Longtime NBC News correspondent Kelly O’Donnell became the first woman to receive the Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress from the Radio and Television Correspondents Association during an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night.
The award comes at a time when O’Donnell is celebrating her 25th year at NBC News, where the Cleveland native has captured several Emmys.
{mosads}“The news business is at its heart a business of questions. Most questions we ask of others, the newsmakers we cover, but some are questions best directed at ourselves,” O’Donnell said in her acceptance speech on Thursday night.
“Will I be worthy of what is required today, knowing it could be a seemingly ordinary day or one where another piece of history is carved? Will I be fair? Will I be thorough? Will I keep my opinions out of my work? Will I keep a sense of humor and a sense of humanity? Will I remember in the more exhausting moments how lucky I am to do this work?” she said.
“Thank you to NBC News for standing with me all these years,” she concluded. “Thank you to my fellow correspondents, producers, photographers, soundmen and -women, editors and our whole team who always make me better.”
NBC Washington bureau chief Ken Strickland also praised O’Donnell as someone respected by members of both sides of the aisle.
“One of the traits about Kelly that’s easy to overlook but has been critical to her success as a reporter are the relationships she’s built on the Hill with staffers and members alike.”
“Kelly was especially close to two lions of the Senate who have since passed away: John McCain and Ted Kennedy,” Strickland said, referring to the late senators from Arizona and Massachusetts, respectively. “Kelly, I know they’re smiling down on you right now.”
O’Donnell, a Northwestern University graduate, began her broadcast journalism career at WJW-TV in Cleveland before joining NBC in 1994.