The National Press Foundation presented its 2000 awards during a gala dinner February 22, 2001, at the Washington Hilton Hotel. It was the National Press Foundation's 18th Annual Awards Dinner, a black-tie fund-raising event that honors excellence in American journalism. The awards are some of the most prestigious in journalism.

Howard A. Tyner, editor of The Chicago Tribune, won the George Beveridge Editor of the Year Award. Peter Jennings, news anchor and senior editor of ABC News, was named the winner of the Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.

Helen Thomas, now a syndicated columnist for Hearst Newspapers and former "dean" of the White House press corps, was honored for her Distinguished Contributions to Journalism. Chan Lowe, editorial cartoonist for the Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune Company paper in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received the Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Cartoonist of the Year Award.

Two reporters received individual Everett McKinley Dirksen Awards for Distinguished Coverage of Congress. They were Sue Kirchhoff, formerly with CQ magazine and now a reporter in Washington for the Boston Globe, and David Espo, a reporter with the Associated Press.

Noting the influence of the Internet on modern journalism, the National Press Foundation gave its first award for online journalism to washingtonpost.com and its executive editor, Douglas Feaver. The online award was presented by David Rubin, Dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.