WASHINGTON – CBS News correspondent and anchor Bob Schieffer, Public Broadcasting correspondent Gwen Ifill, U.S. News & World Report correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh and veteran BNA editor Toby McIntosh entered today into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Washington, D.C., chapter at an awards ceremony at the National Press Club.

Schieffer is CBS’s chief Washington correspondent and also serves as anchor and moderator of the Sunday public affairs broadcast Face The Nation. Ifill is the moderator of PBS’ Washington Week and senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Walsh has been White House correspondent for U.S. News since the Reagan years. McIntosh is BNA’s Director of Editorial Quality Review.

 The SPJ DC Chapter’s 2009 Distinguished Service Award was presented to columnist Courtland Milloy of the Washington Post for his many years of advocacy for disadvantaged and disenfranchised residents of the Washington metropolitan area. Previous winners include longtime broadcast journalist for APRadio and retired Director of Media Relations for BellSouth Corporation Bill McCloskey, McClatchy Newspaper corporate recruiter Reginald Stuart and retired NBC4 writer and producer Tom Simonton.

This year there were more than 170 entries in the various categories of the SPJ’s Dateline Awards competition

 Washingtonian had the most finalists this year with 18, followed by The Washington Times with 10 and The Hill and WUSA, which each had nine finalists. A list of the finalists along with comments from the judges about winning entries will be posted at www.spjdc.org.

The winners and finalists for the 2008 Dateline Awards Contest are as follows:

The Robert D.G. Lewis Watchdog Award

Brooke Lea Foster and Cindy Rich of Washingtonian for “Look What They’re Doing to Our Mountains.”

Judges’ Comments: “This was a very descriptive account, from the grassroots level rather than top down, of what residents of Appalachia are facing as they go up against a big industry that also has kept many of their families employed. I hope the Washingtonian continues to dedicate resources to following the developments of their efforts to verify what’s happening to the water supply there and other natural resources.”