[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 158 (Tuesday, September 14, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E976-E977]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN RECOGNITION OF WAYNE FREEDMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 14, 2021

  Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Wayne Freedman, one of the 
Bay Area's most intrepid television reporters and a fixture on ABC 7 
for 30 years who is retiring after a remarkable and award-winning 
career.
  Wayne has covered a vast variety of events here at home and abroad, 
from major earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes, to national and local 
elections, to major sports events, to the September 11th attacks, to 
the COVID-19 pandemic, to NASA space missions, to beached whales. In 
1992, ABC 7 sent him solo to Moscow to cover Russia's Second 
Revolution. He traveled across the U.S. by train visiting small towns 
to capture the pulse of America after 9/11. No matter the content of a 
story, Wayne will get to the truth and he has a knack for finding the 
human angle that resonates with viewers. He likes to put it this way: 
``My philosophy is to find, small stories within large ones, and large 
stories in the small ones. Those are the most telling.''
  His philosophy and work have earned him over 50 Emmy Awards and 
several Edward R. Murrow awards. Many of his pieces were picked up by 
ABC's national show World News Tonight. Wayne is also the author of a 
book that is required reading in several college journalism programs in 
the U.S., Canada, and Europe, It Takes More Than Good Looks To Succeed 
at Television News Reporting.
  Television is part of the Freedman family's DNA. Wayne's father, Mike 
Freedman, started working for the ABC network in 1948. He pioneered the 
use of live, hand-held video cameras for covering news and sports 
events. As soon as Wayne could walk, his dad took him into the field 
with him.
  Wayne had his first byline in 1968 when he started writing a weekly 
column about life in middle school for a paper that is now the Los 
Angeles Daily News. That same summer he worked in San Francisco as a 
grip for ABC on a profile about heavyweight boxing champion Sonny 
Liston.
  Wayne received his Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from UCLA 
in 1977 and his Master's Degree in Journalism from the University of 
Missouri at Columbia in 1978. In 1981 he moved to San Francisco from 
where he has been reporting ever since. Before he joined ABC 7 in 1991, 
he worked for CBS News traveling the country to produce a weekly 
segment called Only in America for CBS This Morning.
  For those who have seen Wayne Freedman reporting out in the field, 
they will have noticed an ever-present still camera in his hand with 
which he snaps behind the scenes photographs that he posts on social 
media. It's an eye-opening way to see the world from Wayne's 
perspective.

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  Wayne and his wife Susan live in Marin County. They are the proud 
parents of daughter Lauren who lives in New York.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the House of Representatives to 
rise with me to recognize Wayne Freedman for his lifelong passion for 
storytelling and his ability to transfer that passion to his viewers. 
He is an outstanding journalist who has thrived throughout decades of 
changes in the journalism profession.
  While we will miss his booming voice and captivating presence on our 
TV screens and smart phones, we wish him well in his well-deserved 
retirement.

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