{"id":207271,"date":"2017-12-04T14:22:21","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T19:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/?p=207271"},"modified":"2018-10-25T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T18:06:17","slug":"eyewitness-news-anchor-bill-ritter-earns-broadcaster-of-the-year-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2017\/12\/04\/eyewitness-news-anchor-bill-ritter-earns-broadcaster-of-the-year-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyewitness News Anchor Bill Ritter Earns Broadcaster of the Year Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Against a backdrop of attacks on media and spread of \u201cfake news\u201d on social networks, the search for truth by journalists matters more than ever before, says Bill Ritter, anchor of ABC7\u00a0<em>Eyewitness News<\/em>. Honored as the Allen B. DuMont Broadcaster of the Year, Ritter used the opportunity at Montclair State University to give voice to challenges facing the news industry today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first became enthralled and captivated by the possibilities of journalism,\u201d said Ritter, recalling his entry into reporting during the Vietnam War and civil rights movement, \u201cit was a great time to be a reporter, a great time to be searching for the truth\u2026It\u2019s even more important now because the whole world for searching for the truth and reporting the facts is under assault like never before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The prestigious Allen B. DuMont award is presented annually to leading journalists and reporters by the School of Communication and Media. Ritter\u2019s visit on December 1 showcased the University\u2019s new state-of-the-art broadcast and media production facilities, with students producing an interview with Ritter for their weekly magazine show,\u00a0<em>Carpe Diem<\/em>, and filming the awards ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>For Elizabeth Clifford, a senior who works nights as a sports intern for ABC7, the event held special meaning as she had the opportunity to both learn about Ritter\u2019s distinguished career and participate in the broadcast, operating for the first time a robotic camera during the lecture in Presentation Hall. She slowly panned a full house of students attending the special Colloquium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need people,\u201d Ritter told the aspiring journalists, \u201cwho are committed to a process of not only posting their opinions but posting verified facts and information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview for\u00a0<em>Carpe Diem<\/em>\u00a0with Marc Rosenweig, retired television and digital media professor, the news anchor pushed back on the spread of so-called fake news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are avenues and processes in place that are fairly strict about what\u2019s true, what\u2019s publishable, what\u2019s reportable and what we\u2019re able to communicate,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cSocial media has changed the paradigm and changed how we communicate with each other. I don\u2019t think it is always for the good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ritter\u2019s career spans more than 40 years, both in print and television. He was a reporter and editor for the San Diego County edition of\u00a0<em>The Los Angeles Times<\/em>, and has worked as a correspondent for the ABC news magazine\u00a0<em>20\/20<\/em>\u00a0and co-host of\u00a0<em>Good Morning America Sunday<\/em>. For the past 18 years, he\u2019s been co-anchor at ABC7, the most-watched local television station in the nation.<\/p>\n<p>His role as an anti-war activist during Vietnam \u2013 and being involved in the most important public discussion of that time \u2013 ultimately led him to pursue a career in journalism after he was expelled for leading a student protest at San Diego State University, a semester shy of graduating.<\/p>\n<p>Ritter eventually earned a diploma, graduating in 2016 from The New School in NYC. The experience has inspired his efforts to help other adults who opted out of college receive the assistance they need to go back to school. \u201cYou\u2019re never too old to try something new,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re never too old to change the narrative of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the claims of sexual misconduct against some of the biggest names in the news industry, Ritter said, \u201cWe are seeing a sea change of how relationships in the workplace will be dealt with and how they will be accepted or not accepted. I hope that it ends up making a healthier, more accepting and more progressive work environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Established in 1985, the University\u2019s Broadcaster of the Year Award is named for Allen B. DuMont, a pioneer in television technology. Previous honorees include NBC anchor\u00a0Lester Holt,\u00a0<em>Inside Edition<\/em>\u00a0anchor\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Deborah Norville<\/span>\u00a0and WCBS-TV anchor\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Kristine Johnson<\/span>.<\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/\/ Output tags as a list for Google Analytics custom dimension\nwindow.MSU_TagList = [];\n<\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Honoree uses occasion to inspire aspiring journalists to be truth seekers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":207272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication-and-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207273,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207271\/revisions\/207273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}