Master interviewer Charlie Rose honored with Fourth Estate Award at National Press Club
Charlie Rose, the affable North Carolinian known for his thoughtful, low-key interview style, was awarded the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award for a lifetime of achievement.
Rose, who accepted the award Saturday, Sept. 13, at a gala dinner, dedicated it to those journalists who “give their lives for the story,” and noted the dramatic courage and sacrifice of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, murdered recently by the Islamic State group. Rose also acknowledged British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines,whose apparent death at the hands of the same group had been reported shortly before the Saturday evening event began.
As a recipient of the Fourth Estate Award, Rose joins a distinguished roster of the nation's top journalists. The first award was bestowed in 1973 to Walter Cronkite of CBS News.
Each weeknight, Rose hosts the program "Charlie Rose" on PBS television stations across the United States and on Bloomberg Television. He also co-anchors "CBS This Morning" and is a contributing correspondent to "60 Minutes."
While acknowledging having had "a remarkable life" on television, Rose, 72, noted one disadvantage of his high-profile TV career: “I have to watch myself grow old on camera.”
Rose said his aim as a journalist is to “get a sense of who we are and who we want to be." Throughout his career, Rose said he has had the opportunity to interview everyone from "poets, politicians, businessmen," and people in almost every walk of life.
He also said he “stood on the shoulders” of many people, noting that his parents had never gone to college, but supported his chance to get a good education. Rose graduated from Duke University and the Duke University School of Law.
Toasts by Norah O’Donnell of "CBS This Morning," Al Hunt of Bloomberg View and Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic, saluted Rose’s work to bring intelligent, thoughtful conversation to journalism over his famous “oak table.”
NPC President Myron Belkind thanked the staff of the Club, its Journalism Institute and NPC members who contributed to the evening.
"We honored Charlie Rose this evening, and he in turn said he was honored to be recognized by the National Press Club," Belkind said. “Most of all, significant funds were raised for the NPC Journalism Institute’s scholarship programs whose annual recipients were the real winners this evening.”