I am excited to announce the next step in my career…I’m off to law school. This summer, I will finish up two years reporting at NY1 News and head back home to Los Angeles to attend UCLA Law School. I have had an incredible time working as a one-man-band reporter for NY1 News, having had the opportunity to cover major stories including the resignation of Queens Rep. Anthony Weiner and the aftermath of Hurricane Irene in both Queens and Staten Island. Yet, its time for a new beginning, and I am thrilled to be taking the next step in my career as I head back to school.

As I pursue my law degree, I want to continue my work as a reporter, so I have started a new legal news blog The Legal Lady, where I offer daily analysis on the top legal stories of the day. I hope to one day combine the two fields of journalism and law and work as a legal news reporter. Legal news blogging is a new venture for me, but I’ve really enjoyed giving my take on stories from the Conrad Murray sentencing to Rod Blagojevich’s sentencing to the latest copyright infringement suits in Hollywood. Thus far, my work has been published in The Huffington Post as well as on Yahoo, BlogHer & Galtime. Stay tuned for more updates, and in the meantime, check out The Legal Lady!

Last week I attended a Q & A with prominent legal analysts Lisa Bloom and Jeffrey Toobin. Bloom was on hand to discuss her new book THINK: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed Down World. She discussed how to empower women and how we can reclaim our smarts in a celebrity-obsessed world.

“But how did we get here? How did we get to the point where women know more Kardashian sisters than wars we are in?” Bloom asked. The main culprit? The media, and its love affair with all things celebrity. “No matter what you start out as, a medical reporter, a legal reporter, we’re all entertainment reporters,” she told the audience. “But the networks tell me that’s what people want.”

Bloom is the daughter of famed attorney Gloria Allred. Allred has represented clients against Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rob Lowe. She is so synonymous with high-profile cases that Toobin described her as a “celebrity-oriented attorney.” Which begs the question: isn’t Allred herself contributing to the media’s celebrity obsession? Bloom countered, “that’s just what the media picks up. She’ll hold a press conference on a lawsuit she takes up on behalf of migrant workers and no one shows up!”

Bloom herself worked as a Court TV anchor for eight years, during a time when she says real news still mattered. “Court TV was a great part of my life because we covered substantive issues,” Bloom said. “It was a very rewarding experience. Yes, we covered celebrity cases, but there was a balance.”

Of her time at Court TV and working with other networks, Bloom writes in her book:

“Early on, my networks assigned me election fraud cases, civil rights trials, Supreme Court rulings, violent crimes, and sure, for a little zazz, the occasional celebrity story. That worked for me. Focus on what matters, and throw in a little color now and then. Sure. Fine.”

But then, as Bloom describes, there was a shift in what the networks wanted her to cover. A shift in where their priorities laid. A shift in what made the headlines. She writes in her book:

“I noticed that my networks asked me to talk more and more about legal stories that really were inconsequential to the rest of us: Paris Hilton’s drug bust, Tiger Wood’s divorce, or Lindsay Lohan’s revolving-door jail terms.”

She turned down a ninth year at Court TV because she said the network was “changing significantly.” Soon after, Court TV folded into a show called In Session on HLN.

However, she remains a legal analyst for major networks including CBS, CNN and HLN. Still, Bloom says she’s frustrated by the types of stories the networks choose to cover. She told the audience that one network allowed her to pitch three legal stories to discuss. “I pitched the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal as my third story and the network turned it down,” Bloom said. “All three stories were celebrity stories. I couldn’t even talk about the Khmer Rouge tribunal as a third story.”

In her book, she writes:

“By 2011 I estimate that around 95 percent of the television appearances I’m asked to do involve reality stars, sex tapes, celebrity drug busts, or famous rich people’s divorces.”

She contrasts coverage now with only a few years ago, where she was able to spend hours a day discussing Saddam Hussein’s trial on Court TV, an experience she described as “very rewarding.”

“There isn’t a network in America that would devote months of airtime to Saddam Hussein’s trial now – or weeks, or days…or even hours.”

And the media’s obsession with gossip-related stories doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst, corrected Bloom when she introduced him, saying, “My actual title is Senior Anthony Weiner’s penis analyst.”

When I tell people I’m a one-man-band reporter, they usually all respond the same way. Their first question is “how do you do it alone?” And then they usually ask “How do you find your stories?” So I’ve decided to share my tried and true tips for finding stories.

Listen
- Listen to those around you – friends, family, you may be surprised how an everyday conversation could lead to a good idea

My parents are attorneys, and they often talk to me about their cases. While in graduate school last winter, I was talking to my mom about a trial they were preparing for. She mentioned she had the list of potential jurors, and was looking up each one on Google and Facebook to learn more about them. I had never heard of an attorney doing that, so I decided to investigate. I contacted a public defender I had interned for, and sure enough, he knew a colleague who was using the internet and social media for the same purpose. I put together a great story about a Cook County Public Defender who had used Facebook and Google to look up 200 potential jurors and about the rising trend of attorneys who did that. So, thanks Mom!

My boyfriend’s sister is a medical student at Harvard, and last Christmas I was with his family when his sister was talking to their dad about medicine. She was telling him about how her classmates use apps on their smartphones to help them look up information while on rounds. Yet again, I thought this was a pretty novel use of technology and decided to follow up. Back in Chicago, I asked some med school friends about doctors who used smartphone apps. Sure enough I found there were tons of apps at their disposal – for diagnosis, for a quick reference, even for x-rays and it made for a good story. So, thanks Eli!

- Listen to people you’re interviewing when you’re out on a story, it could lead you to a good follow-up

I did a story on Staten Island about the mayor’s proposal to allow livery cars to do on-street pickups. I set up interviews with a few livery company owners and after asking them their opinions on the proposal, I was packing up my gear, and carefully listening, as they were talking. They complained to each other about how the only inspection site for their cars is in Queens, and whenever they get their cars inspected, they lose a day’s business taking the time to drive there and back and lose money on tolls and gas. I asked them about the issue, and they told me they were hoping to get an inspection center on the Island…a great follow-up story for me to look into.

While reporting in Maspeth, Queens on a rally against putting a bus depot in the neighborhood, I stumbled upon another great story. I walked into a neighborhood diner to ask patrons their opinions on the proposed depot. One man told me he didn’t much mind the depot, but that he was upset with a new proposal to convert several streets into one-way to cut down on truck traffic. I got his name and number and a few weeks later followed up and turned out a good story about the one-way streets proposal.

- And don’t be afraid to ask people you’ve interviewed if they have other story ideas

While reporting in Topeka I was doing a story about a prison inmate who had escaped and was found on the roof of a Denny’s. I was interviewing nearby business owners about what they had witnessed – including the saleswoman at the David’s Bridal next door. It was the day before Valentine’s Day, so after the interview I decided to ask her if she knew of any good love stories. Sure enough, the customer she was helping was getting married to her high school sweetheart, after 29 years apart. I interviewed the bride-to-be the next day and it made for a great Valentine’s Day piece!

Look

- Look for trends

While in Washington, I interviewed Katie Jacobs Stanton for a WhoRunsGov profile. She had served as the Director of Citizen Participation at the White House, and was telling me how vital social media was for allowing the White House to directly connect with the public. I wrote up the profile, and then thought, if the White House can use YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to connect with the public, then how does that impact the White House Press Corp, who traditionally serve as the connection between the two. I interviewed Ann Compton, Mark Knoller and others, who told me the introduction of social media was changing the way they report. I picked up on a trend early on and the story was featured on the front page of AOL’s Politics Daily.

In Chicago, I saw on Facebook that a friend was starting a new company – Foodie Registry – that allowed wedding guests to buy restaurant gift certificates as opposed to traditional wedding gifts. I was curious if giving non-traditional wedding gifts was becoming a trend and found another local site that allowed users to purchase adventure gift certificates for weddings – including certificates to cooking classes, skydiving, etc. I interviewed a wedding planner as well who told me non-traditional was the new way to go, and the story ended up running on WCIU.

- Look for the …

Whenever I finish reading an article, I always ask myself if there are any follow-up questions, any obvious blanks or gaps to look into. This strategy is how I stumbled onto my final reporting project one quarter in graduate school. I had read several articles about Detroit’s booming film business and how the city’s huge tax credit was a lure for filmmakers. Then I came across a short article about how Chicago had upped its tax credit from 20 to 30 percent. The two separate pieces were begging for someone to connect the dots. Why did Chicago raise its tax credit? It turned out Chicago was steadily losing film business to nearby Detroit and the increase was part of a failed effort to lure filmmakers back, which made for a great investigative piece.

- Just look around you, you never know what you might stumble upon

I was in a cab in Chicago last winter when my friend lost a piece of her cell phone in the car. She couldn’t find it in the seats, so when we got out the cab driver handed us a card for a Lost and Found number and said if he found it, he would turn it in. I looked at the business card, and on the back saw an ad for the Chicago Dispatcher, a newspaper that serves cab drivers. I later looked up the newspaper, and found this great monthly column titled “Tales from the Rearview Mirror” where cab drivers submit passenger horror stories and comedic tales. I ended up doing a piece on the column, and on the cab drivers who wrote it, who had some great tales to share indeed!

Re-use and re-cycle

- If you found a good story in one city, chances are there is a similar story in another

My senior year at Northwestern, I had done a story about a Chicago family pressing to pass an Illinois law that would provide insurance coverage for Autism-related treatments and expenses. It was a touching story about the father of an autistic child who was championing the cause. When I left to report in Topeka, I decided to see if there was a similar bill being considered by the Kansas congress. Sure enough, a family in Topeka had helped to introduce a Kansas bill – their son had autism and they had to pay for his computer, and other devices and treatments out of pocket.

While in Topeka, I had done a story about a man who won the Midwest Barista Championship. It was a fun story to work on, so a year later, while in graduate school in Chicago, I looked into whether the Windy City had any barista champions. Sure enough, the Chicago competitor had placed 1st in the entire country. I did a piece on the national barista champion, and it became one of my favorites because of the cool video and editing.

Localize
- Journalism professors would often tell me to stay away from localizing stories, because they become generic pieces that you can find on any station. But sometimes, and in the right circumstances, you can find a good story

Last year, I read a USA Today piece about how major companies were requiring their employees to stay in environmentally friendly hotels on business trips, which was a big business boost to the hotels. I decided to localize it – look into which Chicago hotels were green certified and whether it helped business. It turned out, Chicago ranked top in the nation for green hotels, largely due a program funded by the mayor that provides financial incentives for Windy City hotels to go green. But it turned out the initiative wasn’t helping much, and that hotels in the city, green or not, were losing business. That’s because the McCormick Convention Center, which had been a premiere site for national conventions for years, was becoming increasingly expensive and major trade shows and conventions were leaving for other cities. So sometimes localizing a story can lead to an even bigger one.

I hope these tips will be helpful clues when you’re on the hunt for a good story!

In journalism school, it was engrained in me to always be impartial. You are there to report the story, show both sides, and not form judgments, opinions, feelings or at least not to let them influence your reporting. But in practice, in the real world, I’ve learned sometimes it’s difficult to meet people, walk into their home, cover an event and remain an outsider looking in. Some of my most memorable stories have been those that in the days, weeks and even months after reporting the story, I couldn’t forget about the people I interviewed, how they were doing, and, in some cases, hoped that my story had an impact.

Take, for instance, the students and families at Trinity Lutheran School in Stapleton, Staten Island. Their school is slated to close this June, and I was there in December when it was announced that despite their efforts, the school was shutting down at the end of its 50th year. When I was assigned to cover a rally parents and students were having to keep their school open, I thought, ok I’ve done this before. But this story was different. When I got there, I interviewed a 7th/8th grade teacher whose two children had attended the school. Tears streamed down his face as he told me that he would do anything to save the school. I interviewed a group of students who told me they didn’t know what they would do if the school they called home since kindergarten were to close. And I interviewed parents, many of whom were alums themselves, who said they couldn’t believe the church that ran the school was considering closing it. I waited in the school hallway with them for four hours as the church council voted on whether to close. During those hours I listened to them share stories and memories about the school. While waiting, parents and teachers had even devised a plan to set up a donation fund for the school, which I would then refer to at the end of my story. But after waiting, all of us gathered in the hall got the final word – the church just could not afford to keep the school open any longer. Everyone around me was crying and while interviewing them, I couldn’t help but feel for the teachers who were out of a job, the students who would have to find new schools, and the parents whose hopes were dashed. I wrote up the story, explained the church council’s decision, but I still felt bad for those affected. I felt bad that there was nothing I could do as a reporter to help.

Another story I did in Staten Island made me realize that sometimes stories can make a difference. In a series of state budget cuts, Governor David Paterson decided to slash the budget for the Office of Parks and Recreation, meaning the state’s Physically Challenged games would have to be cancelled. I interviewed a 15-year-old in West Brighton who had competed in the games each year since she was 8. Her spinal muscular atrophy kept her confined to a wheelchair, and she told me the games were the highlight of her summer because it was the only time she could compete in sports. Her mother shared pictures of her daughter’s victories and told me seeing her daughter compete in the swim race was a moment she’d never forget. When they found out the games would cost two hundred thousand dollars to put on, they told me they hoped someone would take up the cause. Soon after my story aired, I got an email from the Where to Turn foundation saying they saw the story and were taking up the cause, that they would like to help raise money for the event.

The most rewarding part of my job is when my stories do make a difference. When they have some sort of impact, whether it be inspiring a group to take up a cause or shedding light on an issue that more people should be aware of. And I realized that feeling sympathy for my interview subjects is natural and that often people feel more comfortable talking to me and answering my questions because of that.

Links to each of the stories mentioned:
Trinity Lutheran School to Shut its Doors

West Brighton Family Hopes to see Disabled Games Restored

It’s been a while since I lasted posted. In fact, the last time I posted on my blog, I was a week shy of graduation from the Medill School of Journalism, where I got my Masters. Well, a lot has happened since!

Soon after graduation, I got a call from NY1 News, the 24-hour Time Warner Cable news station in New York City, offering me a reporter position. I jumped at the opportunity, and less than two weeks later found myself uprooting to Manhattan and starting my first post-school job.

I work as a one-man-band reporter for NY1’s Local Edition. Basically, I’m a general news reporter assigned to cover either Queens, Staten Island, or Bergen County New Jersey, depending on the day. What does that mean? Well, here’s a look at my typical day:

Each morning, I call into the station and speak with the morning anchor for the borough I’m covering that day. We discuss what story I’ll be working on that day – sometimes there is breaking news, sometimes a pre-scheduled press conference or interesting event, and sometimes I’ll enterprise a story.

Then I head into the station in Chelsea, pick up my camera, my tripod and a car and head out to my story. After I’m done shooting, I head to one of our local bureaus in Queens, Staten Island and Jersey to write and edit. And after the package and a vo-sot version are all done, I head back to Chelsea, then back home.

Having never lived in New York City before, one-man-banding was an interesting challenge at first. I had to navigate streets I had never driven, and get used to working by myself essentially from the beginning of my day until the end. But the most rewarding part of one-man-banding is that every day I come out with a finished product that is entirely mine, from start to finish – my shots, my words, my editing – and that’s incredibly gratifying (Though a producer must approve my script and an anchor must approve my final package).

Over the last eight months, I’ve had some incredible experiences out in the field. I’d have to say my favorite memories from reporting were during election season. During the elections, I was mostly covering Staten Island and the congressional race between incumbent Democrat Michael McMahon and Republican challenger Michael Grimm. I loved covering the race, getting to know both candidates, and really learning about the ins and outs of political reporting.

Other great memories from election season were interviewing gubernatorial candidates Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino and interviewing former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. When I interviewed Carl Paladino it was actually the day before the primary race, where most people were focusing attention on his opponent Rick Lazio. He came to Staten Island to campaign and claimed that if elected governor, he would work to eliminate the tolls on the Verrazano bridge. And since he wasn’t yet the center of a media fire storm, it was actually just a one on one interview between me and him.

With Giuliani, I actually interviewed him twice. Once when he was campaigning on behalf of Congressional candidate Michael Grimm, and later on Veterans Day, when he was participating in the Stephen Siller Charity golf fundraiser in Staten Island. Since I had all my gear with me, he offered to drive me in his golf cart to the next hole. We talked about the golf course he was playing at, Richmond Hill Country Club, and how it was the only private golf club in the city.

Those are a few of my favorite memories from reporting thus far, but I’m going to save the rest for future blog posts! Thanks for checking back in! And make sure to catch my stories at www.ny1.com.

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Oh, the life of a political reporter in the nation’s capital. What an exhilarating ride it was! From following around Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan at the Capitol (http://bit.ly/d6c9bz) to shadowing members of the White House press corps in the James S. Brady Briefing Room (http://bit.ly/aTkqA7), I’ve had some incredible opportunities this spring. I’ve interviewed White House officials in the halls of the Eisenhower Executive Office building. I’ve interviewed senators outside the doors of their weekly party lunches at the Capitol. And I’ve witnessed Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., fire question after question at Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

But I have to admit the story I’ll most remember was far from the halls of Rayburn, far from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in a small town in Illinois. There, I met Dorothy Clausen, a mother whose been grieving the loss of her son for the past 17 years, and fighting for justice. As I sat in her living room, her dog at my feet, she told me the story of how her son, Seaman Allen Schindler, was murdered. For nearly an hour, she recounted every detail: how he came out to her a year before his death, how he told his captain he was gay, how he was preparing for discharge, and how he walked into a bathroom in Japan before getting back onto his ship…but never walked out. With a quiver in her voice, she told me how two fellow shipmates beat him to death, so badly that when his body returned home, she could only identify her son by a tattoo on his arm.

I then drove with her to the cemetery where her son is buried, where she visits each Memorial Day. There, I stood in a moment of silence with her and a group of gay veterans to honor Schindler. I put my hand over my heart as we sang the pledge of allegiance. And I listened as she spoke about her hopes that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will finally be repealed. That men like her son can finally serve openly in the military. That men like her son no longer have to live a lie. (http://bit.ly/bHUGoB)

I had followed the news about the possible repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell from Washington. I had asked senators about the likelihood of repealing it while in the halls of the Capitol. Yet, the gravity and importance of the issue didn’t fully hit me until I spent a day with Dorothy Clausen, until I spent a day in her world, looking at pictures of her son hanging on the wall and listening to memories of her son from nearly two decades ago.

I’ve had an incredible time getting a glimpse into the life of a political reporter. I’ve seen firsthand what it’s like to be a Capitol Hill reporter, trying to catch congressmen to interview on the underground trams or right outside an elevator before filing a story from the press gallery. I’ve seen firsthand what it’s like to be a White House correspondent, firing questions at the press secretary before heading back to the cubicles behind the briefing room or out to the lawn for a live shot. The life a political reporter can be incredibly exciting, meeting the people who are shaping history and witnessing the events that are shaping history. Yet, I realized that while reporting on politics can be exhilarating, it’s the everyday people, the grieving mom, the 13-year-old boy with a knack for geography(http://bit.ly/aLhzKz), the little girl who dreams of being a computer scientist (http://bit.ly/a50i45), that I most enjoy interviewing. So I leave the nation’s capital full of memories and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, but also ready to step back outside the beltway.

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Each afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs briefs the press corps on the news of the day. The reporters ask questions and Gibbs answers as best he can, all while the cameras are rolling. But oftentimes, far away from the spotlight of the cameras, a member of the administration briefs the press under the pseudonym of a “senior administration official.” These are known as background briefings – no cameras allowed, and the official cannot be quoted by name. Despite protest by the White House press corps, these background briefings have become a time-honored tradition.

“In an accountability and transparency sense, they ought to be on-the-record,” said ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton. “We often will say, ‘wait a minute, can’t we have this on-the-record?’”

Like on January 9^th 1994, the press corps asked if the briefing could be on the record. The answer: “No, this is, once again, your friendly Senior Administration Official.” When asked why they couldn’t go on the record, the response was “because that’s the only name I know to answer to after all these months.”

Of the past three administrations, Bill Clinton’s was most fond of background briefings. During his eight years in office, White House officials held 173 background briefings. George W. Bush’s administration held 48. Obama’s administration has held 18 thus far.

So what topics are deemed so secretive that the administration insists it must only be discussed on background? Is it the September 11^th attacks? The BP oil crisis?

Much to the contrary, the majority of background briefings are about a president’s meeting with a foreign leader, or a trip abroad.

“If a president is going on a trip, you want to give information on a country and the issues involved,” said Martha Kumar, a Towson professor who studies presidential communications. “They want to give people a sense of what’s going on in the country.”

What the press corps can’t understand is why they have to be on background.

“Background briefings themselves can be very helpful,” said Compton. “They give us volumes of information that help us make a fuller, richer story. But I think where it becomes ridiculous is when someone senior says something valuable and wants to remain anonymous.”

CBS White House correspondent Mark Knoller said the most annoying part about background briefings is that the “senior administration official” will often go on-the-record only a few hours after insisting they be quoted on-background.

“There are plenty of occasions where they give the press a background briefing and then the same officials go on CNN and say the same things,” said Knoller. “It’s ridiculous.”

According to Compton, David Axelrod, senior advisor to the President, often does this.

“We’ve been given background briefings, and then minutes later he is on the lawn saying the same thing to CNN. I think the higher up you are in the food chain at the White House, the greater your obligation to speak on the record.”

Last May, when the Obama administration held three background briefings in one week, an Associated Press reporter urged the rest of the press corps through email to protest the briefings, but to no avail.

So get used to the words “according to a senior administration official” in the news  until an administration is brave enough to buck the trend, or the press corps is brave enough to protest.

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, me and producer Michelle Perry at the NBC bureau in Washington.

I had the opportunity Thursday to watch the behind-the-scenes production of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” I shadowed producer Michelle Perry in the hours leading up to and during the show and realized how hectic and exhilarating the world of 24-hour cable news can be. From the time I arrived two hours before the show aired, up until the last hit, the structure of the program changed over and over to keep up with the pace of constantly breaking news. I realized that in today’s media landscape, where viewers expect news updates on the spot, reporters and producers must always expect the unexpected.

11:00 a.m. (two hours to air): When I first arrived, the show was slated to start with an update on the investigation of the suspected Times Square bomber from NBC Justice Correspondent Pete Williams. A taped interview with General David Petraeus would then run followed by a live interview with Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif.

11:30 a.m. (an hour and a half before air): Sen. Joe Lieberman’s office called saying he was available for a live interview to discuss his plan for a new bill designed to strip any suspected terrorist of their American citizenship. New plan: A quick intro from Mitchell about the investigation of the suspected Times Square bomber followed by a live interview with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., scrapping the report from Pete Williams.

12:15 p.m. (45 minutes before air): Wire reports flood Perry’s inbox about an Emirates flight grounded at JFK airport because a passenger on-board is suspected to be on the no-fly list. Perry starts reorganizing the show to lead with this breaking news story.

12:45 p.m. (15 minutes to air): More messages flood Perry’s inbox – reports now say it’s a false alarm, the passenger on-board is not actually on the no-fly list, although the name matches. At the same time, Perry gets word that someone on a Greyhound bus headed from Maine to New York City calls 911 to report an explosive device on-board. Mitchell, Perry and other producers scramble to change the script to reflect these new developments.

1:00 p.m. (air-time): Mitchell begins the show with breaking news about the grounded plane at JFK and introduces NBC Correspondent Tom Costello who reports that, indeed, the passenger aboard the Emirates flight was not actually on the no-fly list and that the plane is now scheduled for take-off. Mitchell also mentions the breaking news update of a suspected bomb threat on the Greyhound bus headed for New York City.

1:40 p.m. (forty minutes into show): The show is running smoothly, including live interviews with Lieberman and Harman. Now it’s time for an update on the day’s headlines. The headlines were originally supposed to be about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico followed by an update on the fatal flooding in Tennessee. Yet, the producers decide to scrap the update on Tennessee and replace it with an update on the Greyhound bus bomb threat. All 17 passengers aboard are now seen walking out of the bus with their hands above their heads.

2:00 p.m. (show finishes): Despite several unexpected breaking news developments, the show wraps up without a hitch. Mitchell says goodbye and tosses to MSNBC Correspondent Tamron Hall who has another update on the Greyhound bus bomb threat.

Throughout the three-hour experience, my heart was racing as I watched Mitchell and Perry reorganize the show over and over. I was so surprised by how calm they remained as more unexpected changes came their way. And then I realized that in the 24-hour world of cable news you must always be prepared, because the news never stops. Not even for Andrea Mitchell.

Me (right corner) in Robert Gibbs' daily briefing at the White House

Recently the Obama administration has stepped up its use of social media to send messages directly to the American people, bypassing the press corps. Reporters can’t help but feel left out.

If administration officials can use Twitter, YouTube and other means to get their word out, then what is the role of the White House correspondent?

“This technology is taking journalism out of our hands and putting it in the hands of the administration,” said Ann Compton, an ABC News reporter who’s been covering the White House for 35 years. “It’s not a comfortable position for most of us.”

She said one particular tweet sent out by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs during the recent Nuclear Security Summit made it clear just how vulnerable her position is.

“Ukraine will get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, enough to build several nuclear weapons, by 2012,” Gibbs tweeted Monday.  

According to Compton, that tweet was the first word that Ukraine was giving up its nuclear materials rather than an announcement to the press.

“It’s offensive that he thinks he needs to give information to the general public before he gives it to us, people who make an honest effort in covering the White House.”

She said Gibbs made three first-time news announcements last week by tweet. She now has Gibbs’ tweets sent directly to her Blackberry, with a noise to alert her to them.

“Fifty thousand people know about it, but not the reporters who are assigned to cover the president every day,” Compton said. “That’s not a good situation.”

But the first White House director of citizen participation, Katie Jacobs Stanton, said tweeting is crucial to keeping an open line of communication between the White House and the American people.

 “It helps stop rumors before they infest themselves,” said Stanton, who now works at the State Department. “We’ve seen the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, do this quite a bit, when there is wrong information out there. Before the talking heads get all spun out and American citizens get more and more confused, they lay out the facts and say, ‘Make your own decisions based on the data.’”

In addition to tweeting, White House officials are also posting videos directly online. For instance, last year President Barack Obama taped a message for the people of Iran, wishing them a happy Norouz (an Iranian holiday). The video was not distributed through the media. Rather, it was posted directly to YouTube.  

“It was a direct connection to the people of Iran,” Stanton said. “It wasn’t making a statement that the media could interpret and then translate and send back to the people of Iran. It was instant. It was transparent. It was real.”

And earlier this month, White House videographer Arun Chaudhary launched West Wing Week on the White House’s official Web site. It’s a weekly video recap of the news in and around the White House in the seven days prior.

“With everything that President Obama does in a given week, it can be easy to miss important news and interesting events,” Chaudhary wrote on the White House blog.

The video also features behind-the-scenes footage of life in the White House, footage Compton said any network would love to get its hands on.

“Wouldn’t any of us love to cover a story like that,” Compton said. “But no, the White House has decided it will cover that story all by itself.”

So if White House officials can cover and post stories online themselves, then what’s left for the reporters to do?

“I still do every day what I did 35 years ago,” Compton said. “I listen to the president. I take what he says, what he said yesterday, what advisers tell us and I put it together in an even-handed complete report.”

The role of a White House correspondent is still to report fair, balanced stories and present the audience with context and analysis so people can form their own opinions.

While Compton’s job hasn’t changed, she said the way Americans consume their news has.

“Americans can now go on the internet and see the news as it is envisioned by the president’s own team,” Compton said. “My fear is that people will look at that and say, ‘that’s all the news I need,’ not realizing that’s news from the administration, not a mainstream journalist’s report. I hope the American people don’t consider this a substitute for good American journalism.”

The Chicago Tribune investigation, “Judges don’t slow 100 mph speeders,” is a great example of how good journalism can make a difference. (http://bit.ly/aUpLqF) Through their effective data analysis, the Secretary of State Jesse White pledged to ban supervision for extreme speeders. The goal of any reporter is to write stories that lead to positive change, and this reporter’s story does exactly that.

The reporter also combed through the data and picked out the best examples to illustrate the need for reform. Like specifically looking for the fastest citations in the data (Ajay Lodhari and Jaime Villarreal raced along I-94 in Lake County last summer at 150) and showing that they got supervision too. And looking at cases where a driver was cited for going 100 mph more than once. (“Chalum Sangsuvan, who hit 131 mph in his BMW near the I-294/ I-88 interchange on a Saturday afternoon in 2008. He got supervision, despite getting supervision a year earlier for going 94 mph on I-294.”) It was also effective to compare Cook County data to surrounding counties (In Logan County only two people got supervision, in Cook County 66% of triple-digit speeders got supervision).

It was also effective to put faces and stories to the data, which is another good way to illustrate the need for reform. Straight numbers sometimes don’t jump out to readers unless they have a story behind it, someone who was affected by it — such as Mike Donovan, the man whose grandson and daughter were killed by a motorist with a history of supervisions.

I also like how the reporter mentioned parts of the data analysis that were missing or incomplete (“the analysis didn’t include cases where data were incomplete, still pending or that involved tickets issued by other departments”). I believe being up front with the reader is a good thing and makes the case stronger because people cannot question it.

The story layout was also strong. I liked the lead a lot because it made you want to keep reading and find out why these traffic violations were not on their record. However, I did not like that the reporter just randomly placed three stats in the middle of the story instead of weaving them through the story. (“Of the cases of triple-digit speeders with known court outcomes: –Those who drove 100 mph or faster while drunk got their records cleansed 40 percent of the time, with no conviction even for DUI, –Others driving recklessly or erratically at those speeds got supervision more than 60 percent of the time, –For those cited just for speeding that fast, more than 70 percent received supervision.”) I think the reporter should have either given these numbers context and weaved them into the story or put them in a sidebar.

I also think the accompanying graphics could have been stronger. The graphic “High speeds, low conviction rates” could have better illustrated the huge difference between supervisions in Chicagoland and downstate if it was in a pie chart as opposed to a bar chart. Showing 63% of a pie and 23% of a pie I think would be stronger visually than a bar. And in the graphic “Chicagoland’s Top Tickets,” I didn’t like the map. I thought it was unnecessary to show where these incidents occurred on a map, they could have just listed that information with the other information. Yet, I like how it’s laid out with the Supervision stamps because visually it shows shockingly how many supervisions were given.

Overall, I think this article is a strong example of good data analysis and, even more importantly, a great example of how data analysis can make a difference.