“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over,” said NBC anchor Brian Williams, using a Mark Twain quote to discuss Arizona’s water troubles from the Downtown campus Tuesday.

On what Williams called a “beautiful night in Arizona,” the “NBC Nightly News” anchor and managing editor broadcast from the roof of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix with a view of Camelback Mountain behind him and cues from New York City coming through his earpiece.

Mark Lodato, Cronkite professor and news director, said in a statement, “If broadcasting a network newscast from a journalism school isn’t unprecedented, it is certainly unusual.”

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Williams is in town to be awarded the 26th Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism at the Cronkite Luncheon Wednesday.

He will be the third NBC anchor to receive the award in the past four years.

His predecessor at NBC, Tom Brokaw, was the 2006 recipient, followed in 2007 by Jane Pauley, former anchor of NBC’s “Today Show” and founding co-host of “Dateline NBC.”

Last year, longtime PBS anchors Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil of the “MacNeil/Lehrer Report” received the award.

Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan said Williams’ visit is a huge occasion for the school and the award.

“We’ve had a tremendous array of really the best journalists in the world who have gotten the Cronkite Award,” Callahan said. “But we’ve never had a sitting, national news anchor from one of the networks receiving the award.”

Williams was also very close to CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, the school’s namesake, Callahan said.

Because of Williams’ skill as a reporter, Callahan said he is a great role model for students.

On Williams’ daily blog, The Daily Nightly, he talked about his visit to ASU and what a great time he had with students.

“It’s an emotional experience being here, at an institution that bears the name of Walter Cronkite,” Williams posted.

During his time at the school Tuesday, Williams and NBC News President Steve Capus spent about an hour working with Cronkite NewsWatch, the school’s student-produced newscast.

Lodato called the experience “a terrific opportunity for students to see what goes into a broadcast of this caliber and to work adjacent to some of the most seasoned professional[s] in the business.”

Williams has become the most honored evening news anchor in his 16 years at NBC, with four Edward R. Murrow awards, five Emmys, the Alfred I.

duPont-Columbia University Award and the George Foster Peabody Award.

In 2007, Time named him one of the 100 “People Who Shape Our World.”

He attended a small dinner with leadership of the Cronkite school
following the broadcast and will speak in the First Amendment Forum at the Cronkite school at 9 a.m. Wednesday before attending the Cronkite Luncheon.

“It has been and will continue to be a really rare opportunity for our students,” Callahan said.

Reporter Jessica Testa also contributed to this story. Reach the reporters at vajones2@asu.edu and dbjoraas@asu.edu.