Scott Pelley to Receive Fred Friendly First Amendment Award

By Merrill Knox 

Scott Pelley is the recipient of Quinnipiac University’s 20th annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award.

The “CBS Evening News” anchor will be presented the award, given annually to a journalist who has “shown courage and forthrightness in preserving the First Amendment,” on May 10 in New York City.

“For a CBS News correspondent, the Fred Friendly Award is especially humbling,” said Pelley said in a statement. “Fred taught us courage, fairness and humility in equal measure. He helped invent our industry and set the mark for all who follow.”

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“CBS EVENING NEWS” ANCHOR AND MANAGING EDITOR SCOTT PELLEY TO RECEIVE QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY’S

FRED FRIENDLY FIRST AMENDMENT AWARD

 

Quinnipiac University will present its 20th annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award to Scott Pelley, anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley,” at an invitation-only luncheon at 11:45 a.m. on Friday, May 10, at the Metropolitan Club, 1 East 60th St., New York City.

“This is the 20th anniversary of the Fred Friendly Award, and I can’t think of a more deserving recipient than Scott Pelley,” said Lee Kamlet, dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac. “As the standard bearer for CBS News, Scott exemplifies the standard of excellence which Fred set for himself and others as he built CBS News into a legendary institution. Following in Fred’s footsteps, Scott is setting his own mark of distinction on broadcast news, and the School of Communications is proud to recognize him.”

The Fred Friendly First Amendment award is presented annually to a journalist who has shown courage and forthrightness in preserving the First Amendment. Pelley will join past recipients of the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award: Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, Bill Moyers, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, Jim Lehrer, Robert MacNeil, Don Hewitt, Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, Christiane Amanpour, Tom Bettag, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer, Steve Kroft, Charles Gibson, Morley Safer, Gwen Ifill, David Fanning and Martha Raddatz.

“For a CBS News correspondent, the Fred Friendly Award is especially humbling,” said Pelley. “Fred taught us courage, fairness and humility in equal measure. He helped invent our industry and set the mark for all who follow.”

Pelley, one of the most experienced reporters in broadcast journalism, was named anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News” in May 2011. In its first season, the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” was the only network evening news broadcast to grow its audience. Under his leadership, the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” has been awarded a George Foster Peabody Award, an Alfred I. DuPontColumbia University Journalism Award, an Emmy Award and a George Polk Award.

Few journalists have made as wide and as deep a mark on a news organization as Pelley has at CBS News, where he has covered everything from breaking national news stories to politics to wars. Pelley has worked as a war correspondent in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and the former Yugoslavia. As a political reporter, he has covered numerous presidential campaigns and conducted many presidential interviews, including his recent, live interview with President Barack Obama during CBS’s pre-game show for Super Bowl XLVII. Among his most memorable assignments was reporting from the World Trade Center as Tower One collapsed on September 11, 2001.

In addition to his daily anchor role as the network’s chief reporter, Pelley continues to provide many award-winning stories to “60 Minutes,” where he has been a correspondent since 2004. Half of all the major awards won by the broadcast have been for stories reported by Pelley. Some of his most recent “60 Minutes” assignments include the Lance Armstrong saga; an interview with one of the Navy SEALs who helped kill Osama bin Laden; and a series of stories on the nation’s financial crisis, the latest of which won three Emmy awards.

Before joining “60 Minutes,” Pelley was a correspondent for “60 Minutes II” and served as the network’s chief White House correspondent. Prior to that, he served as a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas, where he covered many of the biggest domestic stories, including the Oklahoma City bombing and the trial of Timothy McVeigh. Pelley joined CBS News as a reporter based in New York in 1989.

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