What was your first job as a journalist?
Nature columnist for my elementary school newspaper. My first PAID journalism job was a local news reporter for the Troy (NY) Times Record.
How is social media changing news?
New media are expunging, diluting, distracting, trivializing,supplanting and castrating news media
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Will McAvoy
What does it mean to be a journalist?
It means you are empowered to seek truths and obligated to elucidate them. It means you walk into the highest and lowest points of lives.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Search engines, Pages, Pixelmator, iMac, my phone and my brain
What's your favorite social network?
Seriously, after my last answer?
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Wrote about local school board election. The school shut down the paper rather than publish. Said the school board wasn't students' concern.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
A series I wrote in 1987 on 'Death and Disability in Football,' giving parents and players information of how to make the safest choices.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
If money is your motivation, try something else. What it takes to make money in news is most often in conflict with covering news properly.
What's your favorite drink?
Success
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Wrestling mat.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Washington Post
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That sports is about scores and stars. It's actually about self-empowerment, facing challenges and building relationships.
