Deadline Club's New York Journalism Hall of Fame inducts new class of media icons at the Manhattan Manor.
On March 23, the Deadline Club will induct six new members into its historic New York Journalism Hall of Fame. This year’s ceremony, to be held at the Manhattan Manor near Times Square, will recognize six iconic changemakers: Robert Caro, Gay Talese, Ken Auletta, Edith Lederer, Carole Simpson and Anthony Mason. This event had previously been scheduled in November but was postponed due to illness among some honorees.
Established in 1975 as part of the Deadline Club’s golden anniversary celebration, the New York Journalism Hall of Fame was conceived as a lifetime achievement award recognizing reporters, writers, correspondents, editors, publishers and media executives whose work had made a significant contribution to American journalism. Past honorees have included Jimmy Breslin, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters, Ed Bradley and Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, to name but a few.
This year’s luncheon event will take place Thursday, March 23, noon to 3 p.m. ET, at the Manhattan Manor, 201 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019, near Times Square.
Join the Deadline Club to save. If you’re already an SPJ member, there’s no extra charge to join. Register at the member rate and let us know at the door or by email at info@deadlineclub.org.
If you are not already an SPJ member, join at spj.org/join.asp and select New York Deadline Club as your chapter. Members receive member discounts on events year-round and exclusive access to Salmagundi in Greenwich Village.
Hope to see you for this special event held only once every few years.
AT A GLANCE
What: New York Journalism Hall of Fame
When: Thursday, March 23, noon to 3 p.m.
Where: Manhattan Manor, 201 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019 (map link)
Tickets: $90 for Deadline Club members; $110 nonmembers; $880 for tables of 8; For information on sponsored tables email info@deadlineclub.org (additional fees apply at registration)
MEET THE 2022 HONOREES
Robert Caro
ICONIC POLITICAL BIOGRAPHER
Considered the greatest political biographer of our time, Robert Caro is best known for his master works, “The Power Broker,” exploring how Robert Moses near-singlehandedly reshaped New York City, and the four of his planned five volumes of “The Years of Lyndon Johnson.” Caro’s trademarks are painstaking historical research, an engaging narrative writing style and a commitment to reporting every aspect of the story no matter how long it takes. As Caro puts it, “Time equals truth.” His series on LBJ — which includes “The Path to Power,” “Means of Ascent” and “Master of the Senate” — has so far taken more than 40 years and included stints in which he moved to the Texas Hill Country to better understand his subject and interview sources. It was an approach the New York City native and Princeton graduate honed in his early years as an investigative reporter at Long Island’s Newsday, when his gruff editor gave him a piece of advice: “Turn every page. Never assume anything.” Caro’s many honors include two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, including a lifetime achievement award, and the National Humanities Medal in 2010 from President Barack Obama. The Modern Library selected “The Power Broker” as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. Caro’s methods of research, interviewing and writing are detailed in his 2019 book “Working” and in a new documentary fittingly titled “Turn Every Page.”
Gay Talese
MASTER OF THE NEW JOURNALISM
GAY TALESE is an innovator and master of “The New Journalism,” which emerged in the 1960s marrying hard-nosed reporting with the artistry of fiction writing. It’s a form the New Jersey native began exploring as a reporter at The New York Times, and took to a new level through a series of magazine profiles, including the iconic “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” in 1966 that Esquire praised as the best story it has ever published. Talese’s 14 books have been marked by immersive, detail-rich reporting and a focus on what he called “the overlooked, non-newsworthy population that is everywhere but rarely taken into account by journalists.” His works include “The Bridge,” about the builders of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, “The Kingdom and the Power,” about the influence of The New York Times; “Honor Thy Father,” the inside story of a Mafia family; “Thy Neighbor’s Wife,” an exploration of sexuality in America; and “Unto the Sons,” a memoir about his family’s immigration from Italy.
Ken Auletta
AMERICA'S PREMIER MEDIA CRITIC
KEN AULETTA is America’s premier media critic. Through his New Yorker columns and profiles, and thirteen deeply reported books, Auletta has often been the first word on every major shift in the communications landscape for decades. Auletta was among the first to popularize the so-called information superhighway with his 1993 profile of Barry Diller’s search for something new. He has profiled the leading figures and companies of the Information Age, including Google, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, AOL Time Warner, John Malone, Sheryl Sandberg and Facebook. In ranking him as America’s premier media critic, the Columbia Journalism Review concluded, “no other reporter has covered the new communications revolution as thoroughly as has Auletta.” His best-sellers include “Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way,” “Googled, The End of the World As We Know It,” and his latest, “Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence.”
Edith Lederer
PIONEERING REPORTER
EDITH LEDERER is a pioneering reporter who in more than five decades with The Associated Press has worked on every continent except Antarctica covering wars, famines, nuclear issues and political upheavals. She has been chief correspondent at the United Nations since 1998, reporting on the diplomatic side of conflicts in Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Darfur and Kosovo, and major global issues from the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea to climate change and women’s rights. The Long Island native’s career is marked by significant firsts: First female resident war correspondent in Vietnam in 1972, first woman to head an AP foreign bureau, in Peru, and the first journalist to file the bulletin announcing the start of the first Gulf War. Her many AP posts from Africa and Latin America to Hong Kong and London have made her an eyewitness to history on many fronts, helping to cover the breakup of the Soviet Union, conflicts in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, and the death of Princess Diana.
Carole Simpson
BARRIER-BREAKING BROADCASTER
CAROLE SIMPSON is a barrier-breaking broadcaster, the first Black woman to anchor a network newscast, and has spent much of her career trying to pave the way for others. After getting her start in radio and TV in Chicago, she was hired as a network correspondent, first by the NBC and then by ABC. Beginning in 1988 and for the next 15 years, she broke barriers as anchor of the ABC World News Tonight weekend editions. And in 1992, she became the first woman of color to moderate a presidential debate when George H.W. Bush, Ross Perot and Bill Clinton squared off in a town hall format. Throughout the 90s, she continued to report on big stories, covering the release from prison of Nelson Mandela, the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Clinton impeachment trial. After ABC, Simpson continued to make her way for others through mentoring, scholarships and as a professor at Emerson College.
Anthony Mason
CBS' VERSATILE VOICE
ANTHONY MASON is among the most versatile and accomplished journalists on television, with a stellar career at CBS as a foreign correspondent, business correspondent, culture correspondent and anchor of some of the network’s flagship news programs. In his more than 35 years with the network, the New York City native has reported on major news from more than 40 countries, including the Iran-Iraq war, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, and the rise of Boris Yeltsin and the demise of the Soviet Union, coverage which won him one of his seven career Emmy Awards. He smoothly transitioned to the anchor desk, with frequent appearances as host of the “CBS Evening News,” “CBS This Morning” and “CBS Sunday Morning.” And as a senior culture correspondent, he is known for his insightful interviews with many of the most prominent musicians of our time, including Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Aretha Franklin and Paul McCartney.