This week CPU hosted long-time news correspondent Maggie Hickey who discussed the life a TV News Reporter. For an audience of aspiring journalists and politics fans, Hickey described the demands in one day of work at CBS 2 News and addressed some recent controversies over TV media.  

Here is the first part of Hickey's typical day. She wakes up at 2:25 AM. She listens to the news headlines on 880 at 2:30 AM. She calls in to CBS at 3:00 AM. She gets to the newsroom at 3:30 AM and receives her assignment. She has until 4:00 AM to research and write her coverage. At 4:00 AM, she turns in her story to the executive producer for copy editing. After that, she goes to the edit room and works with the video editor to find pictures  that will go with her voice-over. The finished story airs on the 5:00 AM newscast. And I thought 9 AM class was bad. 

Hickey got her start in journalism as an intern with a local TV station near Brown University. She noted for the undergrad listeners that interning has become an especially good way to learn about the media because recent pushes to downsize staff has left more responsibility to the interns. After college she continued reporting in Rhode Island with the hopes that she could work up to a spot with one of the New York stations. In Rhode Island, she made her news name with undercover stories about pockets of prostitution. Calling herself "Hickey the Hooker," she took to the Rhode Island street with a camera and taped herself getting solicited. Eventually, she landed a New York job by offering to work for a free week at Channel 5 news. She added that this experience could serve as a lesson for those trying to navigate a difficult job market right now - act with "thick skin" is her advice. 

Hickey had an interesting take on the problem of reporting bias. For her, some bias is almost inevitable. It is written into the choice of the story, and, often, the assignments make for biased coverage. As an example, she recalled how frequently she was assigned to stories about Irish Catholics because of her Irish Catholic background. In larger terms, she seemed happy with recent shifts toward overt bias in TV media - MSNBC and Fox - because of its potential to provide viewers with clearer alternatives to biases that they don't accept. 

She also addressed the problems for news media posed by 24-7 cable coverage. The most recent incarnation of this issue was the attacks by Jon Stewart against CNBC for its coverage of the financial crisis. In Stewart's view, the goal of winning advertisers while filling an entire day with news coverage is often incompatible with the ostensible need to provide accurate, skeptical, and useful reporting. Hickey agreed with much of this. She admitted that news is "also a business selling the commercials," that some stories can be "ridiculous," and that the coverage has gotten much more compressed over the years. One of her most interesting observations was that all reporters speak of a "golden age" where they could be more adventurous and substantive in their work. For her it was the difference between putting together 5 minute news segments in the 1980s and 90 second segments in 2009. Yet she defended the media from much of these critiques by pointing out that this type of superficial coverage is what people want. As evidence, she noted the relative unpopularity of "higher-minded" news networks like PBS. This, of course, raises the question of whether viewers only want this news because it is being marketed to them as something they should want and whether news should, like other commodities, be driven by the demands of consumers altogether. 

In any case, Hickey provided a refreshingly direct and insightful look at the media from the inside. Given the importance of the questions that emerged from her comments and all the changes taking place in news media, the CPU benefited much from her appearance.