Alix Marian Freedman (born November 25, 1957 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

) is an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, and ethics editor at

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...

. Freedman was raised in New York City, where she attended the Chapin School before graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy (1975). She graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

with a bachelor's degree in history and literature. She is the recipient of several awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the Gerald Loeb Award. Freedman received the George Polk Award in 1999, making her family the first to have two generations to win the award. Her father, Emanuel R. Freedman, had won the Polk award in 1956.

Career

Freedman gained her first experience in journalism writing articles for her school newspapers, first a few articles for ''

The Exonian ''The Exonian'' is the bi-weekly student-run newspaper of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. It has been printed continuously since April 6, 1878, making it the oldest continuously-published preparatory school newspaper in the coun ...

'', at Phillips Exeter and then for ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

''. At the time, she "didn't see herself continuing in journalism," even though her father, Emanuel Freedman, was a journalist. However, she did go into journalism. In 1979, she was hired as a news assistant at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and worked there until 1982. In 1983 she worked as a staff reporter for ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' magazine until leaving in 1984 to work for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

.'' Freedman spent 27 years with ''The Wall Street Journal,'' first with the Philadelphia bureau, (from 1984 to 1987) and then the New York bureau (from 1987 to 2011). During her time with the Journal, she was awarded three Loeb awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Polk award. In 2011 she left to become the global editor for ethics and standards at

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Coverage of the tobacco industry

During her time at the New York bureau, Freedman reported extensively on the tobacco industry. In 1993 Freedman and a colleague were awarded the Front Page Award for specialized writing for "Smoke and Mirrors: How Cigarette Makers Keep Health Questions 'Open' Year After Year." As the tobacco industry continued to face more scrutiny, Freedman reported on a libel lawsuit, seeking 10 billion dollars, filed by Phillip Morris against

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television and its owner Capital Cities Inc. The suit was filed over the word ''spiked'', used in the broadcast story, referring to nicotine being added back to tobacco during the production process. Her story, "Tar Wars: Philip Morris is Putting TV Journalism on Trial in its suit against ABC," reported on the lawsuit and how the tobacco company was spending a million dollars a month for 20 attorneys in their fight against ABC. Capital Cities, having earnings of just 6.4 billion in 1994, settled with Phillip Morris, printing a public apology and paying 15 million to cover the tobacco companies legal fees. Freedman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her continued coverage of the

tobacco industry The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies who are engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any ...

. In one of those reports, "Phillip Morris Memo Likens Nicotine to Cocaine," she wrote about a 15-page confidential internal document that pointed to the tobacco companies knowledge of the addictive nature of their product. The report explained that nicotine "'travels to the brain about eight to 10 seconds after a smoker inhales," "altering the state of the smoker.'" The series of stories leading up to her Pulitzer are listed below: * " FTC Will Overhaul Tar and Nicotine Ratings," ''The Wall Street Journal'', October 18, 1995 * "Phillip Morris Memo Likens Nicotine to Cocaine," ''The Wall Street Journal'', December 8, 1995 * "Full Text: Philip Morris Cos. draft report," ''The Wall Street Journal'', December 8, 1995 * "Full Text: Patent Search," ''The Wall Street Journal'', December 8, 1995 * "'Impact Booster': Tobacco Firm Shows How Ammonia Spurs Delivery of Nicotine, '" ''The Wall Street Journal'', December 28, 1995 In 1998 Freedman, and Suein Hwang, shared the Gerald Loeb Award (deadline and/beat writing), for coverage of the tobacco industry's liability settlement.

Coverage of quinacrine and chemical sterilization

In 1998 Freedman wrote a series of stories on the chemical sterilization using

quinacrine Mepacrine, also called quinacrine or by the trade name Atabrine, is a medication with several uses. It is related to chloroquine and mefloquine. Although formerly available from compounding pharmacies, as of August 2020 it is unavailable in th ...

pellets, of more than one hundred thousand women, who lived in poor developing countries. Many of these sterilization procedures were unwanted, or done without their understanding and consent. She did extensive interviews with Stephen D Mumford, president of the Center for Research on Population, before traveling to

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, where she was detained, and nearly arrested. She left after having her notes confiscated. Although she didn't plan on it, "Population Bomb," had a global impact. The company that manufactured quinacrine, Siparm Sesseln AG, of Switzerland, discontinued production of the drug, and sterilization procedures, using the drug, were banned in

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and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. In the United States, the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

sent letters to Mumford, warning him to cease distribution of the drug to any U.S. facilities, and to destroy their stockpile in North Carolina. Mumford shipped his stockpile of quinacrine out of the U.S. before the pellets could be destroyed and informed the FDA that he would no longer ship any of the drug to researchers in the United States. The series of reports were published in June and August, 1998. The stories are listed below. * "Population Bomb," ''The Wall Street Journal'', Alix M. Freedman, June 18, 1998 * "Two American Contraceptive Researchers Export Sterilization Drug to Third World," ''The Wall Street Journal'', Alix M. Freedman, June 18, 1998 * "India Bans Quinacrine Sterilization of Women," ''The Wall Street Journal'', Alix M. Freedman and Jonathan Karp, August 1998 * " FDA Tells Two Researchers to Stop Distribution of Drug for Sterilization, " ''The Wall Street Journal'', Alix M. Freedman, October, 1998 A CBS, 60 Minutes segment was broadcast on October 18, 1998, reporting on the use of quinacrine. In a 1999 article, published by the ''

American Journalism Review The ''American Journalism Review'' (''AJR'') was an American magazine covering topics in journalism. It was launched in 1977 as the ''Washington Journalism Review'' by journalist Roger Kranz. It ceased publication in 2015. History and profile Th ...

'', Freedman said she told Mumford that she would "give a fair and honest assessment of the method" that he was such a strong advocate of, and she did. Freedman leaves the reader to decide what they think when reading her reports saying "I don't believe you should be a hostage to your own views." Mumford was convinced the FDAs actions were an "abuse of authority" and were the result of a smear campaign and conspiracy theories. Freedman was awarded the George Polk Award, and named as a finalist for the Pulitzer prize for her reporting on quinacrine and chemical sterilization.

Awards

* 1993 Gerald Loeb Award for Large Newspapers, ''The Wall Street Journal'', for "Fire Power," a series of stories about low-priced handguns and the family who dominated the market * 1993

Front Page Award The Front Page Award is an award given by the Newswomen's Club of New York The Newswomen's Club of New York is a nonprofit organization that focuses on women working in the media in the New York City metropolitan area. Founded in 1922 as the New Yor ...

for specialized writing, presented by the Newswomen's Club of New York, (with Laurie Cohen), ''The Wall Street Journal'',for "Smoke and Mirrors: How Cigarette Makers Keep Health Question 'Open' Year After Year." * 1996

Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National. Li ...

, ''The Wall Street Journal'', for coverage of the tobacco industry * 1998 Gerald Loeb Award for Deadline and/or Beat Writing, (with Suein L. Hwang),''The Wall Street Journal'', for coverage of the tobacco industry * 1998 Investigative Reporters an Editors Certificate, (large newspapers), for "Population Bomb," ''Wall Street Journal,'' for coverage of chemical sterilization * 1999

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for International Reporting, ''Wall Street Journal'', for stories on the sterilization of women in the third world, often without their consent * 2004

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Award, Association for Women in Communications * 2010 Gerald Loeb Minard Editor Award

Career

Coverage of the tobacco industry

Coverage of quinacrine and chemical sterilization

Awards

References

Further reading