Charles Gibson is anchor of ABC's flagship broadcast "ABC's World News," as well as the network's principal anchor for breaking news, election coverage and special events. He is one of the most distinguished journalists in television with more than 40 years' experience, 33 of those at ABC News in many network leadership positions. He was named anchor of "World News" in May 2006.

During the 2008 election cycle, he has covered the pivotal primaries and caucuses, reporting from Iowa, New Hampshire and Texas. He moderated back-to-back presidential debates in Manchester, NH just days before the first-in-the-nation primary in that state. He moderated a Democratic debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the most-watched debate of the primary cycle.

Before being named anchor of "World News," Mr. Gibson was co-anchor of "Good Morning America" from 1987 to 1998. He returned to "GMA" to re-launch the broadcast with Diane Sawyer on January 18, 1999.  On September 11, 2001, Mr. Gibson, along with Ms. Sawyer, began the network's award-winning coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

He has interviewed leaders from around the globe, including Kofi Annan, Tony Blair, the late Yasir Arafat and Nelson Mandela. He traveled to Israel in April 2002 to cover the crisis of suicide bombings, and reported from Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in October 2000 to cover the Middle East peace summit.

Mr. Gibson came to ABC News in 1975 from a syndicated news service, Television News Inc. (TVN), which he joined in 1974. From 1970 to 1973 he was an anchor and reporter for WJLA-TV (then WMAL-TV), the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC. Prior to joining WJLA-TV, he had been news director for WLVA-TV and Radio in Lynchburg, Virginia. His first job in broadcasting was Washington producer for RKO Network in 1966.

Mr. Gibson is a graduate of Princeton University, where he was news director for the University's radio station, WPRB-FM. A native of Evanston, Illinois, he grew up in Washington, DC. He and his wife, Arlene, live in New York. They have two daughters and one grandson.

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Peterson is an award-winning news anchor, reporter, writer, and producer whose documentary work has taken him to Northern Ireland, Israel, South Africa, Nicaragua, El Salvador, France, Rome, Cambodia, and Kuwait. He has several Emmy Awards for writing and producing documentaries and series such as 'Journey to Normandy,' marking the 50th Anniversary of D-Day; 'The Cambodian People: No Place to Call Home,' dealing with Cambodian refugees and 'Faces of Israel,' about the impact of war in Lebanon on Israelis and Palestinians. Peterson's award-winning series, 'Triana, Alabama: A Bad Case of the DDT's,' chronicled the struggle of a small, predominantly African-American community exposed to DDT by a local chemical plant.

A former U.S. Marine Officer, Peterson often reports on problems and challenges facing the U.S. military and veterans, including the case of a blind veteran who committed suicide after his benefits were cut off. Peterson has reported, too, on the financial struggles enlisted personnel face in trying to house their families in the Washington area and on U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq after combat without the appropriate body and vehicle armor. Peterson is the recipient of the Veteran's Administration Involvement award and has been the guest of honor at the Marine Corps War Memorial Sunset Parade.

Prior to his television career, Peterson covered news and sports for then CBS-owned WEEI radio in Boston, Massachusetts and for CBS radio. Prior to that, he was News Director for the CBS-affiliate WNEB radio in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and attended Georgetown University.

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Gwen Ifill, who holds two highly-respected positions in the field of broadcast journalism-- Moderator and Managing Editor of PBS’s Washington Week  and senior correspondent for the Newshour with Jim Lehrer--  has been selected for the 2006 Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. 

Gwen Ifill made the move to broadcasting by joining NBC more than a dozen years ago after a notable reporting career covering national affairs and politics for the New York Times and the Washington Post.  As NBC News’ chief congressional and political correspondent, Gwen Ifill reported on the 1992 presidential campaign, Washington’s many legislative battles, and the impeachment of President Clinton, appearing regularly on NBC’s news programs, including Nightly News, the Today show, Meet the Press, and on the MSNBC cable network.  

Her work with Washington Week began as a regular panelist for this flagship PBS public affairs program. In October 1999, she took over the moderator’s chair, while also joining the Newshour team.  In October 2004, Gwen Ifill was asked to moderate the vice-presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards.  She is actively involved in journalism and journalism education organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Museum of Television and Radio and the University of Maryland’s College of Journalism.

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Charles Osgood, a newsman, commentator and poet, has been anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning since 1994. He also anchors and writes The Osgood File, his daily news commentary broadcast on the CBS Radio Network. His commentaries have drawn one of the largest audiences of any network radio feature. He has anchored and reported for many CBS News broadcasts including the CBS Morning News, the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, and the CBS Sunday Night News.

Osgood was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1990 and has received some of the highest accolades in broadcast journalism, including a 1999 International Radio and Television Society Foundation award for significant achievement. He received his third Emmy Award in 1997 for his interview with American realist painter Andrew Wyeth for Sunday Morning. Osgood received a 1997 George Foster Peabody Award for Sunday Morning and two additional Peabody Awards, in 1985 and 1986, for Newsmark, a weekly CBS Radio public affairs broadcast.

Before joining CBS News in September 1971, Osgood was an anchor/reporter for WCBS News Radio 88 in New York (1967-71). Prior to that, he spent four years on general assignment for ABC News.

Osgood was born on January 8, 1933 in New York. He graduated from Fordham University with a B.S. degree in economics in 1954 and has been awarded 10 honorary doctorates. He is the author of five books. The most recent, See You on the Radio (G.P. Putnam's Sons), was published in 1999.

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Russert took over the helm of Meet the Press in December 1991.  Since then, MTP has become the most watched Sunday morning interview program in America. Russert has interviewed every major figure on the American political scene.

Russert joined NBC News in 1984.  In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of the Today program from Rome, negotiating an appearance by Pope John Paul II. Among his many awards, his Election 2000 Meet the Press interviews with George W. Bush and Al Gore won the Radio and Television Correspondents' Joan S. Barone Award and the Annenberg Center's Walter Cronkite Award. His March 2000 interview of Senator John McCain shared the Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television Journalism. 

He has received thirty-three honorary doctorate degrees and has lectured at the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Reagan Presidential Libraries. He is a trustee of the Freedom Forum's Newseum. Born in Buffalo, New York on May 7, 1950, he is a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and with honors from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

Before joining NBC News, Russert was a counselor in the New York Governor's office in Albany in 1983 and 1984 and a special counsel in the United States Senate from 1977 to 1982. Russert is married to Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine.  They live in Washington, D.C. with their son, Luke.

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2003 Sol Taishoff Award Recipient

Brit Hume, is Fox News' Washington managing editor and chief correspondent, with more than 35 years of journalism experience to draw from.

Hume serves as anchor of Special Report with Brit Hume, a top rated political program on cable television, which airs weekdays on FOX News Channel.  He also serves as a regular panelist on FOX broadcast network's weekly public affairs program, FOX News Sunday.  In addition to covering major political stories and contributing news analysis to FOX News Channel, Hume is responsible for overseeing news content for FOX News' Washington, D.C., bureau.

Before joining FOX News in 1996, Hume was with ABC News for 23 years, serving as chief White House correspondent from 1989 through 1996.  During his tenure, he contributed to World News Tonight With Peter Jennings, Nightline and This Week as well as various specials for the news division.  Hume joined ABC in 1973 as a consultant for the network's documentary division and was named a Washington correspondent in 1976.  He was later promoted to Capitol Hill correspondent and reported on Congress until 1988. 
Earlier Hume reported for United Press International (UPI).  He began his career as a newspaper reporter with The Hartford Times and the Baltimore Evening Sun. 

Hume has received numerous honors and awards, including a 1991 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Gulf War.  He was also twice named "The Best in the Business" by the American Journalism Review for his extensive news coverage of the White House.  Hume is the author of two books, Inside Story and Death and the Mines.  A graduate of the University of Virginia, Hume resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife Kim Schiller Hume, who is FOX News' Washington, D.C., bureau chief.

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2002 Sol Taishoff Award Recipient

Cokie Roberts is the chief congressional analyst and a political commentator for ABC News. She covers politics, Congress and public policy for ABC News, reporting for “World News Tonight” and other ABC News broadcasts.  From 1996 - September, 2002 she was the co-anchor of “This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts.” In addition to her work for ABC, Ms. Roberts serves as a senior news analyst for National Public Radio, where she was the congressional correspondent for more than ten years.

Before joining ABC News in 1988, Ms. Roberts was a contributor to PBS-TV's “MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour.” Her coverage of the Iran/Contra affair for that program won her the Weintal Award in 1987. She has won the highest honor in public radio, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and was the first broadcast journalist to win the highly prestigious Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for coverage of Congress. She won a 1991 Emmy for her contribution to the ABC News special, “Who is Ross Perot?”

Ms. Roberts and her husband, Steven V. Roberts, a professor at George Washington University and contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report, write a weekly column syndicated by United Media in major newspapers around the country. In February 2000 they published “From This Day Forward,” an account of their more than 30-year marriage, as well as other marriages in American history. Ms. Roberts is the author of the 1998 national best-seller, "We Are Our Mother's Daughters.” She is currently at work on a book, “Founding Mothers,” which will be published by William Morrow early next year.

Prior to joining NPR, Ms. Roberts was a reporter for CBS News in Athens, Greece. She also produced and hosted a public affairs program on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. She is former president of the Radio and Television Correspondent's Association.

A 1964 graduate in political science from Wellesley College, she is the recipient of 15 honorary degrees. Ms. Roberts and her husband are the parents of two adult children.

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2001 Sol Taishoff Award Recipient

Bob Schieffer, broadcast journalism's most experienced Washington reporter, has been anchor and moderator of Face the Nation, the CBS News Sunday public affairs broadcast, since May 1991. He also is CBS News' chief Washington correspondent.

Schieffer has covered Washington for CBS News for 31 years and is one of the few broadcast or print correspondents to have covered all four major beats in the nation's capital - the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and Capitol Hill. He has been chief Washington correspondent since 1982 and congressional correspondent since 1989. Schieffer has covered every presidential campaign and has been a floor reporter at every Democratic and Republican National Convention since 1972.

Schieffer has won many broadcast news awards, including five Emmys and two Sigma Delta Chi awards. He has been a principal anchor for CBS News since 1973, when he was named anchor of the CBS Sunday Night News. In August 1996, Schieffer stepped down as anchor of the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News, a post he had held for 20 years, the longest tenure for an anchor of a regularly-scheduled network news broadcast.

Before joining CBS News in 1969, he was a reporter at The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and, in 1965, became the first reporter from a Texas newspaper to report from Vietnam. Schieffer later became news anchor at BAP-TV Dallas/Fort Worth, a post that eventually led to his joining CBS News.

Schieffer began his professional career in 1957, while still a student at Texas Christian University. He received a BA in journalism and English there in 1959. He is an Air Force veteran. Schieffer co-wrote Acting President, a book about Ronald Reagan, published in 1989.

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2000 Sol Taishoff Award Recipient

2000 was an extraordinary year for Peter Jennings.  He literally began the year on the air—On January 1, 2000, he was in the midst of anchoring ABC's live coverage of the millennium events around the globe.  That broadcast was a television event watched by 175 million people.

In a news year dominated by presidential politics, Jennings found time to focus on the world beyond the American elections. His documentary on Jesus, “Peter Jennings Reporting: In Search of Jesus” was a critical success and garnered more viewers than any news program on a broadcast or cable network last year. His prime-time special on the tensions in India and Pakistan broke new ground.

Yet Jennings was never very far away from the presidential election. As the nation waited for the final outcome, Jennings walked the reporters and producers of ABC News through one of the toughest assignments of the year: live analysis of the Supreme Court's ruling in the battle between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush. It was a quintessential moment for Jennings, who has been the anchor and senior editor of World News Tonight since 1983. With assurance and gentle authority he stage-managed the network's army of personnel through one of the most extraordinary nights in modern news history.  It was the kind of professionalism display he has shown since he joined the network in 1964.

Jennings was in Berlin in the 1960s when the Berlin Wall was going up and there in the 1990s when it came down. He was in Vietnam in the 1960s and the killing fields of Cambodia in the1980s. He has reported from all 50 states and dozens of international locations. He has dealt with such issues such as gun control, the politics of abortion, the crisis in funding for the arts and the politics of the tobacco industry. Jennings has been honored with 12 national Emmys, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, Overseas Press Club Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award and many many others.

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Other Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism Reading