What was your first job as a journalist?
As a sports intern at the Winston-Salem Journal, I covered the local Single-A baseball team, The Winston Salem Red Sox (and Don Aase).
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Of course.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
E.B. White's spider, Charlotte.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
I don't really get pitched much as a blogger. And I can't say I miss it.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Wordpress handles my blog. I use pretty standard social media outlets. I try to use a lot of photos, graphics, etc. in my articles.
What's your favorite social network?
They are a necessary evil.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Not a bit.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
My investigation (and book Shell Game) into the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro broke new ground on Saddam Hussein's illegal weapons financing.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Remember George Orwell: "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is PR."
What's the best pitch you ever got?
You have a lot of questions.
What's your favorite drink?
Red wine.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Walking, sailing, reading, playing piano, cutting the lawn, yoga, ice skating, wandering around my wife's unbelievable garden.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Four regulars: Bloomberg, NYT, WAPO and NYT
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That it must be hard to come up with stories about environmental issues in the Finger Lakes region.
