Carl Gibson
Verified
(He/Him)
As seen in:
CNN,
MSN,
MSN Australia,
MSN Canada,
MSN Money Canada,
MSN UK,
Business Insider,
HuffPost,
MSN India,
MSN South Africa
and
Covers:
politics, economy, business, healthcare, climate, grassroots organizing, criminal justice, student debt, state government, tech, science, consumer protection, foreign policy
Doesn't Cover:
Product reviews, crypto/blockchain
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
A reporter/anchor for WMKY-FM, the NPR affiliate for Eastern Kentucky, Southern Ohio and Western West Virginia
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Once, in a typing class in 7th grade
How is social media changing news?
Editors and news directors are now driven by social media conversations to decide how to assign stories. The readers dictate what's news
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Uh, Ron Burgundy of course
What does it mean to be a journalist?
As Orwell said, to print what other people don't want printed
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
The wee hours of October 2, 2020 were the best 4-6 hours Twitter has ever had. If you know you know
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email is usually best. But hit me on Bluesky too! I'm at @crgibs.bsky.social
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Pen and paper, Samsung Galaxy voice recorder and camcorder, the ACR call recorder app, Wordpress, Rebelmouse
What's your favorite social network?
Bluesky is where all the cool kids went after Melon Husk turned Twitter into a dumpster fire
Who do you wish followed you?
your mom
Why did you become a journalist?
To call out powerful people on their bullshit
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
I fed a scoop to a reporter about Best Buy price gouging water after Hurricane Harvey. It got picked up by 40 major outlets
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Write every day. Put a fact in every sentence. Drink black coffee. Be unimpressed by power and influence
When's the best time to pitch you?
In the morning. Send me an email, and try to keep it at 5 sentences or less
What's the best pitch you ever got?
A rep for a group focused on highlighting far-right authoritarianism gave me a concise pitch and offered an expert to interview
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
This PR flack for an author who wrote a pro-austerity deficit hawk book would not stop pitching until I told her how federal spending works
What's your favorite drink?
Kentucky bourbon. Neat if it's 100 proof or below, one big fat ice cube if it's more than that
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Behind a drum set, at the gym, on my bike, or helplessly at the whim of my PS5
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
ProPublica, WIRED, Semafor, The 19th, 404 Media, Chris Geidner's Law Dork, Parker Molloy's The Present Age, Marisa Kabas' The Handbasket
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
None of us are unbiased. It doesn't mean we aren't objective, but we're all fully aware we're shaping public opinion with every article
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.