagues do their work today, disinformation poses some Wicked Problems for journalists. Problems like how do you debunk the big lie without amplifying and validating it . How do you push back on disinformation without tasking yourself as a performer in an enemy of the people narrative . When one side is asymmetrically untethered to facts, what does fairness look like . If fairness isnt false equivalence, how can being fair be truthful and not partisan . If fairness is not both sidesism, how can reporting fact be accuracy and not advocacy . With disinformation everywhere all at once, our theme how can journalism matter . Spoiler alert, the answer to that is right in front of you. This is how journalism can matter. The work of all the winners we honor today, thats journalism mattering. I know that was the last election. What about the next one . What about deepfakes and cheatfakes . Generative ai . Large language models like chatgpt, five and six, and all of the other looming marbles capable of spreading disinformation at scale. To deal with that disruption, of course we will need new antennae, new countermeasures, new guardrails. But we will still also need old values. The ones we honor todays winners for. Courage, integrity, independence, fairness, a fierce commitment to truth and democracy. Celebrating you winners for those values in your work is what is coming up next here. But first, we are going to take a very short break to get your main course on the table. Be back soon. [applause] cspan live at the cronkite awards presented for excellence in tv political journalism. Taking a break before we hear from the main speakers. Some of todays washington journal. Joe biden, who was also found having possessed records in their private homes after having left office. There are two grand juries, one in d. C. That has been ongoing. Not just maralago, but with the january 6 insurrection event jack smith is spearheading. We found out the second is in florida. The reason it is in florida and the indictment is coming out of florida has to do with a legal contest known as venue. You cannot charge someone in a state that has no nexus or something to do with the activity that derives from the indictment. It will contain information regarding alleged wrongdoing mr. Trump did in the state of florida. That is the venue, why the grand jury out of florida is issuing the indictment. Next tuesday, take us forward through expectations. Hes supposed to be in court on tuesday. It is difficult for anyone who has been indicted or charged through another kind of document. Indictment comes specifically from a grand jury. Grand jurors, your neighbors and friends who called to sit into evidence. Sometimes the grand jury listens to evidence and does not do anything with it, it is just an investigative graduate grand jury. Im sure his lawyers and government are negotiating around it to be smooth and be without incident. He will be fingerprinted and booked, and there will be an initial hearing where he would be arraigned. He will formally hear the charges, they will be read to him. That is basic due process. You have to have notice of what the government says you did wrong. And through his counsel, he will enter a plea, presumably not guilty. And the judge, i understand it is the same judge who issued the warrant to search maralago, he will talk to trumps counsel about the conditions of his release between now and trial, and possibly in addition, questions around confidentiality. One of the things is this indictment sounds like it involves National Security information, classified information. We dont know if it is listed in the indictment. Im sure there are sensitivities, not just around the fact it is a former president , but the subject matter of this case, classified information that really should not be out in the public domain. Even through the court system. There is reporting taking a look at some of the laws the potential charges might stem from. That provision of the espionage act being one of them, which prohibits the retention of classified materials. Expand on it and what it could mean in this case. The espionage act is a post world war i statute. It talks about classified information, National Defense information. At that time, there was not such a thing is classified information. This is sort of the go to place for people leaking classified information or mishandling, abusing classified information that belongs to the United States. That is kind of a big charge. It is not just taking information from the white house, and we can talk about that, the president ial records act. Just to be clear, when a president leaves office under a statute called the president ial records act enacted after watergate, after the shenanigans with former president nixon, when he leaves office his records officially transfer, they transfer possession and ownership of them to the United States people. So when he left office, none of those records he was allowed to keep. And you have another level, if the records were classified, that triggers this other concern, the espionage act. It is why it is such a serious case. That is the kind of information that can compromise National Security. We dont know what is in the indictment, but that makes it a more serious offense because it involves potentially National Security information. Are guest with us until 9 00 until the house comes in for its pro forma session. Republicans, 202 7488001, democrats, 202 7488000, independents 202 7488002. Another statute looking at the obstruction of the prosocial official proceeding, how does it apply . Two real parts to the story. One is the taking of the documents. The second is the fact that over 18 months, the National Archives and fbi asked mr. Trump and his lawyers and his associates to return the documents. And the government was told on more than one occasion they received everything, when it turns out once the warrant was executed, there were hundreds of documents at maralago. Obstruction, we heard obstruction in connection with the Mueller Report, there were 10 alleged acts of instruction obstruction of justice by donald trump when he was president. We heard about obstruction in connection with january 6. Those sets of statutes are about this. Once the criminal investigation starts, is underway, we dont want to have people get away with thwarting it by hiding evidence, bribing witnesses, tampering with witnesses, threatening them, threatening the judge, harassing the jury. All of those things are illegal. If they were legal, we would not have a criminal Justice System that functions. The obstruction part of this case presumably has to do with reports that documents were moved around, boxes were moved, etc. There is even a report that suspicious flooding of a room that contained recordings, surveillance recordings relating to where the documents were. Any of those kinds of things designed to hide or conceal this stuff and keep it from the federal government once it became clear donald trump had not turned everything over, that is a separate charge. Our guest, if you want to ask questions, the number are on your screen. Lets start with sydney in florida. Youre on with our guest. Good morning. I think she laid it out good in terms of all of the things that happened. Going on, he basically has been just taken advantage of the position that he was in previously, having people around him to cover up and hide and even maneuver before he even left the presidency. Maneuvered to put people in certain places from the pentagon and other places that were doing things for him, even though he was leaving the position. To have an individual like that as president is really kind of a hard thing i love the din in this room. But sorry to interrupt. You know why we are here. We are going to move along. In the category of individual achievement for National Political reporting, cronkite judges made two awards this year. The first goes to washington chief correspondent for abc news, Jonathan Karl. [applause] this is his second cronkite award for National Political reporting. His first was 10 years ago in 2013. Judges said karl gets at the hearts of stories like no other journalist. His dogged reporting debunked the big lie without further disseminating it by using the freedom of the press to push back on public figures claims as they spewed false information and to hold them accountable for the truth. Lets watch him in action. In the days after the attack, republican leader Kevin Mccarthy said clearly that trump bore responsibility for what happened on january 6. Saying at the time the president bears responsibility for wednesdays attack on congress by rioters. He immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. Today, mccarthy was asked if he Still Believes former President Trump bears responsibility. The country bared some responsibility. The big question that animated the attack. You believe donald trump is flat wrong that the election was stolen . We have answered this question a long time. Joe biden is the president. You can look at a lot of problems in the election process that was not my question. We know he is president , he lives in the white house. Was it legitimate . It is a very simple question. Ive already answered that question. What is the answer . Is donald trump wrong when he says that election was stolen . Thank you very much. You will not answer that . I have answered numerous times. I know what you want to do, i have answered the question is he wrong when he said that election was stolen . Thank you for your time. You said something last week that there were 40,000 ballots with no chain of custody, they should not have been counted. Are you saying you would throw out the ballots of 740,000 740,000 ballots violated chain of custody requirements. First of all, it is not true. Maricopa county board of supervisors put out a 98 page report that is the fact, check your fax. We took the claim to maricopa Maricopa County officials who refuted the claim and pointed to their statement in mages in may saying they had control of the ballot. That they were sealed in envelopes, secured in boxes that bipartisan careers are prohibited from opening. To be clear, the republican board of supervisors, the republican governor, now the republican candidate for Senate Running along with you, the Republican Attorney general under donald trump, all said that there was that the election was not stolen. Are we going to litigate this im wondering why they would all lie . We have a lot of corruption in this system i think a lot of people who were responsible for the election know that there were rules broken and laws broken and they dont want to admit fault. We are going to go forward and make sure going forward, our elections are secure. [applause] two years ago, Jonathan Karl was asked if trump runs again, what do you think reporters covering him should keep in mind . He answered that question with a question. How do you sit down for long, live interviews with a candidate who is trying to destroy the very system that makes his or her election possible . Jonathan was looking forward to being here with us this morning, but something involving espionage and obstruction upended his plans. We are glad he could break away from the breaking news for a moment to accept his award. Thank you to the team at the Norman Lear Center and the great Annenberg School of journalism at usc. This award is especially meaningful to me because it recognizes a body of work, a true Abc News Team effort that is central to our mission as journalists. The award covers two years of reporting, a period beginning three weeks after the january 6 assault on the u. S. Capitol. That is significant because of the assault on our democracy, on truth, on a free press Whose Mission is the pursuit of that truth, did not end when the rioters were expelled from the u. S. Capitol. As long as i have been a political reporter, i felt at the core of my being that my job depends on being a fair and neutral arbiter. Ive always believed the best political journalists do not take sides. Like virtually every human being, i have my own opinions, but they are relevant to my job. I may never be purely objective. Im not sure that is even possible. But when im covering political debates for campaigns, i dont take sides,i still believe that is central to our mission. But i also know this. There is one idea where one area where we as journalists must take sides. We stand for truth, we stand against disinformation. When confronted with those who tell us up is down or day is night, or a free and Fair Election was stolen, or that an attack on the ca