NOTE: Affiliations listed are at the time of their speech.
2024 Al Cross, journalist, Kentucky politics expert and director emeritus of the Institute for Rural Journalism
2023 James Fallows, author
2022 John Lansing, CEO of National Public Radio
2021 Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent, New York Times, and Susan Glasser, staff writer, The New Yorker
2020 No lecture given
2019 Howard Fineman, global editorial director, Huffington Post
2018 Sam Abell, National Geographic photographer
2017 Terry Hunt, AP Veteran
2016 Jeffery Marks, general manager of a Virginia television station
2015 Pamela Brown, CNN national news correspondent
2014 Mervin Aubespin, Louisville Courier Journal, associate editor (retired), former national president, National Association of Black Journalists
2013 Al Tompkins, senior faculty broadcast and online, The Poynter Institute
2012 John Harwood, CNBC, New York Times political writer
2011 Leonard Pitts, Jr., Miami Herald, nationally syndicated columnist
2010 Tom Curley, Associated Press, president and CEO
2009 Howard Fineman, Newsweek/MSNBC, columnist
2008 John Carroll, former editor, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Lexington Herald-Leader
2007 Molly Bingham, journalist, photographer, filmmaker
2006 David Broder, Washington Post, columnist
2005 Leonard Downie, Jr., Washington Post, executive editor
2004 Earl Caldwell, New York Times, former civil rights-era reporter
2003 Bob Edwards, National Public Radio, host of Morning Edition
2002 Angelo B. Henderson, The Detroit News, special projects reporter
2001 Bonnie Angelo, Time Magazine, contributor
2000 Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, columnist
1999 Charles L. Overby, The Freedom Forum, chairman and CEO
1998 Hodding Carter III, Knight Foundation, president and CEO
1997 Michael Gartner, NBC News, former president
1996 Geneva Overholser, Washington Post, ombudsman
1995 Robert Mulholland, NBC, former president
1994 Burl Osborne, Dallas Morning News, publisher/editor
1993 Jim Squires, Chicago Tribune, former editor
1992 Helen Thomas, UPI, reporter
1991 Bernard Shaw, CNN, anchor
1990 David Kindred, The National Sports Daily, columnist
1989 Charles Kuralt, CBS News, correspondent
1988 John Ed Pearce, Louisville Courier Journal, columnist
1987 John C. Quinn, USA Today, editor
1986 Eugene Patterson, St. Petersburg Times, Chairman and CEO
1985 Charles McDowell, Richmond Times-Dispatch, syndicated columnist
1984 David Dick, CBS Television News, correspondent
1983 Harrison E. Salisbury, New York Times, associate editor
1982 William Safire, New York Times, Washington Bureau
1981 Thomas G. Wicker, New York Times, associate editor
1980 John F. Day, CBS News, former director
1979 James Reston, New York Times, columnist
1978 No lecture given
1977 James J. Kilpatrick, Washington Star, syndicated columnist