Speaker 1: I want to start with Rachel J.'s question about what advice you would give to a journalism student who's starting out right now.

Speaker 2: Well, I've always said, you know, I get asked that question a lot, as you know, because Tony went to Columbia Graduate School in Journalism and often brings students in to the studio. And one of the things I always tell people is there are some timeless skills that you need to really hone in order to be a good journalist. That is, you need to learn how to write and write well, write under deadline. And I think you need to learn to write about a variety of things, because I think it's important to know a lot about a lot of different subjects or at least have a basic understanding. So, you know, I often say that I wish I'd studied economics more rigorously in college. I'm going to take this off because I'm kind of hearing myself echo. Is that all right? Yeah. You don't really need this, right, this earpiece? No, that's it. And I tell people that also to work for a company or a media outlet that has a heavy digital presence, because obviously the media landscape is changing so dramatically, online consumption of information and news is so critically important. And really just be willing to work hard and work long hours and be the person where they say we need someone this weekend to do something and, you know, and be an eager beaver. You have to get there. You have to be willing to do a lot of things and then you'll get a break. But it's funny because David Martin, who I've known for a long time, our Pentagon correspondent, his daughter, Lexi, is a student at Goucher College. And she asked if she could follow me around the day the State of the Union took place. And I said, of course. And I told Lexi she was looking to get into journalism. And I told her about this Patch.com, which is on AOL, which has really become kind of a local newspaper for various communities. I don't think every community necessarily has it, but I told her about it and I said that might be a good place to start, you know, to cover stories. And so she actually went to find out more about it. Now she's writing for Patch.com, I think, out of Baltimore, because Goucher is near Baltimore. And, you know, I think there are so many, with the proliferation of media outlets, there are so many opportunities for people to get involved either online or in cable, like in operations like New York One, which are actually now so established they're hardly entry level positions to go, you know, or News 8 in Washington, D.C. So, you know, and just really work hard and have a very positive attitude. And I remember when I was a desk assistant at ABC News in Washington, I went to Don Farmer, who was then an anchor for 20-20 with a list of eight story ideas. And I was fresh out of college and I said, hey, I think these might be good pieces for 20-20. And, you know, I think he was impressed that I had the chutzpah just to go to his office and present my ideas. And sure enough, when he and his wife ended up as anchors on CNN, I became a producer for their show. So people really do notice when you have initiative and you go above and beyond what's expected of you. And I think people don't realize that just a little, some small things are often, you know, noticed and they do make a difference.

Speaker 1: And there are opportunities now while you're even still in school that didn't necessarily exist even when I graduated from Columbia. Like, for example, we just did this story about Caltech winning after 310 consecutive losses in a conference series. And as I was looking around for video of it, because there wasn't that much, you know, I noticed that there was this site called University TV that had fed video packages to a number of different school sites. So it must be some sort of aggregator or a place where people can shoot packages to feed to school sites. Right. That kind of stuff is invaluable.

Speaker 2: No, you're right. And I think there's just a multitude of opportunities out there. You just have to be a little aggressive and seek them out and, you know, and start just honing your craft. You know, the more you write, the more you interview people, the more stories you do, whether it's shooting, if you want to be a camera person, or editing, or whatever, the better you're going to be.

Speaker 1: And more and more doing all of those things at once. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2: Exactly. Which a lot of news operations are having people do.