The 2020 Virtual Fourth Estate Award Gala will be the first of its kind, historic in the evening’s long tradition of honoring journalists who have made significant contributions to the field. This year’s gala will present the elegant face-to-face experience you expect but from the comfort and safety of your own home.
Each year, the esteemed Fourth Estate Award honors the person whom the NPC Board of Governors decides has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism. The 2020 honoree is Susan Zirinsky, President and Senior Executive Producer of CBS News.
Zirinsky ascended to this position on March 1, 2019 and within nine months she oversaw an overhaul of the news division. An acclaimed journalist and highly respected senior executive producer at CBS News, Zirinsky began her career in the CBS News Washington bureau two weeks after the Watergate break-in. Over the next four decades she produced a wide variety of award-winning documentaries and programs, and she covered a range of historic stories, from the Gulf War to the student uprising in Tiananmen Square, from the White House for 10 years to the 9/11 attacks, and from the Paris terrorist attacks to the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla. School.
