Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Congratulations on the award, i think you maybe you should get the award after all. We have another problem, myther. [ applause ] con garagexd ÷ulagss. When youre in a moment like this, a lot of thoughts flood through your mind after seeing that wonderful, wonderful tribute. All of the people who throughout my career have helped me, have worked with me, have become good friends, in addition to great colleagues no one person can do this alone. And there are just so many names you saw a lot of them in that video and there are hundreds more in this room and not with us tonight. The one thing that has always struck me about every piece of this and itsshow quickly your colleagues come together with you and solve problems. Willie is truly remarkable to see what this industry doc3 especially in the background when things have to get done. It doesnt really matter what the situation is, it could be something as sudden as theu announcement about Osama Bin Laden that had one of our crew members show up in his capitals jersey from washington game that night and shot the head on camera assisted and he just got there as the second person on the scene and made it all work to the great cooperation weve had from the leadership of congress and, especially, the senate and house galleries. Mike and ol gad8 and their peop. Its also been astonishing to see some of the÷u things ive sn over the years and the video of the pope it stuck with me in recent years. One was the courage of the pope standing in front of that audience and delivering a speech that he had rehearsed for weeks and weeks and weeks, knowing how hard heym struggled to speak english. And at that same event, we had been tipped off that he was going to discuss certain themes and÷u one of them was the work dr. King. Colleagues. We had a shot of representative lewis. When the pope got to that point, a tear crossed his eyes and another member hugged him and i will neverym forget that, especially when you think that when i was a kid growing up, there he was out on the÷u stree being arrested, water being hosed down, dogs the whole nine yards, and there he was on that historic day, a memberof congress, distinguished member just reminded me of how far weve come and how much of that was because of the work that your predecessors and all of you did and continue to do every day and i would echo the words of everybody else that has come up here. Its important work weni haveuz keep going. It shouldnt matter to a candidate who says it. The facts are the facts. Thats what we deal with. And the work that i do that have helped me and guided me and gotten me through ÷uthis, reall tran skrind that to say, its not about the politics, its about the truth, and thats what our jobs are. Thank you very muchsmy wife couldnt be here tonight. And my son one is on the west coast and the other one is out p working. The sacrifices they made for all the late nights and all the saturdays and weekend and times that we have to do what we do, all of in this room have gone through this, you know what i mean. To all of your families, thank you, we couldnt do it without you. And thank you all÷u very much. The radio and Television Correspondents association was established to honor the distinguished career of the washington journalism whose vision and leadership has changed the body of journalistic work that over time demonstrated a deep respect for an institutionzv of congress. The award recognizes rare exceptional careers and signifies the admiration of the many broadcasters who follow behind and re5 q from the work of the recent years. Here to present tonights career Achievement Award abc news Vice President ÷u ÷urobin. It is my great night tonight to present this word of nbc news. Dennis has had his hand on the 2u uq of abc news content for four decades. He sat across the desk from anchor Peter Jennings for many years, jousting with him over÷u scripts, grammar, facts, editorial relevance and the like, making world news tonight a much better broadcast for hisi present. For most of his career at abc, though, dennis has been the low star of the washington zero directing Network Coverage of all d. C. Stories. He has befriended, supported,p mentored, andco often challenge his many colleagues in the bureau. We all stood with him when he suffered a major stroke 11÷u yes ago and we all cheered his courageous fight back to take up the helm of the ship again. Hes been a treasuredncolleague. Dr. Martin luther king, jr. Said the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience. But where he stands inym times challenge and controversy. The ultimate professional compliment i can give my great friend is that wherever he is standing in times ofym challeng and controversy, those of us at abc news want to be right beside him. And here is a video about dennis. Two days later, Richard Nixon resigned. It was the start of one hell of a career, more than 40 years dennis has been art guru, writer, producer, editor, and steady hand in the control room, sitting on the world news tonight rim in new york with Peter Jennings, he earned a reputation of being fair. He has helped shaped the careers of so many of us. He has been a calm unrattled present, even when the world around us seemed to be falling apart. He saw the network through september 11. The government has shutdown entire air traffic system in the United States. The explosion of the challenger. Tt crisis meant so much more. ÷u abc Vice President david writer squares that dennis cut his teeth on stories well before the nixon. Dennis, you were actually thri for the original ten commandments. Here you were covering that story as a young reporter. Obviously, you were embedded with george washington. You did a lot of radio back then. Dennis once allegedly put it, his beard is older than some of his bosses. Why hes spent nearly a half century inzv television, hes always been something of newspaper guy. This was his office after a housecleaning. Zv renown broke down when it came to sports. I was there with dennis on that dreadful october night. Washington postnr capturing his expression afterninrv troops s blew game five. ni fittingly eno 9 abcp hc news where dennis met his wife pat. Pat, anna and emmit becoming part of the extended abc family. Dennis doesnt talk much about this on his real passion is for iris music, singing and playing guitar with his brother tom in the band patty goesxdxd west. Congratulations dennis on the n maybe nowni one of your washingn sports teams can finally bring a championship back to the nations ÷uzvcohtcapitol. Longtime partner and crime, thank you sob much of washingto coverage over the past years. Thank you, john carl and miller for the video that wasnt anywhere near as embarrassing ay it might have been. So ive been asking people what i should say tonight and thenr best advice my daughter anna who said, just be likep kanye west, just ramble on for 20 minutes and then announce youre running for president. What do you think about that, governor . You think that÷u will coniwork. I would like to ak knowledge my wife but set aside her own career to raise our two wonderful children,zv hanna who just returned from teaching in france and emmit who just graduated from the program at Church Hill High school, so way to go emmit. I wouldlike to thank my colleagues at abc to the nomination for rtca for the choice, im sure there were many other people, at least as deserving, if not more, i would like to accept this on behalf of all the people who work on assignment on the off hours, people who work in edit rooms and control rooms and tape rooms, the people who haul the cables and the people who haul the cameras and make the electrons do whatni what we nee them to do. All the people ive sent out to Early Morning live shots and lateu night stake outs. The people ive asked to stay a little longer and ask another question, add a line, change another shot. The peoplec we rely on to do to do the hard work of our business of making it make sense. Soym i want to accept this on their behalf. P i realize now im mostly retired im going to rely on them even more and im going to rely on all of you likeall of america is going to rely on all of you to make sense of this peculiar election campaign, to navigate the challenges that were all talking about in newsroomacross the city and across the country. And to make sense of it all. Its going to be a Long Campaign and were counting on you not to grow weery of separating fact from fiction. Thats become immuned to outrage. Its going to be a long five and a halfco months. Dont get tiredni of Holding People accountable who dont think they need to be held accountable. And we need to count on you tou figure out the limits and the changes. When does objectivity require a little less equivalent and a little more truth. You dont need to tell me houp important thenpecision is america will make in november and you dont need me tonixd te you how important your role is. But i do think its worth reflecting for a moment on the lines fromni theni musical niha, where theyho÷unisay, history ha eyes on you. ni it ÷udoes. Congratulations. [ applause ]. You heard a little bit about this from some of our award winners, this committee owes gratitude to the directors of the ÷ugallery and all the staff on the house my÷ustaff. Thank you for all you do. Youre not only liaison keeping up the line, advocating for our coverage, but we owe you this gratitude for the work that youo are doing preparing for theco credentials this summer for the conventions. Forward to getting over that so you can move on to thexdn inauguration. Now,ni its ]yc distinct privil to introduce our keynote speaker tonight. The honorable john kasich, governor of ohio. Governor kasich servigu in the second term and previously served nine terms in the u. S. House of representative. 12th congressional district. Served six years as the budget chairman in the house. Most recently, governor kasichs thoughts for to 16 republican nomination for president , governorkasich. I want to tell you, it is so great to be at the abc zvawards show tonight and so much for fair andnrni balance, i do kno who is on that committee but john, you did a great job. Even conned me into coming here tonight. Tonight. By the way, ia about press credentials, you mention that word and everybody gets upset. In my campaign we pay÷u people take press credentials so somebody will show up every once in a while. What we couldnt figure out is how to get you to show up and put something on the air. The next time. I want to tell you that it really is an honor to be here with all of you. I rarely come into this town, john asked me to come and i thought it would be as distinguished as all of you, i want to tell you that early on in my president ial campaign, i knew i was in trouble. I was the favorite republican, thats like being Mitch Mcconnells favorite kardashian, to be honest with you. You know, they say that the reporters are really really smart people and just a couple of weeks ago i ran into one, he was complaining to me because he had wanted to meet and interview el chapo, but he didnt have an opportunity to do it and he hung his head and said, you know, im not really depressed im anglinu for a great interview with el ne el nino. You know i ate myself all across the state of new york, you know, pizza with a fork, do you think i didnt know what i was doing, are you kidding me. You know it was widely covered, never covered my policies, but my eating was front and center. When i got back to ohio, people were excited to see ÷1e. I mean, a lot of groups were very excited, but the group that was the most excited to know that i was back was the ohio restaurant association. People there that covered me, they worked hard, theyre just theyre terrific, they setsthings up. And they will tell you that i had experienced many wrenching stories in the town halls on the campaign trail. And there was a guy, in particular, that i met that really, really hit home for me. He seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Hep seemed to be sort of losing control. He walked around depressed, not really certain of what his future was and whether he was and since i have left the campaign trail, i still think about him and i believe he still confused andwalking in circles and frustrated and i just want to say, hang in ÷uthere. There are some things i would like to talk to all of you about tonight. Im a very interested in the at how many young people who are playing major roles in the media and others here who are bigtime Decision Makers and i wanted to come3dm talk to you about a couple of things. First of all, as ian pointed out, lets just think about orlando for a second. I once gotzv a phone call just before midnight that a terrible thing had happ and father. And i remember that call. You now, frankly, i dont remember much of that phoneni call, but when youxd go throughn experience like thatnr seres yo soul, you conrcan, to somenrxd relate to people who go through somewhat ofnr au similar experience. The attacks in orlando were clearly at our friends in the gay community. No question about it. Crime, but it was also an attack that is branded now a terrorist act, which we allcu; uat with. Its an attack on all of us. But people in that nightclub bled and as they lay in the hospital, aym little bit of pie of us thats with them, isnt it, a little bit of us that bleeds, a little bit of us that mourns. Because its such an overwhelming he vent to us living in the United States event to us living in the United States of america that somebody can do that to people that people that can gather together as a Community Just having a great,u great time. So our thoughts and words and prayers, theyre needed. Sometimes people wonder about÷u prayer. You say them because it will reach somebody and you think about those moms and those dads and those siblings and the children who got those calls that were or texts at two or three or 4 00 in the morning. And then the concern about would my love one survive. And, in fact, are they still alive. So lets remember them and make a commitment that we all÷u needo be together. And i know you all agree with and i know you all agree with that. Dont want to talk to you about the campaign. I really dont want to talk to you about the÷u candidates. co im not particularly interested in discussing that with you, but i would just like to make a coupleni observations. You know, one of the things that i learned and were seeing it all over the world, is when there is economic u insecurity, when the economy is really performing terribly, you have to understand that that puts people this a place where its so difficult for them to wake up in the morning and to have a good spirit about them. They dont know somebody is going to walk in and tell them that they are out of work,ni particularly when theyre older or they dont know what theyre going to do when their bills keep going higher and theirht wages are frozen. Or worse than all of that, for the moms and dads that are here tonight, big hopes and dreams, you send your kids off to÷u college, they bring up bills, they come home, theyre living in the basement, they cantnr fd a job. Were seeing this allco over th very close election innr austria where theyre also experiencing economic now,xd its fact. co or politicians or public offici politicians or publicnr officia to exploit the insecurity and inc. Sitetyco of the American People or of anybody whonrnicoa these kind of economic hard times,xd frankly, both parties e doing it. You cant blame somebody else you cant blame ouxd have and you cant go somebody else, like my mother useni toco say,÷u she, johnny, you know what,nr your d and i, we dont goni out t7d xd and peopleni that we know, they lived high on thmc nrhog, but, know, the fact of the matterco , that tomorrow will be aco bette day and well push through nith. When politiciansnr create thisn anxiety,ni its sometimes hardcr peopleni to push nrthrough. Let me just tell you, plain and simple, thenr politicians areco i a teri theyreni failing us. You know, i dontni care whethe youre a republican or whtser youre anr democrat, a liberal,r aconservativeni n an independent, all politicians attitu here withpt attitu way we nicommunicate, wexd knowt the 21st century is anr centuryf speed. Its a century of infvation. And all the things that are innovating are doing fine. Think about the newsroom. Think about radio today how its changed because you have to change. But politicians, because ofs fear, of special Interest Groups and politicians because of fear of losing reelection driven to some degree by Interest Groups are failing to do their job. Theyre failing to put the public first and it is wrong. And when i say the leaders today are weak, im actually now, i have to also tell you, that i dont believe that its only the politicians that have put people in a funk. Sports, you pick up the paper, theyre doping. Your favorite athlete, youre disappointed. What the heck happened to them. Religion, were constantly amazed by the news that leaks out about the Catholic Church and theht problem of the abuse victims. Businesses, i read a story yesterday that when people lose their jobs, because they are teaching a Foreign Worker to take their job, get a severance package but theres not a lot of talk about whats happened or they lose their severance package, thats just outrageous. Entertainment, violence, ive got two 16yearold daughters, i worry sometimes about what they watch. And im not zvaprude or old guyi worry about the constant pounding of violence and how about the news media, 2 billion in attention. One to our candidate. One executive says donald trump may not be good for the country, but he is sure good for our profits. Think about it, particularly you young people. But i want to tell you that the people in the elite, sometimes havezv forgotten their values. You know, they have good values when they got there and somehow as they climbed the mountain, they left some of them behind. I have to tell yousthe Elections Come and the elections go. And i will also tell you that at some point this economy is going to improve, but i have believe the realu crisis of our countr is not rooted in money. The beetles were right. Money cant buy you love. The real crisis we have in this country is the crisisym of the spi