The following are excerpts from a statement read at the presentation made of the Marty Jezer Award for Excellence in Journalism to Christopher Rancourt in 2007:

There has been a lot of talk lately about the media, and the role of journalists. They have been accused of pandering to the powerful, of not asking the hard questions. They are even blamed sometimes for bad things that happen. But there have also been heroes, those who have had the courage to “tell it like it is”, or at least how they see it, with their own eyes, using their own mind. This was the kind of journalist Marty Jezer was. And although he wrote his columns for Brattleboro, for the town and the people he loved, his voice was too honest, and too generous to be limited to a local readership. With the internet, a journalist writing anywhere has the power to reach hundreds of thousands of readers – even millions at the drop of a hat…or mouse pad.

This makes it an exciting time to be a journalist.  And for all the negative raps that journalists may have gotten of late, implicit in them is the acknowledgement of the power of journalism.

In troubled times, in times of fear, of intimidation, journalists are a lifeline.
Nothing has shown that more vividly than the past year’s reporting on the Iraq war, on Katrina.

And if you would be the best journalist you could be, cultivate a passionate heart and a cool head. Hand in hand they will stand you in good stead in the rough and tumble world you will be entering.