Fellowship honoring former Club President Mike Freedman announced at his memorial service

The National Press Club Journalism Institute will establish an internship position in honor of former Club president Michael Freedman, who died last September from pancreatic cancer, current president Eileen O’Reilly said Jan. 8. 

O’Reilly announced the news at the start of a Club memorial service for Freedman, who served as the Club’s 114th president and led the organization through the height of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. The first intern will be known as the Mike Freedman Fellow and publish their work through the institute, O’Reilly said.

“He was one of those people who have such an impact that they leave legacies everywhere, not just here at the club,” O’Reilly said. “I’m thrilled we will be building this in his memory."

More than 100 people – including former Club presidents and Freedman’s former colleagues, students and admirers – packed the Frank Holeman Lounge to remember and celebrate Freedman’s contributions to journalism and building lasting relationships.

Speakers at the event remembered him as a voracious consumer of news and history, an avid collector of memorabilia, and a coach with a keen ability to build teams of people to share in his dreams and execute his vision.

"Mike is the only person I know who can come up with a good idea -- and make it happen," said Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute and a former Club president.

Shortly after becoming president, Freedman confronted the challenges of COVID-19 lockdowns, sending staff home with paychecks to keep them safe. 

But he also grew the Club’s profile that year. He oversaw an ambitious program on broadcast radio history, virtually interviewed the late Bob Dole about the 75th anniversary of V-Day, and marked 100 years since women got the right to vote, said Bill McCarren, the Club’s longtime executive director who stepped down in 2023. Freedman also fought hard to make the Club a backup site to host a 2020 presidential debate, a significant achievement on its own, McCarren said.

“He was giving you himself, and that’s rare and that’s great,” McCarren said. “There was so much he was offering to you.”

Freedman was eager to grow diversity in the Club’s leadership. Lisa Matthews, who succeeded Freedman as Club president in 2021, recalled Freedman personally seeking her out as a running mate. He ran with an entirely female slate of candidates that year, setting up the Club for a succession of women leaders. 

“He recognized the Club lacked a little bit of color and femininity,” Matthews said. Freedman racked up a total of 85 awards and honors throughout his career, according to Harvey Nagler, a former colleague at CBS Radio. Of those, 14 were Murrow Awards, named after Freedman’s idol, Edward R. Murrow, a legendary CBS newscaster whose microphone Freedman bought. 

Teaching classes at George Washington University, Freedman embodied the spirit of Murrow by bringing the tenets of the industry to the next generations, Nagler said.

“He made his life’s work to keep the legacy of Murrow alive,” Nagler said. “To see the faces of these students light up and just to glob on to everything. … They all came to life.”

Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington bureau chief who worked with Freedman to produce the “Crossfire” program, said he spoke to Freedman’s students several times and gathered Freedman’s tokens of appreciation. The final token was an antique radio headset dating back a century.

Feist had a parting message for Freedman.

“Whenever you have advice or a message for us, you know where to find the microphone,” Feist said. “We’ll hear you loud and clear.”