David Muir has become one of the most recognizable news anchors in America, hosting 20/20 alongside Deborah Roberts and ABC World News Tonight, where he has interviewed everyone from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the late Pope Francis. So it was only right that David was “recognized for his honest and powerful reporting” by the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation on November 14, with David’s national and global work “earning him the title of a Giant in the field.” His colleague Deborah was in attendance to support David, and she shared a series of pictures from the ceremony, including David on stage accepting the award.
“All of us @abcworldnewstonight @abcnews @abc2020 are so proud to work alongside him,” Deborah captioned the post, which David responded to with heart emojis. The Foundation’s goal is to “encourage efforts to preserve, explore, and document the history of electronic media and to enrich the public’s understanding of the media and how it impacts the world.” The annual luncheon also honored Lesley Visser, the trailblazing sportscaster who was the first woman inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Rick Dees, an esteemed radio disc jockey known for his internationally syndicated radio show, The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40.
In 2024, David was honored with the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, and this past October, he was honored for excellence in journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he was presented with the 2025 Lew Klein Excellence in Media Award.
“I think it’s so important that we all in this room remember to look behind us and make sure the door is open for the next person to come through,” he told the audience, adding: “There is no time more important to be a journalist in our country than right now. Let the viewers at home listen to the facts, hear the truth, and decide for themselves, and in that way you will be a success before you even know it.”
He went on to share how he had always wanted to be a journalist, writing to his local news station when he was 13 after which he was invited to the studio. “I began interning, carrying the tripods and the equipment. They hired me out of college. That was where my first job was, Channel 5 in Syracuse,” he said, adding: “It paid off. I was so happy, I would fetch the Cokes out of the Coke machine. I’d sit there and study the anchors at the anchor desk.”
© Disney via Getty ImagesDavid graduated from Ithaca College and also studied at Georgetown University and the University of Salamanca in Spain. He left local news and moved to Boston before he joined ABC in 2003. In the 20+ years since, he has won multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards for his reporting from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Tahrir Square, Gaza, the Syrian border, and more.
David recently turned 52, and his best friend and ABC colleague, Kelly Ripa, made sure to publicly celebrate David by taking to her Instagram page to mark the big day with a photo of David on what looked to be a tropical vacation. David sported a muscle tee, sunglasses and his long hair was tousled in careless waves, a more casual and carefree version of his usual styled self.
© InstagramTheir friendship goes back to David’s early years on ABC, when he caught the attention of the LIVE anchor who shared with viewers that she was so determined to become friends with David that she “hacked” into the ABC mainframe to obtain his contact information.
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