Fourth Estate honoree Holt challenges journalism to be 'pitch perfect'

The National Press Club presented its 2021 Fourth Estate Award to NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt Wednesday evening, honoring the broadcaster’s achievements over his four-decade career.

Holt took the helm of NBC’s evening news program in 2015. The COVID-19 pandemic hit in his fifth year in the job, and it was a moment in which he excelled, Club President Lisa Nicole Matthews said.

Calling Holt “a true pioneer in our profession and … the most-trusted anchor in America,” Matthews said the country has had a deeper connection to broadcast news over the last year, as Americans struggle to cope with the coronavirus and its impact on daily life.

“Every evening, Lester was there to help guide us through,” Matthews said.

The lingering pandemic kept Holt, 62, away from the Club ballroom on Oct. 20, where 220 people gathered for the gala celebrating him. It was a hybrid event that also included 156 attendees participating in a virtual ballroom.

“It’s hard to believe that 10 months after the first vaccine was approved, we still find ourselves doing virtual events,” Holt said in a video shown on a big screen in the ballroom. “I want to thank the Press Club for adjusting to the circumstances. I have to tell you, I thought we’d be past this by now.”

Journalism must 'strive to be better'

Journalism has been a “beacon of information” during the pandemic at a time when “many Americans are distrustful of traditional sources of facts,” Holt said. “The world really needs our voice right now – a voice of clarity and fidelity.”

But many Americans don’t trust the media, and journalists need to respond thoughtfully, Holt said.

“If we are serious about pushing back against the assault on journalism in this country, I think we’re going to have to listen, read the room and self-reflect,” said Holt, who also serves as managing editor of the Nightly News and anchor of Dateline NBC. “We have to strive to be better – better today than the day before and better yet the next day. And it means a willingness to look into the mirror sometimes.”

He said he does not blame journalists for the backlash against the profession.  

“The stories we’re covering today are stories of a lifetime,” he said. “The pandemic. Democracy on the ropes. We’ve got to be in the game, not as some wounded version of ourselves but a version still capable and open to learning, still growing and capable of self-correction when necessary. Our voices as journalists have never been more important and we cannot become what our fervent critics want us to be: tone deaf. We have to strive to be pitch perfect.”

But journalism is not immune to a re-set, he said.

“The passion for news that brought so many of us into this business has to now be focused on envisioning our role going forward,” Holt said. “If you accept the premise that free and independent journalism in this country has been damaged, how do we repair it? What needs to be repaired? What do we want to be as an industry?”

Listening to critics

Holt said he realized that he’s asking more questions than he’s answering.

“They’re questions we cannot be afraid to process,” Holt said. “The answers may be partially found in listening. Sometimes, you do have to care about what they’re saying about you.”

What Holt’s friends and colleagues said about him was glowing. He was praised in a video introduction as "a reassuring voice in a stormy sea" and one who "really cares about the greater good." NBC weatherman Al Roker noted Holt's "grace, humor and humility."

Holt is the 49th recipient of the Fourth Estate Award, the Club’s highest honor. The first African American to solo anchor a network nightly newscast, Holt was born in California. His maternal grandparents were from Jamaica. He now lives in New York with his wife, Carol. Away from the anchor desk, he plays the bass guitar and is a church-goer.

Press Freedom winners

During the gala, a fundraiser for the National Press Club Journalism Institute, the Club also honored the winners of this year’s John Aubuchon Press Freedom Awards. One recipient is Danny Fenster, managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, who has been jailed in Myanmar since May 24. The other winner is Haze Fan, a Chinese citizen, who has been detained in Beijing while working for Bloomberg.  

The Marshall Project won the Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for Investigative Journalism. Marshall Project editor Susan Chira, a former New York Times reporter, was praised for her work exploring and illuminating the criminal justice system.

In addition to requiring proof of vaccination, each gala attendee had to take an onsite COVID-19 test before being allowed to enter the Club's ballroom.