PBS “Washington Week” moderator and “NewsHour” correspondent Gwen Ifill was honored Monday by Quinnipiac University with the 17th Fred Friendly First Amendment Award at a luncheon in New York.
Former recipients of the award include Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, Bill Moyers, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, Jim Lehrer, Don Hewitt, Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, and Tim Russert.
“I scanned the list of previous recipients and my insecure side kicked in,” reflected Ifill in her remarks. “Such company. Here I was a black girl from Queens walking among giants. And then I thought, if George Clooney could play Fred Friendly in the movies, then why couldn’t I get this award?”
CBS’ Andy Rooney and NBC’s Hoda Kotb were among the attendees.
More after the jump.
Ifill with Quinnipiac University President John L. Lahey and Ruth Friendly
“The challenges are different now than they were for Fred Friendly,” Ifill said in her speech. “We have access to so much more information, yet so little of it is news. We believe that folks are still hungry to know… that the rigors of daily life have not yet managed to entirely obliterate the need for information that happens beyond your neighborhoods… and beyond our borders.”