The History Makers Board, composed of producers and broadcasters from around the World and chaired by Michael Katz of AETN, voted to give The War the Best Program Award for making the greatest contribution to furthering the history program genre. The War, produced and directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, is a new seven-part series that explores the history and horror of the Second World War from an original perspective by following the fortunes of so-called ordinary men and women who became caught up in one of the greatest cataclysms in human history. This year the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Walter Cronkite. For almost two decades, Mr Cronkite served as anchorman and managing editor for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. He was America's witness to the major stories of the twentieth century including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo 11 Moon landing and the Watergate scandal. Pundits and polls often named him "the most trusted figure" in American public life. Politicians, intellectuals and fellow journalists regularly scrutinized every nuance in his nightly newscasts for clues to the thinking of mainstream America. http://www.historymakers2008.com