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Medill fellowship pays tribute to John Callaway
John Callaway, one of Chicago's most respected and influential broadcast journalists of all time, will be memorialized in an online journalism fellowship at Northwestern University.
Establishment of the John Callaway Excellence in Online Journalism Fellowship at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism was announced Wednesday by WTTW-Channel 11, the public television station Callaway served for more than three decades.
A towering figure in Chicago journalism for 48 years, Callaway died one year ago today -- which was exactly 10 years after he'd hosted his last broadcast of "Chicago Tonight," the nightly news program he created at Channel 11. He was 72. "John Callaway remains an iconic figure in the history of WTTW," said Dan Schmidt, president and CEO of Window to the World Communications. "I can't think of a better way to honor his memory than by making this opportunity available to talented young journalists."
Funded by donations from family, friends and Channel 11 viewers, the fellowship is open to graduate students at Medill. Each academic quarter, a fellow will work full-time with producers and web staff to create original and supplemental content for the "Chicago Tonight" website. Each participant will receive a $3,000 stipend. In a statement released Wednesday, Callaway's daughter, singer Ann Hampton Callaway, said:
"My sister Liz and I are thrilled that WTTW is honoring our father's legacy by creating this fellowship. He was a passionate mentor to budding journalists, and this would have pleased him immensely. He was also keenly interested in new ways of delivering stories to an audience."
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Couldn't be a more deserving honor. Just too bad Mr. Callaway wasn't here to learn of it himself. To the family: What a wonderful honor! Congratulations. Let's hope those students who get the stipend can equal 1/100th of what Mr. Callaway gave. If they do that, they'll be fantastic broadcasters!
I hope that this was not a way that Schmidt developed to replace one of those producers he had to let go because of his outrageous salary.
John Callaway exemplified the best of the Chicago tradition of broadcast news. It's a shame and embarrassment that his television home is imploding, even as this honor is announced.
It's also shameful that Channel 7, the premier television news/weather operation in the city, chose to air Wheel of Fortune tonight at a time when tornado warnings were popping up all over the suburbs, O'Hare traffic was shut down and the highways were haywire. Channels 5 and 9 remained on the air but, while Skilling dithered with technical jargon as usual, Brant Miller had everything explained in the calmest most rational manner possible. 7 came back in time for an extraneous and unnecessary wrap-up well after the danger had passed.
What Steve Edwards had to say on this site about Callaway at the time of his death a year ago. No way I could express myself as well... but I agree:
"Preparation, plus performance combined to make Callaway a nightly tour de force. He was the rare breed of host who had the confidence and credibility to not just think it but to actually say “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Do you really believe that?!” to presidents, prime-ministers, and yes, even Chicago mayors.
The end result was far more than just mesmerizing television. It was a deeply engaged and informed Chicago citizenry. In a diverse city of millions, Callaway’s Chicago Tonight became not just a nightly press conference, as he once termed it, but a public square for the entire region. In doing so, he held the powerful accountable, he made vexing problems understandable, and he gave us all vital information we need to be truly effective citizens. In the end, that’s what great journalism is all about."