Check it Out!: Great Reporters on What It Takes to Tell the Story

Hankering to Be Anchoring

“Today is the funeral of the widow of Malcolm Ten. ” philadelphia news anchor on the death of the widow of malcolm x Hankering to Be Anchoring hi wanna be a starh I t is estimated that two out of three young journalism hopefuls, upon entering broadcast journalism school, want to come out the other end as anchors. And why not? They grew up seeing news anchors—both local and network—marketed and touted as TV stars. They’ve read about the multimillion-dollar deals. They know that anchors make the most money, get the most “face time,” and become the most well known. And they don’t have to stand out in the heat or the rain or the cold of winter to cover a story. They can work on their smile and their hair in an airconditioned studio and just “throw it” to the poor reporter who is standing knee-deep in a snowdrift. Many of these hopeful young anchors change their minds once they get down to the business of learning the process. They turn to producing , writing, photography, editing, or reporting. Some even decide on print. The truth is, believe it or not, many who are now anchors would rather be out there in the snow. They often cast a longing eye at the assignment board. For example, when a hurricane hits, you’ll generally find Dan Rather, soaking wet, hair askew, standing in the thick of it trying to talk over a howling wind, for tens of hours on end to get the story— and he loves it. 3 30 g check it out! Same thing for Tom Brokaw. In fact, in a sense, Brokaw was tied to the anchor desk kicking and screaming all the way. Look, Art, there was a time in my life—a lot of times in my life— when I could’ve just settled for being a local news reader. I had the skills; every program I ever did was successful in the ratings; and there were lots of times when they were trying just to have me be the local anchor. I never wanted to do that. You know, they had to drag me into the studio every time—and I would spend more time in the studio than I wanted to. I only wanted to be a reporter. I only wanted to be out there. When I was in California as a local anchor as well as a network correspondent , I worked effectively a double shift. I worked by day as a correspondent and then did the eleven o’clock news, because the network said, “That’s where we’re going to make the money, and you’re going to make money, too.” I finally said, “I can’t do this anymore. I want to be just a correspondent.” When I was at the White House, at the end of two years of Watergate, they came and said, “We want you to do the Today show—but you have to do commercials.” I said, “I’m not going to do that. I just won’t do that.” And a year later they said, “You don’t have to do the commercials, but you have to do Today.” I said, “OK . . . Yeah. I’ll go try that for a while.” Then, at the end of five years of that I said, “I want to go back to being a reporter again.” They said, “Well, you have to be the Nightly News anchor with Roger [Mudd], but you get to do more reporting.” And the three of us—Dan [Rather], Peter [Jennings], and I—we’ve been reporters as much as we’ve been anchors. Peter just got back from India. I’ve been out in Milwaukee shooting a big documentary. You know, what we live for is not 6:30 at night putting on makeup and reading out loud. It’s just a lot more rewarding, it’s a lot more fun, turning over rocks and finding out what’s going on. Lynn Sherr is certainly an active “rock turner.” Did she ever hanker to be an anchor? The possibility didn’t exist for me when I was a kid, so it wasn’t what I wanted to be. I enjoy anchoring from time to time, as long as I hankering to be anchoring g 31 can also report. I have never wanted to be just the face...