Freedman was born in
Rochester, Minnesota, where his father finished his residency at
Mayo Clinic. The family relocated to
Denver, and Freedman graduated from
George Washington High School in 1968. He went on to study at
Columbia College and received his A.B. in literature in 1972 and earned a fellowship that allowed him to travel through Central and South America. He began his journalism career as a reporter for the
Associated Press in
São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro during 1974–75. He then became a freelance writer and lived in Washington, D.C., Spain, Portugal, and San Francisco until he was hired by
The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1981 as an investigative
editorial writer. During his tenure at the newspaper, he was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1983 and 1984, and won the award in 1987 for writing about immigration across the
Mexico–United States border. == Published works ==