What was your first job as a journalist?
Crawdaddy mag record reviewer
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes
How is social media changing news?
For the worse.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
JJ Hunsecker
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Low pay. Great fun, every day is an adventure.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Notebook, pen, legal pads, HP all in one computer, iPad, landline phone, the internets, MS Word.
What's your favorite social network?
Friends, face to face
Who do you wish followed you?
A line of baby ducks
Why did you become a journalist?
To get into the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Yes. Covered a Richard Nixon campaign appearance.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
Rogues Gallery, my book on the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Speak truth to power.
When's the best time to pitch you?
When I’m at bat.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
“You ought to write a book about models.”
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
A fashion PR said, “Zer ees really something happening here.”
What's your favorite drink?
1982/Bordeaux
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Traveling
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
NY Times
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That it’s ever glamorous.
