Dellaria shares what journalists must do to survive the demanding field

By Jesus J. Montero

Journalists are privileged bystanders to history. Photojournalist David Dellaria knows that firsthand.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the loud crackling noises made over a mile away,” Dellaria said when sharing his experience filming the space shuttle launch from the Kennedy Space Center in 1981.

Dellaria fondly remembers camping out for hours waiting to document the first orbital spaceflight of NASA’s Space Shuttle program. The cramped space reserved for the press was at Launchpad A – the same pad where the Apollo missions were held.  Journalists slept standing up because of the tight quarters.

The liftoff sent an awe of shocking waves that hit the bodies of those recording the event, an experience that couldn’t be captured on film. The thrust and deafening noise rang through the ears of those lucky enough to see the bright red-yellow flames punch the sky. The defying gravity moment is what Dellaria explains as something that couldn’t be fully experienced on film or written articulately about. Instead the moment had to be experienced firsthand.

Dellaria is a freelance cameraman from San Francisco whose work has won numerous national and regional Emmys. His worked has been seen on Frontline, 60 Minutes, as well as a long list of reputable journalism and non-journalism programs. His work has featured the likes of celebrities and political figures from Robin Williams, Mark Zuckerberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Michael Jordon.

When not on the road filming Dellaria and his wife are often cycling. Their interest in riding started from a short 10-mile ride to now when possible a 120-mile ride or charity event. His competitive nature in life is a beneficial personality trait, he believes, for those who want to work inside a newsroom one day. “I think in order to survive in the media business you need to be competitive. You can’t just show up and think you’re doing a 9 to 5 job.”

He believes that being active inside and outside the newsroom helps him significantly. “It’s not surprising that I’m a competitive person,” he said.  “My colleagues, I’m proud to say they’re just as competitive in their ways. I relate to other people doing what I do because I think that we all want to keep ourselves up. To do this job, you have to keep your mind sharp. Often you’re thinking on your feet.”

Dellaria’s journalism career started in college at San Jose State University. As an undeclared freshman he first picked up a camera. That’s where the bold darkness of a developing darkroom and the mixture of chemical baths brought photo negatives to life—in what Dellaria calls developing photos in “soup”—and sparked the growth of journalism for him.

Dellaria, a member of the gymnastics team, used what was familiar to him for his first story. Borrowing color film from a friend at a local TV news station, he recorded his meet, wrote a script and later sold it to the sports director of the same station who used it verbatim. Dellaria’s reaction to his first published story was, “Wow, this is great! I got paid $25, both my script and my footage got on the local news and I felt like that was quite an accomplishment.”

He stresses the importance of having a diverse skill set. “As a young journalist getting into this business, you can’t just get into it and say I want to shoot,” he said.  “You have to have a pretty broad skill set…there’s a lot of technology that’s out there that’s many skills that you’ve got to bring.”

Dellaria sees many similarities to what journalists today have to face compared to when he first started. Journalists with diverse skill sets have more control with their story and can add elements that other journalists cannot.

These skills he says must stand out in the newsroom. “It’s starting to look like it’s coming back to the old way. So, you’ve got to learn the cameras. You need to have basic editing skills, writing succinctly and in declarative sentences, and all this needs to happen fairly quickly.”

Dellaria also stresses the demanding environment journalism brings and the nature needed to succeed. “It could be an 18-hour day,” Dellaria shares. “You’re not able to eat some of the times. The job is so demanding that you have so many things to get done in a short window of time.”

Freelancing in journalism is more common now than ever. Shrinking newsrooms across the globe make it harder for full-time employment.

Dellaria believes what newsrooms are looking for are journalists who gives it their all, “They want a hundred and ten percent. If you don’t give it your all, you’ll never get hired again.”

“When you freelance, you’re only as good as your last job in many ways – that statement is true.” Word of your work travels fast in the journalism community Dellaria said. “A lot of our work is word of mouth and then the same people that know us continue to hire us for their projects because we bring a certain amount of integrity and production skills.”

Dellaria’s shooting assignments have taken him to unique locations with unforgettable interactions, from silk in Thailand to the brutal rules of football in Australia. He’s lugged large camera gear between two small boats a mile off the coast of Fiji.

One assignment Dellaria remembers fondly was meeting someone from his childhood dreams.  On assignment for 60 Minutes, Dellaria’s brushed with history again when he interviewed Alan Shepard, the first American who traveled into space and later walked on the Moon in 1971.

Dellaria describes meeting Shepard as not only a career milestone but more importantly a personal achievement, having devoured books about him and other astronauts growing up.

Dellaria has a tripod that he proudly displays that he asked Shepard to sign.  “For me, I got to meet a real American hero. That was big,” he said.  A privilege courtesy of being a journalist.

 

 

 

By Melody Mercado

 Joie Chen, former CBS Correspondent, discusses the importance of diversity in the newsroom and its impact on reporting and the workplace.

 During her time at CBS, Joie Chen was the only minority female to rank among the 50 most visible network correspondents. An accomplishment that for many would spark extreme pride and joy, but this resonated differently with Chen.

“I mean you’d say are you proud of that, and I would say well yes but it actually makes me a little sad that there were not other women of color in that group… and that there were only three people of color overall in that top 50. That’s pretty tragic,” said Chen.

It’s no secret that diversity in the newsroom is falling short. In 2017 minorities comprised of only 16.55 percentof newsrooms’ staff across all different types of platforms. Chen stresses that diversity is essential in the newsroom, in order to give us different perspectives. Without it we are left with only a narrow look into our world.

“Whether it’s political diversity, or ethnic diversity, racial diversity, or faith-based diversity all these things lead us to bring different voices into the news community, leads us to cover different stories, [and] exposes us to different ways of thinking,” said Chen.

Even though some form of diversity may exist in the newsroom, it doesn’t protect minorities from being stigmatized or stereotyped. Chen experienced this well into her career, when a coworker in the newsroom suggested that she consider taking an English writing class.

“You know I was born and raised in the U.S…I’ve won awards for my writing,” said Chen. “But it was very strange how somebody at that point in my career…by then I’d already been at it for more than 20 years.”

Was it possible that people didn’t believe that English was Chen’s first language? Not only was it shocking, but also disturbing to Chen that there was someone who made that assumption at the very highest level of network news.

For minorities, the real catch 22 is how do you cover your own community without being pigeon-holed? For example, if there’s only one Hispanic in the newsroom does that mean they are governed as the only person to cover Latino focused stories?

For Chen, this manifested in Atlanta. A Korean store owner in a predominately African American community was experiencing conflict with its neighbors. Members of the community didn’t feel welcomed inside and the store owner felt that he didn’t know who to trust. The ultimate question was should the store remain in the community, or should it relocate.

“I remember, you know a perfectly legitimate story for a television station to cover. Should I as the Asian person go into that and do that reporting, or is that going to create conflict,” said Chen.

Was it going to create an impression of favoritism? On the other hand, Chen considered that the store owner might be willing to talk to her over any other reporter, but that it also might make members of the community not willing to speak with her.

Chen shared her concerns with her news director after being assigned the story. He assured her his decision was because he thought of her as a professional first, and assigned her based on his belief that she would do a good job. Throughout Chen’s career she specialized in hot-button issues and so this story fit her beat well.

In the end, both sides were receptive with her presence and overall reporting. Chen said the takeaway from her experience is that her boss was a thoughtful leader. She was able to voice her concerns and from there a solution was formed.

“I think the ability to find somebody who, you know, find the employers who are willing to hear you out is important,” said Chen. “You may not know every time and you may not get it right, but that can really be an empowering thing particularly for a young journalist to find those people who can really support them.”

The most diverse newsroom that Chen was a part of was at Al Jazeera America. Launched in 2013, the network lasted almost three years before it closed in 2016. Although it didn’t have a very long life, Al Jazeera America’s coverage was strongly dictated by the diversity of the staff.

According to Chen, at every level the newsroom was filled with different races, ethnicities, ages, experiences, and religion. As a result, the channel was naturally pursuing more topics in underrepresented communities. Al Jazeera America made a conscious effort to reach out geographically to parts of the country that were deemed undesirable.

“At Al Jazeera, we made a really conspicuous attempt to say look, we want our coverage to look beyond Washington and New York, and even Chicago and Los Angeles,” said Chen.

After Al Jazeera America dissolved, many from the staff were absorbed into other major news organizations. As a result, some organizations started to pick up, and follow up with some of the stories that Al Jazeera originally reported on.

“The lesson of that, is that you can actually…if you created a diverse newsroom you can actually change coverage,” said Chen. “Your coverage can be broader and deeper if you bring different voices into the mix.”

Journalists of color who are entering the field need to be reminded that they bring something extra to the table. In her early years, Chen admits to trying to suppress her identity as a journalist of color but urges others to not follow in her footsteps.

For journalists it’s a huge opportunity to be able to speak your mind. Chen said that you can’t get your way every time, but being able to share your unique views and experiences is very important.

“Remember that you as an individual, whatever that means,” said Chen, “bring[s] something to every newsroom that you will work in.”

-30-

(photo: CBS News)

Don’t go into it because you want to be a star

By: Ariana Kraft

Veteran journalist Martha Teichner is a correspondent for “CBS Sunday Morning” and based in New York. Teichner’s impressive reporting on an array of national and international breaking news stories has paved the way for many.

After graduating from Wellesley College and earning a degree in economics, Teichner wasn’t sure where her place in the world was yet. However her hunger for the truth and eagerness to learn led her to her first journalism job at WJEF radio station in Grand Rapids Michigan. Little did she know down the line, her original reporting would earn her multiple national awards.

In her twenties, Teichner was working in Chicago at WMAQ. She was sent out to interview people on the worst days of their lives. In the midst of floods, shootings and violent disasters, Teichner was there speaking with those affected.

It was important that she never intruded on anyone’s privacy. Teichner developed her own approach in these intense and emotional situations. “Every single time, I would go out I would say, I understand this is an intrusion, I feel terrible that I’m even asking but if you would like to speak, would you?” she said. “And I would always do it so that I would make it easy for them to say no, hoping that they would say no…they never said no.” Teichner believes that doing the interview was cathartic for them.

Being a journalist comes with many responsibilities. “The big thing is to believe in the stories, you don’t go into it because you want to be a star,” says Teichner. She warns that being motivated by stardom is not the way to sustain a career in the industry because there will be set-backs and technological changes that will affect where and how you do your job.

Teichner reflected on the time she was based in South Africa during apartheid. There was a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa. Covering such a topic required integrity and tough decision making. Other’s depended on those decisions. “The people I worked with and I worked very hard and argued and debated over how we should go about things constantly,” Teichner said. “That period, I think, is the period of time that I’m most proud of.”

Being a reporter often requires a lot of moving around. Teichner has experienced this first hand. She has picked up and moved to work in Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, London, Dallas, Johannesburg, and finally New York, where she currently resides.

“When you’re transferred every three years or so, you just start to make friends, especially when you’re working non-stop…and then you’re uprooted,” said Teichner. She candidly states, “I believe that probably the reason I am not married and have no children is because of those sacrifices.”

The sacrifices Teichner’s made and her strong dedication to the job led to major changes within the industry. “When I first started, there weren’t very many women who were allowed to go to war,” she explains. “I was one of the very first who it became part of what I did. I’m very proud of the fact that I contributed in a small way to the ability of women now to be equal to men in terms of going to cover wars.”

Although the business of journalism is tough, Teichner says, “If you love telling stories, if you love witnessing events, watching history unfold, telling the truth, because those are passions that you have, that’s what you need to follow.”

-30-

 

Former Chicago Sun-Timesreporter Natasha Korecki discusses Chicago, Rod Blagojevich, political corruption, and fake news

By: Richard Bodee

“She covered federal courts and law enforcement during the golden age of political corruption prosecutions in Chicago.” That’s the second sentence in Politico’snational correspondent, Natasha Korecki’s online biography.

“We’ve earned our reputation,” Korecki said of Illinois. “Having two consecutive governors go to prison is pretty remarkable.”

And Korecki covered both trials of disgraced former governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. Ryan was implicated in a federal probe dubbed “Operation Safe Road,” which involved illegally selling state contracts and licenses. Ryan spent five years in prison. Blagojevich was caught on a federal wiretap conspiring in a “pay-to-play” scheme involving the vacated Senate seat of former President Barrack Obama. Blagojevich is currently serving his eighth year of a fourteen-year sentence.

In Korecki’s book, “Only in Chicago,” former FBI Director, and current Special Counsel of the Russia investigation, Robert Mueller makes several appearances and brilliantly but brutally sums up the state of Chicago politics.

“He’d needle his Windy City crew, telling them that charging public corruption in Chicago ‘was like shooting fish in a barrel.’ (Korecki, Only in Chicago, 21.)”

“What was incredible was, even in the face of these really high-profile prosecutions of Blagojevich – just think about all the people who were implicated in that investigation, who weren’t necessarily charged, but were implicated, that were dragged through it,” Korecki said. “It was touching all kinds of politicians.”

Some of those politicians are still in office.

Among Chicagoans, there is a theory that the Blagojevich sentence was meant to serve as a warning to all Illinois politicians. But then there is former 25^thward Ald. Danny Solis, 14th ward Ald. Ed Burke, and even “pay-to-play” allegations surrounding Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown.

Why didn’t they get the message?

“Blagojevich was a pariah of the party,” Korecki said.

Korecki went on to explain that the difference is in the optics. She said people assumed Blagojevich wasn’t savvy because he was caught talking on the phone, when the traditional ole-boys, Chicago-way is to speak in person.

“Solis – where people are looking and saying, ‘Oh my God, I just talked to him,’ or ‘so-and-so just talked to him’ or ‘people in my network,’” Korecki explained. “Who hasn’t done some work with Ed Burke in the city? It’s much more far-reaching.”

There’s a certain culture in Cook County politics where everything seems to become a spectacle. Korecki recalled a time when Blagojevich, on trial and in the court room, was signing autographs in front of the judge.

But alas, Blagojevich’s only hope now is a high-profile presidential pardon.

“I think he’s in the mix,” Korecki said. “Anything is in the realm of possibility with Trump.”

Last year, Illinois’ Republication delegation sent a signed letter to President Trump essentially begging him not to commute the remaining years of Blagojevich’s sentence.

“That may have impacted him,” Korecki said. “At the end of the day with Trump, it’s usually, who’s the last person to talk to him.”

But Trump is caught in his own political scandal, one that threatens to shake the very foundation of our democracy.

“This is about as big as it gets, it’s the presidency,” Korecki said of the recently released Mueller Report.

In the era of the Trump presidency, there has also been a resurgence of the term “fake news,” a phrase Trump has taken credit for creating. Korecki and I discussed the use of the phrase “fake news.”

“It’s an undermining of our profession,” Korecki began.

Korecki said there’s often an “anonymity behind who’s lobbing it [the term fake news] at you” because often times people will conceal their identity on social media. But Korecki agreed that it’s a bit more jarring when those around you use the phrase.

“In your circles with friends or people who you are closer to and you hear them use the term, then you start wondering: ‘Wait a minute, do people really understand what they are saying when they’re saying that? What do they believe? Why are they saying that?’” Korecki explained.

Korecki said people who are using the phrase often say they want legitimate news.

Korecki’s advice to those individuals is to “find a couple sources, don’t just wave your hand and say everything is fake.”

So as Korecki and scores of political reporters around the world search for the truth in investigations and politics, I’m reminded of the Mueller anecdote that began Korecki’s book:

“With only Mueller, Grant, and top FBI supervisor Pete Cullen left, the tapes rolled. Mueller, who has overseen numerous terrorism and corruption cases at the bureau, listened to the conversations for the first time. He stopped and looked up. Who was dropping all those f-bombs? he asked. That’s the governor, he was told. Mueller shook his head. ‘Only in Chicago.’ (Korecki, Only in Chicago, 18-19.)

-30-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Dylan Van Sickle

 It’s not uncommon for the grandeur of a childhood dream to fade. Some grow up wanting to be doctors or actors or even the President of the United States, but the passage of time is a powerful drug, and just enough of it can catapult you through life with your dreams in the rear-view mirror.

 Emmy Award-winning journalist Peter Alexander didn’t really have a dream — he had a passion, and that passion was derived from the news.

 “The intersection of news information and television was intoxicating to me,” Alexander said.

 Alexander’s path began to take shape during his freshman year of high school, when his parents started dropping him off at the local Fox affiliate in Oakland, CA every Wednesday night. It didn’t matter so much to Alexander that the scripts he wrote there would likely never air. From that point on, he knew what he wanted to do — and let his gut determine the rest.

 But that was when he first started out. Alexander has long since eclipsed his initial goal to “get to a place in his career where his parents could see him in the Bay area,” to become a White House correspondent for NBC and anchor on Weekend Today.

It’s a tall order for anyone to take on, especially for someone with two daughters and a wife in Alison Starling, fellow Emmy Award winner and anchor for WJLA in Washington D.C. However, Alexander knows what it takes to make it work.

 “It isn’t a job or career. To be a journalist you have to be passionate and curious,” Alexander said. “And devour the information in front of you.”

 When Alexander was named White House correspondent for NBC in 2012, curious was exactly what he needed to be. At that point in his career, he had already interviewed high-profile leaders like Fidel Castro during Hurricane Ivan, and reported from places like Gaza, Afghanistan and the Galapagos Islands. But the day Alexander’s name was called for the correspondent’s job was only the second time he had ever even been to the White House.

 Seven years, two presidents and many more White House visits later, Alexander remains well-aware of what his position demands.

 “The White House is probably the most challenging beat on the planet. The same people you rely on are the are the same people you have to fact check in real time,” Alexander said.

 That trade off, Alexander explains, gives him a front-row seat to history. However, he never lets the weightiness of the White House detract from his role as a reporter.

 “I am hyper-aware of the higher responsibility to address issues that matter,” Alexander said.

 In October of last year, it was announced that Alexander, in addition to being a White House correspondent, would replace fellow NBC anchor Craig Melvin on Weekend Today.

 You don’t get to where Alexander is by conforming to traditional journalism ethics and responsibility alone. He says you have to be driven, and “you’ve got to know 10 times more than what you say on television.”

 “You can’t just do this if you’re myopic,” Alexander said. “You can’t fake it because that wears off.”

 Instead, Alexander believes emerging reporters should find and thank good mentors, work harder than the next person and understand that the worst anyone can say is no. 

-30-