Mark MacNamara
Verified
As seen in:
UC Berkeley News,
Nautilus,
NewsBreak,
RealClear Science,
San Francisco Classical Voice,
Asheville Watchdog,
RealClear History
Covers:
From crime to the concert hall to climate change....
Doesn't Cover:
topics with bad angles....
Journalist
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
Historian for an intelligence processing wing at SAC Hq in Omaha, 1971, writing 150-page quarterly histories...
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Of course.
How is social media changing news?
It's made feature writing more difficult; because so many people just don't care for depth or detail.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
None
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To be as accurate as possible. Fairness may be important or not,
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
I don't have the time to remember...
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
With intelligence and humor.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
OS 10.14.4; Scrivener; Word
What's your favorite social network?
None
Who do you wish followed you?
Barack Obama
Why did you become a journalist?
Because I wasn't good at anything else.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Writer in my last year
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
In-depth pieces for San Francisco Magazine; on city corruption and the murder of a wealthy woman by her lover.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Expect nothing; deliver everything.
When's the best time to pitch you?
anytime
What's the best pitch you ever got?
I do more pitching than get pitched.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Didn't.
What's your favorite drink?
black ice tea, with extra ice, no sweetener, shaken.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Reading; walking a border collie; running
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
New Yorker
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
I'm not sure there is one....
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.