2019

Bob Woodward

The Washington Post

2018

Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt

PBS NewsHour and Bloomberg

2017

Clarence Page

Chicago Tribune

2016

Clark Hoyt

2015

Diane Rehm

NPR

2014

Alberto Ibargüen

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

2013

Robert Siegel

NPR

2012

Frank Deford

NPR, HBO, Sports Illustrated

2011

Lucy Dalglish

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

2010

Gilbert M. Grosvenor

National Geographic Society

2009

Bill Kovach

Committee of Concerned Journalists

2008

Linda Johnson Rice

Johnson Publishing Company

2007

Thomas L. Friedman

The New York Times

2006

Art Buchwald

New York Herald Tribune

2005

Jack Germond

Baltimore Sun

2004

Seymour Hersh

The New Yorker

2003

Benjamin C. Bradlee

The Washington Post

2002

Eugene Patterson

St. Petersburg Times

2001

Katharine Graham

The Washington Post

2000

Helen Thomas

Hearst Newspapers

1999

Allen H. Neuharth

The Freedom Forum

1998

Herb Block

The Washington Post

1997

Carl Rowan

Chicago Sun-Times and King Features

1996

Ann Landers

Chicago Tribune/Creators Syndicate Abigail Van Buren, Universal Press Syndicate

1995

William Safire

New York Times

1994

Nat Hentoff

Village Voice

1993

Elliot Jaspin

Cox Newspapers Philip Meyer, University of North Carolina

1992

David Broder

Washington Post

1991

Richard M. Schmidt, Jr., Esq.

Cohn & Marks

1990

John Siegenthaler

Nashville Tennessean

1989

Robert Maynard and Nancy Maynard

Oakland Tribune

1988

Eugene L. Roberts

Philadelphia Inquirer

1987

A. M. Rosenthal

New York Times

1986

John H. Johnson

Johnson Publishing Company

1985

Donald Larrabee

Griffin-Larrabee News Bureau

1984

Theodore A. Burtis

CEO, Sun Company

1983

Leo Bernstein

Financier