Tim Rutten receives Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize

Here's the memo from Editorial Pages Editor Jim Newton:

Dear colleagues,

I’m delighted to report a bit of satisfying news from the editorial pages.

The Anti-Defamation League has selected our colleague Tim Rutten as the 37th recipient of its annual Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. In the letter informing Tim of the award, the ADL's National Director, Abraham Foxman, wrote: “Your thoughtful analyses on a wide range of issues, foreign and domestic, have made a significant contribution to national debate. Such eloquent and compelling commentary demonstrates and underscores the value of the First Amendment.”

I couldn’t agree more, and am thrilled that Tim’s extraordinary work, so widely recognized by his colleagues and readers, is being honored in this way. As you might expect, Tim joins some impressive company with this honor, whose previous winners include John Chancellor, Walter Cronkite, William Safire, Charles Krauthammer, George Will, A.M. Rosenthal, The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, Mortimer Zukerman, Bernard Lewis, Jon Meacham, Floyd Abrams and Daniel Pearl (posthumously).

The award includes an honorarium of $10,000.

It is a special pleasure for me to announce this prize to all of you because, as many of you know, Tim is an old friend of mine and a trusted colleague to so many of us here. Please join me in congratulating him on this award and on the exemplary body of work that it recognizes.

Best,

Jim