Hoyt wins Stanton fellowship

This year’s Frank Stanton Fellow is James Hoyt, professor of journalism and mass communication at UW–Madison.

Hoyt, on the faculty here since 1973, received the award last month from the International Radio and Television Society in New York City.

“I’m honored to receive a fellowship from one of the most instrumental leaders in the history of the television industry. Frank Stanton has a passionate and courageous commitment to a free press,” Hoyt says.

Stanton, now 94, was president of CBS from 1946-1973, and built the company into the country’s most successful television network at that time. Hoyt says that after CBS aired the controversial documentary, “The Selling of the Pentagon” in 1971, Stanton defied a House Ways and Means Committee subpoena, demanding that CBS provide outtakes from the program. Eventually a contempt of Congress motion failed, and Stanton prevailed.

The Stanton Fellowship is given annually for a distinguished career as a broadcaster and educator. In addition to his faculty duties at UW–Madison, Hoyt is a UW alumnus, earning his Ph.D., M.A. and B.S. from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He served as director of the school, 1981-91.