Contact: Kim Brockway For release April 26, 1999

(212) 854-2419

kkb18@columbia.edu

 

 

First Fred Friendly Professor

Named at Columbia Journalism School

 

Richard Wald, ABC News consultant and former senior vice president for editorial quality, has been named the first Fred Friendly Professor at Columbia Universityâs Graduate School of Journalism, Tom Goldstein, dean of the School, announced.

Wald will teach and assist in developing new programs that reflect his areas of expertise and interest. He will begin at the school in the fall, and serve a term of three years.

ãDick Wald, a giant of the broadcast news industry, is a tremendous addition to our faculty,ä said Goldstein. ãHis commitment to preserving integrity and high editorial standards in television news makes him an ideal match for the professorship that honors Fred Friendly. Our students, and the entire Journalism School community, will benefit from his insight and experience.ä

For many years Wald represented ABC News in its relationships with news entities and organizations worldwide and in its relationships with ABC affiliates, and was responsible for the journalistic integrity and editorial standards of ABC News. Working closely with producers and correspondents, he helped ensure that high standards were met in the gathering and airing of news.

ãIâm delighted by this honor,ä said Wald. ãColumbia educated me when I was young, and the men and women of journalism have educated me ever since. I can now try to return some of the debt.ä
Before joining ABC News, Wald spent nine years with NBC News in various executive positions, and from 1973 until 1977, served as president of NBC News. Before joining NBC, he was executive vice president of Whitney Communications, Inc.

A native of New York City and a Columbia University graduate (B.A., Î52 and M.A., Î53), Wald was also a Kellet Fellow at Clare College in Cambridge, England, and received an additional B.A. from that college in 1955. He began his career in journalism as a Columbia College correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, and worked at the newspaper from 1951 - 1966, successively holding the positions of religion editor, political reporter, foreign correspondent (in London and Bonn), associate editor and managing editor. He serves as chairman of the board of the Columbia Spectator (the undergraduate student daily).

The Fred Friendly Professorship was established through the generous support of Friendlyâs former colleagues, leading media organizations, and other friends of the School of Journalism.

Friendly, the producer of Edward R. Murrowâs See It Now series in the 1950s and as the president of CBS News in the 1960s, died last year. He created and hosted the Seminars on Media and Society broadcast on PBS when he was a professor at Columbiaâs Graduate School of Journalism. The popular programs challenged leaders÷including prominent journalists, judges and government officials÷to grapple with national issues and media ethics.  He was widely regarded as an exemplar of integrity in television news who encouraged the broadcasting industry to accept its responsibility to educate society.

 

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