Andrea Mitchell on Rebuilding Faith in the News Media: ‘Trust Is the Coin of the Realm, and We Have to Be the Gold Standard'

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2 days ago

The Peabody Awards will honor veteran NBC News' Chief Washington and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell with the Career Achievement Award, and the landmark sketch comedy series 'Saturday Night Live' with the Institutional Award during a June 1 ceremony in Beverly Hills.
Now in its 85th year, the Peabody Awards recognize the importance of storytelling and of narratives irrespective of genre or platform, whether the show be entertainment, news, a documentary, children's programing, radio, podcasting or a video game.
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Jeffrey P. Jones, executive director of the Peabody Awards, says that Mitchell's long, distinguished career as a journalist at various capacities covering the White House and international affairs — and the gravity of both of those positions — makes her an obvious choice for the award.
'It's someone like that who's had such a career in the public eye, we felt as if it was important to recognize not just that longevity, but the quality of her work and the importance of what quality journalism looks like in 2025. There's a lot of new and challenging understandings of what constitutes professional quality journalism. What better way than to demonstrate somebody who, for 30 years, has done it right?'
Mitchell isn't just flattered by the acknowledgement, she says, 'I can't tell you how thrilled I am. This is the ultimate recognition in our profession, and it's not just personally from my career, but also just how far we've come in broadcast journalism and how much television has been transformed since I first started. It means a lot to be the first woman to receive [the Career Achievement Award for journalism]. It is such a signature achievement.'
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967, Mitchell was hired as a reporter for KYW radio in Philadelphia. When she first started as a journalist, she was told that women couldn't be in the newsroom. 'And now I look around and I have a woman bureau chief and a woman president of NBC News and women producers and colleagues and women at every level in our newsroom, throughout the company here in New York, around the world. So there is so much ratification,' she says.
And Mitchell has been at the forefront of that progress for women journalists, beginning in 1972 when she covered both the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions. She also covered all the Gorbachev-Reagan summits and the end of the Cold War, and interviewed everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Fidel Castro. 'I mean, who gets to do that?' she asks with a laugh.
'When I think about having a front row in history, it's such a responsibility because it's through our reports — through my reports, as well as my colleagues — that the American people get to experience all of these historic events. So that raises the bar in terms of how important it is to get our facts right. And to always be accurate and to share so much about how we're communicating history to people.'
The blurring of lines between 'news' and 'entertainment,' fueled by the spreading of fake news has snowballed into a major threat against the responsibility of the Fourth Estate, which has become more important than ever. Social media — and before that, talk radio and every other transformation of the way people consume news — has complicated what true journalists do. Their standards have to be in violet.
'They have to be accurate and fair and doing justice to the story, providing context analysis when it is appropriate, but not opinion,' Mitchell explains. 'You have to be true to your mission, and that is providing context and facts to your audiences, It doesn't matter what the platform is. We evolve with the technology, but the mission remains the same. … Trust is the coin of the realm, and we have to be the gold standard. We have to be absolutely right all the time. Getting something first is never as important as getting it right.'
And that is the sage advice Mitchell offers young, aspiring journalists coming up in the ranks: Do your homework. 'The best political reporters are the people who like to talk to people. If you don't like people and you don't want to ask questions and ask people about themselves and their lives, then I don't think you're going to ever rise to the level of, certainly, broadcast journalism. I mean, maybe there are other formats where you can fake it, but it's too transparent. You're too visible. People get it when you're not authentic.'
While Mitchell has covered the serious side of politics and history, 'SNL' has taken a tongue-in-cheek approach — but without pulling punches.
'Beyond being one of the longest programs on television, let's just count the ways in which 'Saturday Night Live' revolutionized so many facets of television itself,' says Jones. 'It helped define American television, for better or worse, what political humor and satire looks like. And one can't overstate the importance of Lorne Michaels as a creative and to having the vision for that 50 years ago, and then for making a show that people still tune into week after week. Given that 'SNL' is in its 50th year, we felt it was an appropriate time to tip our hat to them as a landmark television show that's 'an institution.''
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