Washington -- C-SPAN founder and CEO Brian Lamb has been honored with the Freedom Forum’s 2004 Al Neuharth Free Spirit of the Year Award.
The Freedom Forum gives the Neuharth award, named for the group’s founder, to a person in the news who “has stirred the public’s hearts and souls by demonstrating the human capacity to dream, dare and do.” He’ll receive the award, which comes with a $100,000 stipend, March 23 at the National Press Club in Washington.
“Twenty-five years ago, I was a guy with an idea to give the public access to political events, without interruption and without commentary,” Lamb said in a statement. But C-SPAN is also the story of a group of public-minded cable entrepreneurs who stepped up and said, ‘Yes, we’ll put the House of Representatives on our cable systems,’ and who continue to support us to this day.”
Lamb has announced that he will donate all of the award money to education-related charities.
Past winners of the award include Aung San Suu Kyi, Barbara Bush, Terry Anderson, Chuck Yeager, Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan, and Greg Mortenson.
“Brian is a bold visionary. His calm demeanor and objective interviewing style belie the free spirit that has made C-SPAN a trailblazer,” said Freedom Forum chairman and CEO Charles L. Overby said in a statement.
