The 2020 Virtual Fourth Estate Award Gala was the first of its kind, historic in the evening’s long tradition of honoring journalists who have made significant contributions to the field. The Nov. 18, 2020 event was attended by hundreds of members, guests, and media luminaries who celebrated journalism excellence and raised money for the National Press Club Journalism Institute. You can learn more about the program in this visual guide, which includes information about the evening and congratulatory messages. You can donate here; anyone who gives $250 or more between Nov. 18 and Dec. 31, 2020 will receive a signed print of a drawing created exclusively for the event by New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly.
Meet the honorees
Fourth Estate Award
Each year, the esteemed Fourth Estate Award honors the person whom the NPC Board of Governors decides has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism. The 2020 honoree is Susan Zirinsky, President and Senior Executive Producer of CBS News.
Zirinsky ascended to this position on March 1, 2019 and within nine months she oversaw an overhaul of the news division. An acclaimed journalist and highly respected senior executive producer at CBS News, Zirinsky began her career in the CBS News Washington bureau two weeks after the Watergate break-in. Over the next four decades she produced a wide variety of award-winning documentaries and programs, and she covered a range of historic stories, from the Gulf War to the student uprising in Tiananmen Square, from the White House for 10 years to the 9/11 attacks, and from the Paris terrorist attacks to the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla. School.
In 1984, while covering the Democratic National Convention, Academy Award-winning producer James L. Brooks interviewed her about her job. As a result, while still working at CBS News, Zirinsky became the technical advisor/associate producer for Brooks’ film “Broadcast News,” starring Holly Hunter as a Washington network news producer.
John Aubuchon Press Freedom Awards
Named for a former Club president who fervently advocated for press freedom, this award is given each year to one journalist in the United States and one journalist overseas who bravely pushes to disclose the truth in trying circumstances.
Domestic honoree: Linda Tirado, an author and freelance photographer, was taking pictures of a street protest in Minneapolis on May 30 when a policeman’s foam bullet hit her left eye, costing Tirado most of her sight in that eye. Tirado is among the journalists around the country who were injured, harassed or arrested while covering protests that took place nationwide after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
International honoree: Maria Ressa, CEO and president of Rappler, was convicted in the Philippines on trumped-up charges of cyber libel. Ressa and Rappler have been the target of repeated efforts by the government of President Rodrigo Duterte to silence her. Ressa has emerged as one of the leading voices for press freedom in the Philippines amid threats to independent journalism in the country.
Neil & Susan Sheehan Award for investigative journalism
Ed Yong, the staff writer at The Atlantic who has been shaping our collective understanding of the coronavirus and its impact, will receive the National Press Club Journalism Institute’s 2020 Neil and Susan Sheehan award for investigative journalism. Yong’s in-depth analytical writing has explained, week after week, everything from the mask debate to long-haulers to how the coronavirus has seeped into America’s fault lines, and why the United States has been hit more severely than most other countries, with one-quarter of the world’s confirmed COVID‑19 cases and deaths, but just 4 percent of the global population. Through 5,000-word features, cover stories, interviews, Twitter updates, even advice to young journalists, Yong has shown compassion and integrity that best reflects the Sheehans’ work.
Thank you to our event sponsors
Gold sponsors
Al Jazeera | Amanda Bennett’s Girl Reporter Fund | Bloomberg Philanthropies | NCTA – The Internet & Television Association | POLITICO | The Washington Post
Silver sponsors
Andrea and Michael Edney | CNN | Craig Newmark Philanthropies | Discovery, Inc. | Syngenta | Toyota
Bronze sponsor
CBS
Supporting sponsors
The Associated Press | Baltimore Sun Media | Barbara and John Cochran | Brown Capital Management | Charter Communications | The Frank Islam and Debbie Driesman Foundation | Gannett / USA TODAY Network | Marvin and Madeleine Kalb | Michael and Renee Freedman | Ms. Magazine | New York Times Company