Quinnipiac University honors Jeff Fager at 25th annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award Luncheon on June 6

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Jun 06, 2018, 03:30 ET

NEW YORK, June 6, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Quinnipiac University presented its annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award to Jeff Fager, executive producer of "60 Minutes," at a luncheon Wednesday at the Metropolitan Club in New York City.

"America is hungry for real reporting on important subject matter," Fager said. "That is what we strive for every single Sunday. '60 Minutes' has really evolved over the years, but we have kept our standards and our values the same. We still think of our role the way that it was thought of when '60 Minutes' was created – news is a public service."

Quinnipiac presents the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award to honor those who have shown courage and forthrightness in preserving the rights set forth in the First Amendment. The award, which originated in 1994, bears the name of the former CBS News president and champion of freedom of speech.

"This is a celebration of great journalism, which has never been more important in our country's modern history than it is today," said Mark Contreras, dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac. "Many of you in this room have dedicated your lives to producing hard-hitting and important journalism in your past and present."

Fager, who will begin his 15th season as executive producer of "60 Minutes" this fall, wrote a book to commemorate the show's golden anniversary, "Fifty Years of 60 Minutes: The Inside Story of Television's Most Influential News Broadcast."

As executive producer, Fager reshaped the program with a new graphic look and more timely stories while upholding its legendary standard of quality storytelling.

"We were seen this year by more than 100 million people, the most-watched program in all of television," Fager said. "We want to do stories that have an impact. We want to do stories that help people better understand our times. And these are pretty odd times."

Previous recipients of the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award are: Dan Rather, Bill Moyers, Lesley Stahl, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Don Hewitt, Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, Christiane Amanpour, Tom Bettag, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer, Steve Kroft, Charles Gibson, Morley Safer, Gwen Ifill, David Fanning, Martha Raddatz, Scott Pelley, Richard Engel and Lester Holt.