New York Festivals, which honors television, radio and film achievement, bestowed its lifetime achievement award Wednesday, Feb. 1, on The Kalb Report, the National Press Club’s public affairs forum, as it finishes its 28-year run.
The award will be presented at the Festival’s Storytellers Gala on April 18 at the Centennial National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas.
The New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes prominent industry leaders, innovators and driving forces in the broadcast industry whose accomplishments have advanced their field and made a lasting impression on the industry.
“While trends may come and go, excellence never goes out of style,” said Rose Anderson, senior vice president of New York Festivals. “The Kalb Report, our 2023 Lifetime Achievement Honoree, has been a must-see event for nearly three decades and has created a legacy which will inspire journalists for years to come.”
In announcing the award, the New York Festivals noted that The Kalb Report is the longest-running project undertaken by the Club, and it has produced 103 programs in nearly three decades that provided a forum for prominent newsmakers and journalists to talk about the news media’s impact on American democracy.
"All of us associated with The Kalb Report series are honored by this award,” moderator Marvin Kalb said. “We tried our best to shed light on the essential link of a free press to American democracy, now more essential than ever. Onward to better days of freedom and justice, the twin pillars of a vibrant democracy."
The final program features Kalb and his long-time friend and fellow network news correspondent Ted Koppel for a look back, around, and ahead at the challenges for both journalism and our democracy in a program titled The Kalb Report: Good Night and Good Luck.
It will be aired on Maryland Public Television Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. before being distributed by American Public Television to public broadcasting stations across the country as well as to Sirius-XM Satellite Radio and Federal News Radio in Washington.
The Kalb Report series was most recently honored with a 2018 Gold World Medal in the New York Festivals Radio Awards competition. The series also received Gold World Medals in 2015 and 2012, when it was presented with the overall Grand Award.
Michael Freedman, the Club’s 2020 president, had been the driving force behind the program as executive producer for the entire 28-year run.
"By honoring the best of the best each year, New York Festivals casts an important spotlight on quality and class and serves to inspire new generations of journalists,” Freedman said. “In honoring us in the twilight of our series, our hope is that those who follow will equate lifetime achievement with having the courage of your convictions and always seeking to make a positive difference in our world. We are deeply touched, most gratified, and humbled by this honor."
The Kalb Report series is underwritten by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, a division of the Oklahoma-based Inasmuch Foundation.
