[00:00] Father Holtschneider and Dean Ganim realized that we at DePaul needed to fortify our students
[00:08] as they prepared to walk into newsrooms across the country.
[00:13] And so this center was born.
[00:15] And Don Mosley and I are grateful to say we were asked to direct it.
[00:21] Dean Ganim and Father Holtschneider had several missions in mind.
[00:25] First, to take a select number of seniors and graduate students
[00:30] who, as we like to say, are right there on the bridge,
[00:34] just about to cross over into the profession
[00:38] and give them as much grounding as we could
[00:42] in the ethical challenges that they are likely to meet,
[00:46] into the complexity of stories that they will confront,
[00:49] and the responsibility that they have,
[00:53] not just to their viewers or their readers or their listeners,
[00:57] but to themselves to do proud work.
[01:01] When Lester Holt and Ben Welsh, our two remarkable awardees, arrived on campus this morning,
[01:09] it was the center's students, nine of them, who researched and wrote the interview that I moderated.
[01:17] An interview, our students know, is not just a list of questions.
[01:21] It's a piece of whole cloth with the beginning and a middle and an end and the research to back it up.
[01:30] In class, we do deep dives into stories using that greatest of tools,
[01:35] the Freedom of Information Act,
[01:38] which is more than writing a letter for public documents used well.
[01:43] It really is a comparative study of everything from the patterns of government
[01:49] to the public officials themselves.
[01:52] One of the stories just completed is being teed up for broadcast on WTTW Chicago tonight.
[01:59] And our thanks to executive producer Mary Field for being our receptive guide
[02:05] and managing editor on all of this.
[02:13] If we see journalism under attack today, we at T'Pol have the antidote.
[02:19] We call it more journalism and more of the best kind of journalism.
[02:28] You know that you all are here today fortifies us in so many ways.
[02:35] In this room are so many colleagues from print and broadcast and radio,
[02:41] from the producing side and the reporting side and the anchoring side,
[02:46] the editing side.
[02:48] And then there is the faculty.
[02:50] We have such a great faculty,
[02:53] many of whom were working journalists and still are working journalists.
[02:58] And so this combination is dynamite for our students.
[03:05] If you would now allow me to introduce Don Mosley,
[03:08] Don and I have long been a reporter-producer team.
[03:12] We now carry our professional work into T'Pol as a team directing the center.
[03:18] Don Mosley.
[03:19] And now, Ben Welsh.
[03:26] In the fall of 2003, Ben walked through the doors of what was then the DePaul Documentary Project.
[03:32] He was the first of more than 50 juniors and seniors who would go on to intern with us
[03:37] and work with us on three documentaries and for countless, countless stories that aired on NBC5.
[03:44] I'd like to say that Ben walked into our Lincoln Park office in the Schmidt Academic Center
[03:48] as a polished, aspiring young journalist.
[03:54] With roots reaching back to the Amalna colony in Iowa,
[03:57] the student who would go on to become the data editor at the Los Angeles Times was pretty geeky.
[04:05] But what he lacked in sophistication in those days was overshadowed by an intellectual curiosity
[04:10] that was evident to Carroll and to me very early on.
[04:15] His interests ranged from music to sports to politics.
[04:18] After receiving his undergraduate degree here at DePaul, he received his master's from the University of Missouri.
[04:24] His work covering the Missouri legislature helped him secure a position at the Center for Public Integrity,
[04:30] which led to being hired at the Los Angeles Times.
[04:33] And how's that gone?
[04:35] Ben was part of the Pulitzer Prize winning team for their work on the 2015 San Bernardino Massacre.
[04:42] But even before that, his very first national award was from Scripps Howard.
[04:47] And here's a remarkable thing that he did.
[04:49] We walked into the office at Schmidt Academic Center one day, and there was a package.
[04:54] And in the package was the award that Ben won.
[04:56] And he sent it to us so we could share it with our students so they could see what the possibilities are
[05:04] by going through the journalism program at DePaul.
[05:07] I thought it was a remarkable and wonderful gesture for Ben.
[05:12] We could go on and on about him, but I want to close with the words of Megan Garvey,
[05:17] who is the deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times.
[05:21] It would be hard to overstate the importance of Ben's work to change how journalism is done at the L.A. Times.
[05:28] He's innovative, curious, ambitious, tireless.
[05:31] Sometimes he's cranky, but he usually reserves that just for me.
[05:36] She goes on to write,
[05:37] I met Ben nine years ago when he first came to the Times.
[05:40] We worked together on California's War Dead Database, our first big public database project.
[05:46] Now my job is to reimagine how quality journalism gets created, distributed, and stays viable.
[05:54] If I had never met Ben, I wouldn't be doing what I am today.
[05:59] That's a story many others I know could also tell.
[06:02] Beyond his value as a newsroom colleague, Ben has devoted countless hours outside of his day job
[06:07] to teaching and expanding the role of data journalist in the larger community.
[06:12] He is a fierce advocate for keeping public records open.
[06:16] He also happens to be a genuinely decent person and excellent company.
[06:20] I probably embarrassed him enough, so I'll stop now.
[06:24] Please offer Ben the congratulations of the entire newsroom of the Los Angeles Times.
[06:30] And to that, we'll add DePaul's congratulations as well.
[06:36] You're killing me, Don.
[06:38] You're killing me.
[06:40] Now I've got to talk.
[06:42] Now you're going to talk.
[06:47] Wow.
[06:49] Well, I'm getting emotional.
[06:51] Whew.
[06:52] No, all right.
[06:54] Thank you, Don.
[06:55] Thank you so much.
[06:56] I'm so honored to receive this reward.
[06:58] And I'm always happy to have a chance to come back to Chicago, where it's a place I really felt like I grew up.
[07:04] And a lot of great things happened for me.
[07:09] And I'm always eager to come back, as long as it's not winter.
[07:12] Right?
[07:13] And I'm especially glad on this trip to have met the bright young students at DePaul's new Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence.
[07:24] And where I see a lot of the great things I want to talk about right now becoming part of DePaul as an institution and something that so many others can benefit from.
[07:34] And on this occasion, I also recognize that there's no religious institution that's properly run, as DePaul is, that could ever responsibly invite me to deliver a commencement address.
[07:46] And risk tainting their valuable young minds.
[07:49] So I'm just going to take my shot right now.
[07:52] All right?
[07:52] Brace yourselves.
[07:54] I'm going to give you kids some advice.
[07:56] All right?
[07:56] You're back there, right?
[07:57] All right.
[07:58] And like all fables force-fed to the young by their elders, this one starts with a boring piece of autobiography.
[08:06] Sorry, that's how it goes.
[08:07] You'll understand one day.
[08:09] All right?
[08:09] You guys ready?
[08:10] All right.
[08:11] Here comes your advice from Uncle Ben.
[08:13] All right?
[08:13] So my story starts about 15 years ago on the Lincoln Park campus.
[08:17] Don already told a good piece of it.
[08:19] When I was working on the top floor of the Schmidt Academic Center in what was then the Department of Communication Office, where Professor Bruce Emerson worked at that time.
[08:27] And I was earning some extra money as a student there, answering the phones and doing odd jobs around the office.
[08:33] And one of the many important responsibilities that I was trusted with was putting up flyers on the Department Bulletin Board of new things happening around campus.
[08:43] And one day it just so happened that a new posting said there was an opening for an intern to work with two journalists who were taking up residence at DePaul, Carroll and Don.
[08:55] And, oh, by the way, their new office was only about three fours below where I was standing, and I just need to take the elevator down.
[09:02] And as I was pinning that notice to the board, a thought popped into my head.
[09:06] I don't really know what this job is, but it's probably a hell of a lot more interesting than pinning flyers on a bulletin board.
[09:13] And so I jumped in the elevator, and because I was the first one to see the listing, I think I was probably the first one to apply.
[09:21] And somehow I lucked into that internship.
[09:24] And I didn't know it at the time, but it was probably one of the luckiest days of my life.
[09:31] And I soon started, and I had no idea what I was doing.
[09:34] I'll just confess now.
[09:35] But I quickly understood that the luckiest thing for me was mainly just to see Carroll and Don work.
[09:41] I was inspired by their sense of purpose, by their dedication to finding and telling stories that matter, stories that otherwise wouldn't be told or told to the standards they expected.
[09:51] And once I got past the fear that I would screw everything up and they'd fire me, which, let's be honest, was pretty well-founded, I think, at that time,
[10:00] I started to wonder if I could ever take a stab myself.
[10:03] And I got my chance one day when Carroll and Don received a tip that a local law firm was milking money from a Chicago suburb,
[10:10] you know the ones, by overbilling the city for legal work.
[10:15] And it sounded like a good story of local corruption.
[10:18] And even me, even I, knew that this might be the kind of thing that should be on the news, right?
[10:24] But where to begin?
[10:26] If it was true, there would be evidence in the city's financial books, which are public records, Don told me.
[10:32] And then he challenged me to sit down and write out a public records request, something I'd never done before, so that we could get to the bottom of it.
[10:40] And then, for weeks, he egged me on, again and again, when a shady city official tried to delay, skirt the law, and discourage me from pursuing this request.
[10:50] But because Don kept pushing me, I kept pushing the city.
[10:55] Weeks went by.
[10:56] A lot of sternly written letters went back and forth.
[10:59] But then one day, a package arrived in the mail.
[11:02] Inside was the data we'd asked for.
[11:04] There was only one problem.
[11:07] The city had sent it as a massive printout of paper, a scroll over 10, 20 feet in length that was connected by those old, you guys remember the 1980s printers with the holes and the tear sheets?
[11:19] The kids won't remember this, but the kids won't remember this, so we'll tell them about it afterwards.
[11:23] And there was no total cost for what these legal fees were, and the papers were kind of in inconsistent order and in an odd format, and sprinkled throughout it kind of helter-skelter.
[11:33] And to make sense of it all, we would need to puzzle through this nasty scroll page by page and add up all those numbers, which, you know, was tedious, unglamorous work.
[11:43] You know, not the kind of thing you imagine, you know, important journalists on television spending their time doing, right?
[11:51] Wrong.
[11:52] With Carol's and Don's encouragement, I built my first spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel, hammered in all the figures line by line, and hours later after I was done,
[12:00] we had enough support for a story that exposed these exorbitant legal fees being charged to the city.
[12:06] Carol read the big numbers I had added up on camera and even dropped the hilarious long piece of paper from the top of a ladder that she climbed to illustrate their size.
[12:17] And it was for me, like, that was a moment for me when it clicked, when I saw and I understood and I had learned that all the slow, frustrating work that I had put in made sense.
[12:30] It wasn't just worthwhile, it was essential.
[12:33] I learned that what separates reporters who move the needle, the ones who get the story, the Carol's and the Don's of the worlds, the Lester Holt's of the worlds, from the ones who don't, isn't all that complicated.
[12:46] It's hard work.
[12:47] It's persistence.
[12:49] It's a willingness to take on tedious tasks others haven't or won't.
[12:53] And most of all it's a determination to finish the job.
[12:56] And despite all the changes I've seen in our industry since I got started way back in SAC, that truth is still standing today.
[13:04] It's true whether you work on a traditional old school city corruption story like that.
[13:09] It's true if you're experimenting with new story forms online to try to reach an audience that we've lost.
[13:16] It's true if you're doing something weird like me and trying to become a computer programmer and still be a journalist at the same time.
[13:23] If you do the work and you do it the right way, like Carol and Don can teach you guys, you too can move that needle.
[13:29] But if that's something you want to do, that's something you really want to do, you've got to start now.
[13:34] And you've got to start by picking up that phone, getting outside your comfort zone, filing that public records request, not giving up, digging into that ugly database, asking questions that haven't been asked before, and banging on those doors.
[13:46] And when whatever happens next, after you start off on that, frustrates you, you have to keep trying, because you're probably on to something, right?
[13:54] And it's only by pushing that you're ever going to get there.
[13:57] And the really good stories, the ones that are worth telling, they don't come easy, you've got to nail them down.
[14:03] And the best kept secret of all, the thing I think we ought to advertise, is that when you're on the trail of something good like that, there's no better feeling.
[14:13] Or at least not one we can talk about in front of Father Holschneider.
[14:16] Carol once told me, it's like breathing different air when we were out on assignment, and she could tell I was feeling it.
[14:29] And she was right.
[14:30] And as soon as I got my taste, I was hooked.
[14:33] But like any good journalist, you shouldn't take my word for it.
[14:36] You should go check it out for yourself.
[14:38] You won't be disappointed.
[14:39] Thank you.
[14:40] There was never any question about who we hoped would be our distinguished journalist awardee, our very first.
[14:52] It was always Lester Holt.
[14:54] It was a challenging time for NBC when Lester Holt became its principal anchor.
[15:01] And it's a challenging time for all of us in news, in this polarized political climate in which we live.
[15:10] Integrity has never been more critical.
[15:14] Excellence has never been more important.
[15:19] Journalism is lifted up by the elegance, the high ethical standards, and the excellence of Lester Holt.
[15:29] Our students are inspired by his example, and we watched it this morning as they met with Lester and Ben.
[15:38] And so today, DePaul University and our center thanks Lester Holt for making a difference
[15:46] and is so proud to give you our distinguished journalist award.
[15:51] Thank you, thank you everyone, and thanks to DePaul and the Center for Journalism Integrity.
[16:10] Congratulations, Ben.
[16:12] Carol, it means a lot getting this award, but certainly from you, someone who certainly raised the bar of investigative journalism in this town.
[16:20] You know, I should tell you, walking over with Carol from DePaul is an interesting experience.
[16:27] When you go by the federal building, she gives a running dialogue of the various governors and members of Congress
[16:33] and people who have had perp walks in and out of that building.
[16:37] It was fascinating.
[16:38] Next time we'll do it in a double-decker bus, and we'll charge people.
[16:41] But it was nothing like taking a stroll through downtown with a hard-hitting investigative journalist.
[16:46] But it is great to be back in Chicago.
[16:49] It's great.
[16:50] It's old home week for me.
[16:51] A lot of people I worked a lot of years with and adore in this room, and it's very special to be here.
[16:59] When I came to Chicago, it was 1986.
[17:03] Some of you may remember the station I was working at was the target of a boycott by Operation Push.
[17:10] I was kind of brought in, not quite knowing what I was walking into.
[17:14] It was a stressful time for a 27-year-old, but Chicago embraced me, and I embraced Chicago back.
[17:21] And I have such incredible great memories of being here, not only because it was then and still is arguably the best news town in America,
[17:32] but because it set the course for who I would become as a broadcast journalist.
[17:39] It was here that I learned that being a reporter is not a career step.
[17:45] Being a reporter is what we are.
[17:47] It's the fundamental essence of all of us who report, who are journalists, whether that title is anchor or whatever it is, that your main title is a reporter.
[17:56] It was here that I saw examples of anchors who, you know, not only read the news, but they led their newsrooms.
[18:03] And it's a lesson that was not lost on me and one that I take with me every day, that lesson of how to lead and what being an anchor is all about.
[18:14] So I left here 17 years ago.
[18:16] A lot of people didn't know up until about a month before I left.
[18:19] I wasn't sure where I was going to go.
[18:22] I was in the middle of a transition, as they say, in this business.
[18:25] I took the leap into the world of cable news at MSNBC at what I didn't know then would turn out to be the start of about a four to five-year news cycle like none we've ever seen.
[18:38] I arrived in time to cover the 2000 presidential campaign, the subsequent Florida recount drama.
[18:45] That was followed by the 9-11 attacks, the war in Afghanistan, and later the run-up to the invasion of Iraq and the invasion itself.
[18:54] Some of those moments along the way were moments where people were literally glued to their television, well, not literally, but they were glued to their television sets.
[19:02] You know, life stopped.
[19:03] People sat to watch what was happening, and they were clinging to our words.
[19:07] The future and the security of the nation were at stake.
[19:10] And to some extent, our national values were tested and challenged as we became a post-9-11 nation.
[19:17] It was an amazing time to be a journalist.
[19:20] And in this current age of a whole new set of challenges, many of which are byproducts of that era of terror and war, it still is an amazing time to be a journalist.
[19:31] And anyone who doubts the future or commitment to a healthy press needs to only look around this room for reassurance.
[19:40] Ours is still a high calling, and it still has a high purpose.
[19:44] At virtually every place that I'm invited to speak or make comments these days, the first topic of interest is the state of journalism, particularly under the age of Trump.
[19:54] So let me offer my two cents on that.
[19:57] It is unfortunate, and it's troubling to hear this or any other leader disparage and malign the media, not because it hurts my feelings,
[20:05] but because if someone in power can successfully discredit an institution that society depends on most to hold our leaders and institutions accountable, then there is no one.
[20:19] And I simply ask, what then, if there's no one in that position?
[20:23] The good news is, in the case of organizations like NBC News, you can't simply tweet away or insult away decades of integrity and excellence and a commitment to truth and accuracy.
[20:35] Our future, I'm pretty sure, is bright, and I suspect we'll be hard at work covering the administration after this, the one after that, and my contract ends at that point.
[20:45] But there will be other people doing it, I'm pretty sure.
[20:51] At nightly news, our role, in part, is to provide a safe harbor for excellent journalism in the stormy sea of rapid-fire information that we live in,
[21:02] where facts and fiction, truth and rumor, it seems, are randomly tossed about.
[21:08] I, for one, proudly embrace the label of mainstream media.
[21:12] To me, it represents a commitment to the time-honored practices of digging for facts, shining the light in dark corners, giving voice to the voiceless, holding our leaders and institutions accountable,
[21:24] and attributing and being transparent of where our information comes from.
[21:30] Our tagline at nightly news is, understanding matters, and it does, more than ever.
[21:37] The issues are complicated, the solutions are not black and white, and the spin and red herrings are relentless.
[21:45] It requires all of our efforts, and some effort by the viewer, to embrace critical thinking on a whole new level.
[21:53] You're no doubt familiar with the old journalism adage, if your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.
[21:59] Well, these days, that adage applies to consumers of news as well.
[22:03] We have to ask, what's the source?
[22:05] Who benefits from the information?
[22:07] And does it stand up to the facts?
[22:10] We cannot afford to be lazy consumers of news anymore.
[22:14] Certainly, we can't become lazy reporters of news either.
[22:17] So, yes, this is a good time to do what we do.
[22:20] It's a great time to be a journalist.
[22:23] I just want to give a big nod to DePaul and the Center for Journalism Integrity for ensuring the legacy of this noble profession.
[22:30] Now, I kept my remarks short because I actually prefer to answer questions, which is what I'd like to do.
[22:36] I think we have time for a few questions.
[22:38] I'll work around with the microphone, so no worries.
[22:40] We have students who are in the microphone.
[22:43] Okay, but while we get prepared for questions, let me just tell you that President Trump, and I know, it was a slip.
[22:52] It's like writing your checks in January, you still write the wrong year, it's the same thing.
[22:57] The President Trump and the Prime Minister of Italy are holding a news conference today.
[23:01] What does that mean to you and me?
[23:02] I'm anchoring a special report that we're offering to the affiliates at 2.45 Central Time.
[23:09] So that's my way of saying, that sounded really pretentious, didn't it?
[23:13] Yes, I'm doing a news conference with the President, but I actually am, and so I've got to go to NBC Tower.
[23:18] So when I'm done here, I'm going to slip out.
[23:19] I don't mean to be rude, but I just wanted to throw that out.
[23:22] But do we have anybody who wants to ask a question?
[23:29] Okay, goodbye, thank you.
[23:32] Try the veal.
[23:34] Oh, yeah, please, yeah.
[23:35] I'll come to you.
[23:37] Oh, no, we've got a microphone coming to you.
[23:38] Okay, all right.
[23:40] You don't need a microphone.
[23:41] Oh, thanks.
[23:42] So tell us, what's the big difference between it being local news and the network news?
[23:49] I mean, what have you seen over the years as far as the challenges?
[23:54] Obviously, you know, bigger platform, but what, from your Chicago experience, have you carried over to what you do every day?
[24:01] Well, I mean, when I was doing local news, I think we tried to be all things.
[24:05] But I think what you're seeing in local news in general, and I think you would agree, is that there's more focus on local, on neighborhoods, on what's really happening right in front of us.
[24:14] The big change for me going to, on the national level, was suddenly you consume news in a different way.
[24:19] You know, I obviously followed all the news, but now everything is relevant, so your radar is always spinning, and you hear something, you know, what did they say about Iran today?
[24:27] What happened about North Korea today?
[24:28] And how it's going to affect your life.
[24:30] I was in a booking meeting the other day discussing which world leaders we would like to try and book for me to interview, and it's like, how cool, what a job, a cool job that is, right?
[24:41] But I think that there's more of a delineation in a really good way.
[24:46] Local stations now are becoming hyper-local, and we are, you know, picking up and, you know, looking at the world through, you know, a different lens, a broader lens.
[24:56] It's tough doing a broadcast like mine.
[24:58] It's only 22 minutes long, and you've got to kind of curate the day and, oh, by the way, highlight those things that distinguish us from our competitors and our hard-hitting investigations and those sorts of things.
[25:09] So it's a challenge every day trying to make it all fit.
[25:15] Yes, got a question back there?
[25:18] We'll get the microphone to you.
[25:22] I'm curious, how did the values that you learned as a child follow you into the professional world?
[25:29] How did the values you learned as a child follow you into the professional world?
[25:33] Well, you know, I think, you know, I inherited from my parents a pretty level head, which is important.
[25:42] You know, I like an intelligent discussion.
[25:46] And I think that as a journalist, that's what I try to foster.
[25:49] I don't like screaming, people screaming past each other.
[25:51] I like people who really provoke good thought and good discussion.
[25:54] That came from my values.
[25:56] Also, compassion was a big part of my growing up.
[25:59] And I, this is one of my pet projects, where we need to bring more compassion into journalism.
[26:05] Remembering that a lot of the people we cover didn't ask to be in the news.
[26:10] They're in the news because of circumstances that, you know, they were a victim of circumstances.
[26:14] And we march into their lives sometimes, sometimes at their lowest moments.
[26:18] And I always try to remember that could be me, that could be my mother, that could be my father, you know, somebody in my family in these circumstances.
[26:26] How would I want them to be treated?
[26:29] How would I want my story told?
[26:31] And so I think respect and compassion are really important parts of what we do.
[26:39] Mr. Menno here.
[26:40] Yes.
[26:41] Mr. Menno.
[26:43] Because I'm involved with the presidential debates, would you tell us about your experience in moderating the first debate last year?
[26:52] You see the sweat rolling down my head?
[26:56] I still have post-traumatic syndrome from the debate.
[27:00] I will tell you, that was the single hardest thing I've ever done in my career.
[27:07] And I think it would be hard to top it in terms of difficulty.
[27:11] You know, when I was asked, I mean, it still was an incredible honor to do the first debate in an election cycle like that.
[27:18] But I have to tell you, in the couple of weeks leading up to it, it was bizarre turning on cable news
[27:24] and hearing people talk about me and what I should ask and what I might do and what bias I might have.
[27:32] And I'm screaming back at the TV, hey, you know, and no one's listening to me, of course.
[27:36] But, you know, both campaigns were, to some extent, their surrogates were playing me.
[27:41] You know, he's going to be hard.
[27:42] He's not going to have a fact check and all this.
[27:44] And I would like to tell you, you let that stuff roll off, but it gets in your head.
[27:48] And so now you're sitting there with your back to 100 million people and these two candidates.
[27:55] And all I wanted to do was say, Mommy.
[28:01] It was a difficult format, and I have to tell you, I was knocked on my heels.
[28:10] I mean, they came out, and it was like a heavyweight fight.
[28:12] Oh, my God, everybody slow down, and I'm trying to go through my questions.
[28:16] And you hit a point of calm, and it's like, you know what, the heck with this format.
[28:20] I'm just going to be a journalist.
[28:22] I'm going to ask the unanswered questions.
[28:24] And that got me in trouble a little bit with some folks.
[28:26] But that's, you know, that's all I know.
[28:28] The important thing for people to remember is being a journalist does not make you a moderator.
[28:33] That's kind of a unique skill, skill set.
[28:36] So I just, you know, did the best I could.
[28:39] It was the next several days reading my email was quite entertaining.
[28:44] Great job.
[28:45] Awesome questions.
[28:46] Loser.
[28:47] Pathetic.
[28:47] It was, you know, it was something for everybody.
[28:51] But thank you for putting me in that position.
[28:53] I appreciate that.
[28:56] No, it was an amazing, amazing experience.
[29:00] And I have not watched it yet.
[29:02] I keep telling myself.
[29:03] I still have all my notes and all my questions.
[29:05] The story someday will be told of our preparation for that debate, which was quite extensive.
[29:12] It involved a lot of people, a lot of role-playing.
[29:15] And without telling you who was doing the role-playing, there were a couple of moments that went exactly as we rehearsed them.
[29:21] I almost stopped them.
[29:22] I said, I want you to, this person does you so great.
[29:26] It was, there were a few moments that, I mean, almost word for word.
[29:30] So I had a great team.
[29:32] But, yeah, I'll still be getting treatment and counseling for that for some time to come.
[29:36] But I think I had time for a few more questions.
[29:38] Hi.
[29:40] Sure.
[29:41] My name is Roger Crockett.
[29:42] And for many years, I was a writer and editor for Business Week magazine here in Chicago.
[29:49] And I mention that because back in 2010, McGraw-Hill, who owned Business Week, sold the magazine.
[29:55] It had lost profitability and it's now become Bloomberg Business Week.
[30:01] But it demonstrates the changes and the challenges that have faced the world of publishing and journalism.
[30:07] And so in this age of Twitter where the competitive forces against journalists are so much greater than they were when some of us were coming up in the field,
[30:18] can you talk a bit about, you know, for the new generation of journalists, how they really forge their ways through this very challenging competitive field?
[30:29] Yeah, I mean, there are two worlds that we live in.
[30:31] The one is that, you know, as much as we focus on news and reporting, we're not blind to the fact that we're part of bigger businesses.
[30:38] And, you know, fortunately, NBC News has a great parent company and we're fully supported.
[30:43] But those wins change, especially in publishing, you know, as new ownership comes in and new thoughts and new directions.
[30:50] And, you know, as a reporter, you've got to, you know, obviously hang on to your integrity and your focus while weathering those changes.
[30:57] But to your point about social media, the playing field is so different.
[31:00] Everyone wants to talk about the media, the media, the media.
[31:03] And I'm like, what are you talking about, the media?
[31:04] I mean, everyone's in the media now.
[31:06] Every tweet is the media.
[31:08] So we have to, I think, define who we are and what we want to be in a way, maybe a more forceful way with our readers and our viewers,
[31:20] that this is what we do.
[31:21] I do mainstream media.
[31:23] We do, you know, independent reporting.
[31:27] That doesn't mean what they do at another outlet is different.
[31:30] But we've got to maybe educate our audiences a little bit about what we offer.
[31:35] I always remind people that I don't do my newscast to make people feel good.
[31:41] I hope there's some stories that may make you feel good.
[31:43] But, you know, news steps on your toes sometimes.
[31:46] News sometimes, you know, tells you, you know, I know you thought this was true, but guess what?
[31:51] That's not true.
[31:53] Sometimes you want to throw your shoe at the TV.
[31:55] Other times you want to go damn straight.
[31:58] So that's the dynamic of news.
[32:00] I think it's important to remind people because we are in a popularity contest to the extent that circulation and ratings and those sorts of things.
[32:08] But in terms of the content that we curate and we report every day, that's not with the aim of being liked or being popular and making people want to hug us.
[32:16] We're not here to tell you, at least our organization, we're not here to tell people what they want to hear.
[32:21] And, you know, sometimes that gets mistaken for a bias.
[32:25] But to me, that's what news is and what news should be.
[32:30] Hi.
[32:31] Earlier today, during your interview at DePaul, you mentioned that you have biases assigned to you, such as you're an African-American, you're a male, you're a Christian.
[32:41] I was just wondering how you separate those biases from your work so that you can present your news objectively.
[32:48] Yeah, and that was part of a discussion we had today, and I was describing how all of us come to life with a world view.
[32:55] I was born in the United States.
[32:56] I was raised in the United States.
[32:59] I'm a Christian.
[33:00] I'm straight.
[33:01] I'm African-American.
[33:02] All those things form who you are.
[33:04] Now, that doesn't mean that, you know, that affects every story I report.
[33:07] But I think it's important to know that, that we all have this view of the world.
[33:12] As Americans, we tend to probably give more credence to something that comes, you know, from, you know, from our leaders here than in another country.
[33:21] Part of that is because that's where, you know, we're from, and that's what we know.
[33:26] It doesn't really affect the how I report stories per se.
[33:31] As I said, I love a good, intelligent discussion.
[33:36] But it makes me know that I need other people, that we need a collaborative newsroom, and that's what we rely on.
[33:43] When I'm done here after the special report, we'll meet, and I'll be on the conference call discussing tonight's newscast, and we'll push back at each other.
[33:50] And a lot of that pushback is based on our differences and what, you know, we know, you know.
[33:57] I'm from the West Coast originally, so sometimes I'm the guy that says, you know what, that may be a big New York story, but, you know, in the West that may not play.
[34:05] It feeds our diversity, which makes us better at what we do.
[34:09] And it's not just racial and gender diversity.
[34:11] It's this diversity of thought and experiences, because news is a collaborative project of putting it together every night.
[34:20] Yes.
[34:21] Thank you for being here, and congratulations.
[34:23] It's wonderful to have all the journalists in the room who will back up my recent Facebook post that we're here with thousands of people,
[34:29] the biggest audience ever gathered, to see a network news anchor in the Union League Club's history.
[34:35] So thank you for that.
[34:36] It's record-setting.
[34:38] Do not fact-check that, man.
[34:39] Yeah, and everyone will confirm that, I'm sure.
[34:42] My question is, in an era where we have the proliferation of news outlets, online, cable, broadcast,
[34:49] where people can quite literally select the news source that reinforces their worldview and exclude or ignore those that might challenge it,
[34:56] how do we get people to go outside their comfort zone as consumers of news to look at, listen to broadcasts, read newspapers that may not coincide with their worldview?
[35:08] How do we do that?
[35:09] See, I don't know, because it's so comforting to consume stuff that says you're right, or that's the world we live in.
[35:17] And I don't know, that's our big challenge right now, is to help people understand that, you know, mainstream media, independent journalism is not a bad thing.
[35:26] It fosters an interesting conversation, and it's okay to, you know, change your minds.
[35:33] I think we're living in a world right now that I kind of liken it to baseball loyalties.
[35:39] You know, you're a Mets fan, you're a Cubs fan.
[35:43] You can't convince someone to switch teams, even if your team is, you know, 20 games out of first place.
[35:51] You stick with them, and I think there's a lot of that, and that may not be a perfect analogy, but I think that's what's going on.
[35:59] I don't know how to do that.
[36:01] What I always tell people, this question came up in another thing I was at, I said, stop talking politics.
[36:05] Why does everything have to be framed in politics right now?
[36:08] One of the things we're doing as a broadcast is trying to look beyond stories, and not everything has to be framed in, you know, Democrat or Republican,
[36:18] but it feels like it is, like it hovers over everything.
[36:21] So, you know, I just try every night to try and, you know, broaden the discourse over all the things that affect us,
[36:29] and, you know, we do a segment right now called Inspiring America that Carol alluded to, and it's really important.
[36:36] It's not, these are not throwaway feel-good stories.
[36:39] These are stories that, you know, they are about people who are inspiring us, people who are doing really good things,
[36:44] and sometimes at the end I'll even comment, you know, it just kind of reminds you there's a lot of good in this country.
[36:49] There's a lot of good out there, and I think we all need those reminders that we can have discussions about a lot of things that don't necessarily involve politics.
[36:58] That's the, that's just me.
[37:01] I'd probably have time for one more.
[37:02] Yes.
[37:03] One more.
[37:04] Hello.
[37:04] Sir?
[37:05] Over here.
[37:07] Okay, I also know you have a question.
[37:09] Wait a minute.
[37:09] Linda McLennan's going to trump you.
[37:12] Who inspires me?
[37:13] Oh, I'll be right with you, Linda.
[37:16] Sorry, I'm used to it.
[37:17] I, you know, I, there are certain people I've covered along the way that stick out.
[37:23] I just remember, and a real quick story, because it's really weird.
[37:27] So I'm in Afghanistan, this would have been 2012, and we're covering, we're doing a story on this Air Force Combat Rescue chopper unit.
[37:38] They go pluck wounded off the battlefield, taking fire and all this, and I'm talking with these guys, and they said, they turned to one guy and said,
[37:44] Jimmy, show Lester, tell Lester.
[37:47] I'm like, what are you talking about?
[37:48] He says, all right.
[37:49] So we walk out to the helicopter, he says, you've got to get on your back.
[37:51] I'm getting on our back, and there's a hole in the bottom of the helicopter, and he had signed it, the one, the one that almost got, or almost got me with the date.
[38:00] And the story, and it happened the day before.
[38:02] They were going in to rescue some wounded, there's been a horrible firefight in this, in this canyon, and they went in, and they took fire.
[38:10] He gets hit and sprawls across the helicopter.
[38:14] They rush him back in the chopper.
[38:15] Turns out the bullet comes up under his goggle, just pierces the edge of his helmet.
[38:20] He only needed five stitches.
[38:22] But he's talking, and I'm saying, you know, man, that's God's way of saying, get the hell out of here.
[38:27] And he was really so passionate about, no, these guys need us.
[38:30] You know, they're on that battlefield.
[38:32] We've got to get in there.
[38:33] I'm going back tomorrow.
[38:34] And it was just an incredible story, and it always stuck with me.
[38:36] And I told that story many, many times.
[38:40] Fast forward a month ago on Amazon.
[38:42] I'm looking for a book written by another soldier I had met on another trip to Afghanistan.
[38:48] And I stumble upon Jimmy had written a book.
[38:50] And, by the way, I'm in the book.
[38:53] So, and then, this is even crazier.
[38:56] So I email him.
[38:57] I say, hey, you know, it's great.
[38:59] You wrote the book.
[39:00] And I'm glad you're well.
[39:01] I didn't know where you lived.
[39:02] So I'm going to Seattle the next week to do something with our station there.
[39:06] He finds out and says, hey, I'm in Seattle.
[39:08] Can I come down and see you?
[39:09] And he gives me the book.
[39:10] And it was a nice moment.
[39:12] And I said to him, I said, you don't know.
[39:14] But I have told your story so many times because you inspired me.
[39:17] And there's a lot of people along the way that I have met on this job that I just think, wow.
[39:22] Because you know what?
[39:23] Certain people, you do their stories, and you think, what would I do?
[39:28] And what would I be capable of?
[39:29] Because I do a lot of these stories, and I think, man, I'd be curled up in a ball somewhere.
[39:33] And yet people put one foot in front of the other.
[39:35] Anyway, that's a long story.
[39:36] But that's my, people you don't know inspire me.
[39:41] Wow, that took a long time.
[39:43] My co-anchor, Linda McLennan.
[39:49] Thank you.
[39:50] I hope that you know how much people feel so happy for you.
[40:00] Still to this day, and we were together for 14 years, 16 years, but still to this day,
[40:06] I'll run into people and I'll say, Lester Holt is doing such an amazing job.
[40:10] I hope you understand that in this, you know, the third city, the second city, that people really adore you and think that you've had, you have gotten everything that you've deserved to have had.
[40:23] So my question is this, what about the kids?
[40:26] What about the kids?
[40:28] Our kids are sort of the same ages.
[40:31] My, I hate to say it, but my kids do not watch nightly news.
[40:36] They don't watch TV news.
[40:38] They don't listen to radio news.
[40:41] What are we going to do about this generation that does not tune in to the sources that we all feel are the credible sources?
[40:50] I'm really concerned, especially given the politics of today.
[40:55] What are we going to do?
[40:56] It's a good question.
[40:57] You know, my wife was with a friend who had a younger friend, and she said, this is Lester Holt's wife.
[41:02] She works at NBC, and she said, and not trying to be funny, I said, is that the fake news channel?
[41:08] And, you know, it was very telling, because this is a person, I'm not making fun of her, but, I mean, she's a person who doesn't consume a lot of news.
[41:16] And, you know, you pick up little things, and that is worrisome.
[41:20] I mean, you know, in a lot of places we're seeing audiences for, you know, certain broadcasts lower.
[41:26] I mean, there's still 23, 24 million people watching the three evening newscasts, so we're, you know, we're not going out of business anytime soon.
[41:33] But there's something about the relevance.
[41:35] I mean, we've all been engaged, all of us in broadcast, certainly, and print, have been engaged in this trying to find the viewer.
[41:42] We're, you know, our jobs haven't changed.
[41:44] We still report news, but the viewers are moving from TV to the back of a taxi cab to their phones.
[41:50] I mean, I might be on your toaster next week.
[41:51] I don't know.
[41:53] But, oh, I wasn't supposed to give that away, was I?
[41:57] But, no, it is incredibly challenging.
[41:59] And although I have to tell you, there have been some moments where I've met people who are not news viewers at all, have no idea what I do.
[42:05] And I think, would that be kind of blissful just to be, I mean, you know, to like, wow, not be burdened by all these things.
[42:13] But it's a serious question.
[42:15] It deserves a serious answer.
[42:16] And I don't know what the answer is.
[42:18] But people will only, people need to understand what we do and how important it is.
[42:26] And maybe it will take something, I hate to say it, something, you know, life-changing that will remind people, wow, I wish I had paid better attention.
[42:35] I wish I had known that information so I could, you know, write my congressman or vote it differently or whatever.
[42:41] And I don't wish for that, but I think it may be something dramatic that will wake people up, that you need to find out what's going on and what our leaders are doing and hold them accountable.
[42:54] And that's why we all stay in this good fight.
[42:56] I have hijacked this afternoon.
[42:58] I didn't mean to do that.
[42:59] Yeah, I did, actually.
[43:00] But anyway, but thank you so much for the honor, Carol.
[43:03] I just appreciate it.
[43:12] As many of you know, I can't miss an opportunity to brag a little bit about the college.
[43:17] So I'm going to end by telling you about the College of Communication.
[43:22] And it's really easy.
[43:23] For us, it's about the students.
[43:26] We encourage our students, in the spirit of intention values, to develop their capabilities in order to serve others, enriching their surroundings, their community, and the world at large.
[43:39] So the bar is high, and our honorees today are a great example of where our students will be one day.
[43:48] And many of our students are on their way.
[43:51] The number of regional and national awards that they have garnered indicates that they're definitely going to be reaching that point as well.
[44:01] I could keep you here all afternoon if I started listing those, so I won't.
[44:06] But let me end by saying this.
[44:08] Everything we do, everything many of us do, inspires students to greatness, motivates them to strive for excellence,
[44:17] and reminds them of their responsibility to make a positive impact on the world.
[44:24] Just a small goal.
[44:26] So, thank you, Carol, Don, Ben, Lester, for making this happen.
[44:33] And a special thank you for Sheena Ramsey, who put this event together.
[44:38] Thank you.
[44:43] We owe you a bottle of champagne, and it is coming your way.
[44:52] But please stay in touch with the center as we look forward to another year of engaging and inspiring the next generation of journalists.
[45:02] Thank you.