National Press Club celebrates Eileen O'Reilly's inauguration

Eileen O'Reilly, managing editor of standards and training at Axios, was inaugurated Friday evening as the 116th President of the National Press Club, pledging to combat rampant disinformation, reinvigorate news deserts, and defend democracy and home and abroad.

O’Reilly–who was sworn in by Anthony Fauci, the longtime public health official who guided the country through the COVID-19 pandemic–said the institution of journalism “may be facing some of the greatest threats it has ever seen.”

“We must work together to restore trust by practicing responsible and ethical journalism and by being transparent about our methods and our sources,” O’Reilly said.

O'Reilly pressed President Joe Biden, who sent her a congratulatory letter, to do more to bring home Austin Tice, who was abducted while reporting in Syria in 2012. She urged members to wear pins, post on social media, and keep pressure on the federal government.

“As honored and humble as I am to get that letter from President Biden, if they can’t keep their promise to the Tice family to try and engage Syria, it will simply be a very nice piece of paper,” O'Reilly said. 

O’Reilly takes the helm as the Press Club has reopened to in-person events after several years of COVID-19 restrictions. But the pandemic demonstrated the danger of disinformation campaigns that continue to proliferate on social media, said Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who recently retired after a half-century as a public health official. 

Fauci, who spoke frequently with O’Reilly in the last few years, said he was struck by “your professionalism, your hard work and the confidence that your peers have in your ability to lead this highly respected organization during these extraordinarily challenging times.”

Fauci said he thought the mantras about the importance of a free and fair press to sustaining democracy “were only words when I was a young man in my early training, but now, what we’ve gone through over the last few years makes me feel like this is truly a reality.”

Disinformation is “not harmless chatter–but unsafe,” Fauci said. “If we are not clear-sighted and vigilant, we risk our society deteriorating into a way of life where veracity becomes subservient to propaganda, rather than upheld as a guiding principle for creating and sustaining a just social order.”

O’Reilly joined Axios about six years ago and now runs the editorial onboarding, regular training programs and monthly standards discussions to promote engagement and foster conversations on how Axios can evolve and improve. She manages the copy editor and standards teams and edits investigative works. She also writes on public health, medicine and biotech advances.

Prior to Axios, she worked for more than 20 years in the U.S., Asia and Europe as a reporter or editor for wire services, e-newsletters, magazines, newspapers and websites. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Marquette University, and her master’s degree in Asia-Pacific studies from the University of Leeds.

O’Reilly, who served as the club’s vice president in 2022, has been an officer on the board since 2019. 

Before O’Reilly was sworn in, she was praised by her current and former colleagues, college friends, and husband, fellow press club member, Cary O’Reilly, as a mild-mannered but firm beacon that holds journalists accountable to their craft.

“I think it’s particularly poignant and important that the National Press Club has chosen this year someone like Eileen, whose entire role is focused on the fundamental tenets of journalism,” said Sara Kehaulani Goo, editor in chief of Axios. “Eileen is like our conscience.”