NBC newsman Brian Williams said yesterday he's not sure if Walter Cronkite would have succeeded in the age of cable news, blogs and Twitter.

"I am convinced that had he come along today, I don't think he would have cracked through. I think there's too much noise, too much to cut through for a modest man from Missouri," Williams told an audience in Phoenix. "But God and history combined to give him to us right when we needed him."

Williams spoke at a luncheon, where he was given the Cronkite Award from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. The ceremony included videotaped congratulatory messages from Jon Stewart and fellow New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen.

Each year, the Cronkite School recognizes a notable media figure for excellence in journalism. Past recipients have included Tom Brokaw, Katharine Graham and Ted Turner.

COMPOSER READMITTED TO HOSPITAL

Andrew Lloyd Webber has been readmitted to a London hospital after developing an infection following surgery for prostate cancer.

A statement on the composer's Web site yesterday said he had come down with a postoperative chronic infection that needed immediate treatment.

The 61-year-old artist announced last month that he had been diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer, and underwent surgery. The statement said the operation was successful and Lloyd Webber hoped to be back at work in the new year.

CHENEY DAUGHTER, PARTNER, PARENTS AGAIN

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary Cheney, has delivered a baby girl. It's the second child for Cheney and her partner of more than 17 years, Heather Poe.

Sarah Lynne Cheney was born yesterday at Sibley Hospital in Washington. She is the seventh grandchild of the former vice president and his wife, Lynne.

Mary Cheney and Poe had their first child, Samuel David Cheney, in 2007.

CAGE VISITS SUSPECTED PIRATES IN PRISON

Film star Nicolas Cage has visited a Kenyan prison holding suspected Somali pirates awaiting trial.

Inmates danced for the movie star and shook his hand as he toured the Shimo La Tewa prison in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa. The prison has become a model for other jails in the country because of the reform work of its chief warden, Wanini Kireri.

Cage, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador on Drugs and Crime, said on Tuesday that he wanted to meet with some of the suspected Somali pirates, hear their stories and understand what is fueling piracy off the Somali coast.