NBC special correspondent and former anchor of NBC Nightly News Tom Brokaw accepted the Gaylord Prize for his distinguished career and display of ethics in the field of journalism Thursday.
The award ceremony was the largest luncheon in the history of OU, said OU President David Boren.
Boren recognized Brokaw as an American icon because “we trusted what [he] had to say.”
“[Brokaw] built American journalism, built its credibility and maintained its credibility in very difficult times,” Boren said. He cited Brokaw’s coverage of Ronald Reagan’s first run for presidential office and his trusted reporting during the Watergate scandal.
At the event, Brokaw spoke on the transformation of the media today, saying that he did not imagine a day where the newspaper would become less and less popular in providing daily news to audiences.
There are now countless sources for people to get their news and that people should make sure what they are reading is reliable, Brokaw said.
“There are a lot of guys sitting out there in their underwear in the basement who couldn’t get a date to the senior prom (just trying to get their voices heard),” Brokaw said. “And they could give a damn about the facts.”
Brokaw then talked about his award. A portion of his winnings from the Gaylord Prize will go toward the Committee to Protect Journalists, Brokaw said. Brokaw is on the advisory board for the committee.
It “sickens” him to hear what is happening to freelance journalists across the Middle East, referring to the multiple beheadings journalists have received by terrorist organizations such as ISIS, Brokaw said.
“I get very emotional when I think about the brave men and women … who are out there getting captured … and beheaded,” Brokaw said.
Brokaw also told the audience about his childhood in South Dakota.
“My father was a third-grade dropout,” Brokaw said. “[My parents] put together a working-class life.”
After giving his back story, Brokaw explained his fascination for Oklahoma. In his professional career, no city has responded greater to tragedy than Oklahoma City after the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed in 1995, he said.
“Oklahoma understood that this was a time for it to come together and to be greater than the sum of its parts,” Brokaw said.
At the luncheon, Joe Foote, dean of Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, also recognized the various student media outlets of OU and their accomplishments.
“Our students are making waves throughout the country,” Foote said. “For our students, the classroom is a starting point.”
Boren also talked about Gaylord’s success.
“[Gaylord College] is firmly entrenched in the top 10 colleges of journalism in the country,” Boren said.
Boren gave thanks to the Gaylord family, members of which were present at the ceremony, for kick-starting Gaylord by transforming it from a school to a college.
“[The Gaylord family] and journalism in Oklahoma are synonymous,” Boren said.
He later asked the family members to rise and for the audience to recognize them for their role in the triumph of the college.
The ceremony ended when ABC foreign correspondent and OU professor Mike Boettcher came onstage and gave Brokaw the jacket Brokaw wore while covering the fall of the Berlin Wall as a gift. Brokaw borrowed the jacket from Boettcher because he did not have a jacket to wear before the broadcast of the Berlin Wall falling.
“I had no idea when I came to Oklahoma today that I was going to need this kind of a top,” Brokaw said.
After the ceremony, Brokaw left to go to a small question and answer session at Gaylord College which had to be shortened because he had to catch a flight soon afterwards.
This article was corrected on Feb. 27 at 1:15 p.m. to reflect that Brokaw is a member of the advisory board for the Committee to Protect Journalists, not a founder of the committee.
