Deadline Club Awards 2018 Dinner Conversation with Judy Woodruff and Lesley Stahl

ladies and gentlemen can I have your attention please thank you tonight we are fortunate to have not one but two journalists of national Fame here at our awards dinner yes Judy Woodruff anchor and managing editor of the PBS Newshour and Lesley Stahl CBS 60 minutes correspondent when when Woodruff install broke into journalism they both faced challenges because they were women far steeper than the challenges of women today only to rise to the top of our profession to get her foot in a TV newsroom Woodruff had to serve as a secretary in addition to delivering the weekend weather report Stahl has credited her hiring at CBS to a 1972 FCC mandate that ordered the industry to give women in minorities a break you'll find our two stars journeys in journalism in your printed program and I'm pretty sure you'd rather hear more from them than from me so for their conversation let's start now Judy and Leslie please come up they taught me how to hold the mic Judy I wanted to come up and introduce myself as Judy Woodruff and I'm Lesley Stahl and you know who used to get us mixed up gues Ronald Reagan he used to call us to avoid total embarrassment both dear yes dear no dear all right so let's start we have no idea what we're going to do so we're just gonna chat with each other so was your first job in journalism being the weather girl well you could say my first job you have to remember or you you should know that I started out not knowing I was going into journalism I was majoring in math and was moving along and thinking I was gonna do somebody told me I could be an actuary for an insurance company but I had a I had a professor in college who basically thought women shouldn't be taking calculus so I was discouraged by that but at the same time I had a wonderful woman professor political science professor who got me so excited about American politics and political science I switched majors and frankly plan to make that my career after two summers working in Washington I was told by women working on the hill on Capitol Hill that the opportunities for women were pretty narrow and that I shouldn't come back to Washington and work in and try to get a job and at Conner in Congress there on in the executive branch I went back to college my senior year I was at Duke and my I was sharing this with my professor I was very discouraged and he said well did you ever think about covering journalism and it was it was literally a moment like that and you have you kind of have a moment like that don't you but I thunderbolt moment well I asked a reporter what do you do all day now I grew up with we didn't take journalism courses almost no reporters who were hired when I was hired in 1972 had gone to journalism school that I knew of so this guy told me what he did all day and I thought Oh brave new world I never heard of such a wonderful job I was dying to do it instantly and it seemed perfect for me because it sounded from him as though he just sucked up all the gossip in the world and then you just threw it out at the world afterward and I thought wow I can do that and I got this burning urge and you know it's never left me it was as if you know a little hand came down and said I'm gonna tell you what you what you should do with your life there's something about reporting about journalism and you all know this here once it's in your blood it never goes away I for me as I mentioned it was something that a professor said and the only job I could get was as a secretary as Claire mentioned and I went to work in the newsroom of the ABC affiliate in Atlanta because the CBS and the NBC affiliate news directors figured you know why do we in fact they said to me we don't really need any other women here at this point but I worked for a year or so and after a year they asked me to audition for the weekend whether job and I told him I was not interested that I had a political science degree and I wanted to cover politics and the news director looked at me he said look if you ever think you've ever gonna get a shot in news and journalism you have to try out and got to see what you're capable of so I reluctantly did that and Leslie it was like Cinderella because during the week I would come in answer the phone clean the film because it was back in the days of film and write letters for the news director and then I'd come in on Sunday nights at 6 o'clock and memorize all the weather wires and do the weather at 11 it lasted six months we agreed at the end of that time that we were not mutually it was not a mutually shall we say beneficial arrangement and then and then fortune smiled on me and I was offered a job as a reporter at another CBS station in Atlanta covering the state legislature but it was a day I mean Leslie you need to talk about this too we were it was so unusual to have women doing what we were doing then well CBS went affirmative action passed there was a memo that went out and a friend of mine in New York I was working in Boston at a television station and the memo said the next people you will hire will be women and or minority and he called me and I had that much experience and they were so excited that there was someone applying for the job with experience but what was wonderful about CBS in those days at least the Washington bureau was that they were committed to this program of affirmative action completely committed it's the story if the CEO if the top is saying this is our policy that's the only way things really move forward and we were apprentices there were three of us there was me Connie Chung and Bernie Shaw do you remember Bernie so they covered the waterfront let's say and we sat in these little children's desks they were really school desks we didn't have an office we didn't have a grown-up desk but they were committed to bringing us along so we were basically apprenticed to the senior seasoned veteran correspondents and we learn by osmosis but they'd send us out on the story we didn't report it really but we watched what the the big guys did and brought us along when we did we weren't forced out there to fall on our faces and they wanted to make this work for us and they did Bernie was a major correspondent at CNN for years and Connie was in the business for a long time and I'm stood they can't believe I'm still here but I am still going so it worked but I think I think they should have I think they should revive the apprentice system it worked it really was weird you know we got it up you and I got a memo from the deadline club with some suggested topics we did we did and kind of in there kind of in every topic was a suggestion that we talked about me too so you and I came along both of us covering the White House in the 70s I'm not gonna ask you about me too specifically but did you face any outright sexism I absolutely did but it was a it was a subtle kind of thing it was I was covering the Georgia Legislature this was the early 1970s Lester Maddox had been the governor of Georgia you remember the famous pickaxe rest and his restaurant it was a time of still a time of lingering segregation in the south and when women in the south and as I learned when I came to Washington we're still needing to prove ourselves that there if for example at the station where I worked and this is the truth when I asked when I told the news director I wanted to to work as a reporter this is the first station he said to me I don't know why you're interested in doing that we already have a woman reporter and then later when I became a reporter covering the state legislature there was there was there was the ABC CBS and NBC affiliates in Atlanta the NBC station had a woman reporter and the CBS station had a woman reporter and when they did gradually start to hire more women there were so few of us that they often I think without telling us kind of pitted us against each other kind of say well you know you're doing this and she's doing that and let's see how you get along and I felt that way when I came to Washington anyway I don't know if you did but you know people they would say well you know there's so-and-so at ABC and there's Leslie at CB and kind of let's see what happens like a catfight like they were they were expecting women to get into some sort of competence unusual competition it turned out that yes we're competitive you're all you're competitive your reporters you work for different news organizations but in most cases I think women ended up supporting each other absolutely and being seeing our biggest cheerleaders of other women journalists so true so true I when I got to cover the White House you were already covering Jimmy Carter and they were southerners and I thought that they treated you and me differently the Carter White House this was a the age of the Equal Rights Amendment the women in the country and a lot of men including the president were very much for getting this passed in each state legislature had to pass it and so that was going on the president supported it and women reporters were being treated as the kind of second-class citizens this is so interesting to me because I can't really explain it then Reagan came in he did not support the Equal Rights Amendment in fact he opposed it strenuously and yet that White House showed no sexism I felt I was being treated like one of the guys and I never could figure out why I I have figured out I figured out finally here's why this is my personal analysis Democrats think that reporters are on their side they expect reporters to be kind to them and gentle they expect it because they assume we're liberals and we're going to be in on their side and when we're not and when we're tough they they feel betrayed they feel it that there's been a family break of some kind the demo Republicans expect us to be tough and they just accept that we're tough and we're all treated the same it's very professional they don't call you up at night and yell at you we were you yelled at by the Jimmy Carter people but yes yes we all were and that didn't happen because the Republicans just accepted the in those days the First Amendment they respected what we were doing and it was all extremely professional I do think there's something to that about the Democrats and the Republicans I also think that when Reagan came to town he came from of course having spent what a couple of decades in Hollywood he was used to a tough scrutinizing press corps he was used to having both favorable and very unfavorable things written about him and so I think he brought that comfort level he maybe he didn't like it but he was just used to it and it kind of rolled off his back didn't bother him Jimmy Carter it wasn't that he had had great coverage in this in Atlanta and Georgia but you're right for whatever reason he didn't expect the kind of coverage that he got that he got when he got to Washington and Reagan well Jimmy Carter was a relatively young president relatively and he had a very young staff Reagan came in he was already in his 70s and his kind of motto was he'd seen it all this too shall pass Jimmy Carter stayed up all night with the lights on there was a sense of crisis at every minute and then Reagan came in and he went home early to see mommy and I mean really so everything just settled including dealing with us I think that's right the other thing about the Reagan people is they really brought him this is this is getting us away from the women question we can come back to that but the we don't have to the Reagan I think the Reagan people were so good at figuring out stage craft and how to tell a story in fact Leslie has one of the best examples of that and I'm going to get her to tell you but they you know they knew how to put on an event they knew how to put on when they had an announcement to make they didn't just say okay we're gonna have a news conference and you're cover it I mean they would stand the president in front of a cheering crowd and that's what you would see and Leslie pick it up from there because you've got a great story about this all right I do so I did a what see we've been doing this for so long we can finish each other's sin and I'm here I did a story that was I must admit tough about Reagan right before his reelection so at the end of that campaign and his theme was morning in America and my theme of my story was that he was trying to create a sense of amnesia about his policies that had become unpopular he was doing a lot of budget cutting he remembered the vegetable what was the vegetable at ketchup as a vegetable and that was unpopular so he went out to try and erase whatever the public didn't like and so he was cutting ribbons at nursing homes and I would show the video of him cutting the ribbon and I said little would you know from this event that he try to cut the budget for nursing homes and he did I he went to a handicapped Olympics event and I said little would you know he try to cut the budget for the disabled and on and on and on and on and then the White House loved the piece absolutely loved it told me they were going to give me a big scoop a big thank-you I said why didn't you hear what I said and they said nobody heard what you said they said you just ran these glorious pictures of mourning in America and no one heard you were drowned out by the pictures and a reporter at The Washington Post took this to a focus group I was in the room and they had no idea what I had said really and candidates after that in both parties followed for the longest time the Reagan playbook because his with Mike Deaver who had worked for governor Reagan in California they figured out the formula for how to do great TV and frankly to get around the in many ways or at least they thought they were getting around the press Judy I'm gonna bring us a little up-to-date because we're being I think we should do is I think a lot of these people here were not born I think we wrong and and you know what we don't want to know can you see us way over there hi there Judy you're doing a nightly show in the Trump years first of all I want to say that you do one of the best interviews on television you are so tough you are persistent you are tenacious you ask every right question but you do it in a way that is fair and respectful and really I'm at home but plotting you every night but my question to you being in the hurly-burly of what's going on how do you personally contend with the charges of fake news how do you how do you deal with this on a daily basis because you're interviewing people who make the charge it's called compartmentalizing part my blood is boiling when I hear not just our political leaders but others say that the press is fake and that we are making it up and that we have an agenda and that you know and on and on and on it makes me very angry I've been doing this for 50 years almost and I know the finest people I know our journalists who devote their lives to getting the facts and getting a story right and if they don't get it right the first time doing it over and over again and I've been privileged to know hundreds and hundreds of journalists I'm so proud of them and so when I hear our political leaders and others say that journalists are our enemies that the American people it likes makes my blood boil so that's one part of me the other part of me is the part that has to be on the news and talking to people about what's going on I don't think it serves us as journalists us at the NewsHour to get into any sort of contest with President Trump or anyone else if they want to attack us for what we're doing the best way we can respond in my view is to continue to do the great work that each and every one of us can do it that's the way to combat this and not to get into some kind of personal or personality contest with the president I recognize that there are individuals the president has singled out and when that happens perhaps that's an occasion for that person to speak up for himself or herself and there and there have now been so many people who've been singled out but I think for the most part the American people the people we serve are much they are much better served if we do our job if we get up in the morning and we go to work and we report the news and we do the best we can and we just keep on and keep on and keep on and keep on that's down have they ever has a White House ever called you to complain they find other ways to complain they they how's that well there's social media you may have noticed there ways of sending the word out through Twitter and other methods and yes there are phone calls at times and yes their emails at times but but a lot of it is done in in social media because as you know there's an entire and growing wing of the press that is now supportive of the president from an ideological standpoint and often what you see is if the president has said something and this is not just a news hour and in the White House and they don't believe it's covered in the way they think it should be then they rise up and then they attack those are doing them it's in a swarm should we get some questions yes yeah everybody here any questions Judy and I have more to ask each other but you thought maybe well I can also ask Lesley while we're waiting please ask questions but I want to ask Lesley how do you do I mean you have the first interview with Donald Trump yeah after the election big scoop everybody wanted this interview congratulations I'm happy I got it I mean how did you deal with that before the interview I met with him in Trump Tower and he really is the same off-camera that he is on camera exactly the same and at one point he started to attack the press and it's just me and my boss in him in a he has a huge office and he's attacking the press and there were no cameras there was nothing going on and I said you know that is getting tired why are you doing this you're doing it over and over and it's boring and it's it's time to end that you know you've won the nomination and why do you keep hammering at this and he said you know why I do it I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you said that so put that in your head for a minute yeah now are we ready for questions we're all we're all absorbing what you just said all right you've got great journalists in this room we can't we can't quite if you both for being here it's extraordinary to have you both here and it's so enjoyable to hear your perspective I'm curious that of all the administration's you have covered which President did you enjoy covering the most and a second question to that which one was the most accessible was most accessible yes same answer my favorite was George Herbert Walker Bush I think he had a much more successful presidency than he's given credit for but he only had one term and that's what happens he had so much integrity he was an honorable person and he conducted the presidency that way and he got so much done the way he basically eased Eastern Europe out of the Soviet sphere without one shot fired he did that he did many other things and he was just adorable I'll tell you it was adorable he was very accessible I used to bump into him in the in the hallways of the White House did you cover him I covered him I was at the news out or the first go room and so would come and go but I wasn't at the White House full-time I would say you know there they all have their pluses of their minuses this is gonna sound like a cop-out but every one of them has the moments when it's a lot of fun to cover them and then there are moments when they feel they are being misunderstood and frankly disrespected by the press not a single one of them has left office feeling they got a fair shot in the media do you would you agree with that they all hate us they they it's an equal opportunity haters or just like the press and why is that because the press does its job and you know for people you know lessees point earlier about democrats think the press is going to be on their side Republicans expect us not to be having said that they both I've never known a Democratic president or a Democratic senator or maybe a couple of exceptions in the Senate Democratic and Republican senators but in general politicians think the press is tough on them and that's why they don't give us the access that you know we think we should have I will say some of them are harder I've found every president since George Herbert Walker Bush Bush increasingly difficult to cover I mean Clinton Clinton won it was accessible at moments but then Hillary Clinton his first lady was very difficult to cover because she did not you know want to answer a lot of questions so that became an issue but I think it's gotten harder yeah you know when Reagan was president I covered him to he up until his the beginning of his presidency the press used to be able to get extremely close to a president physically and we couldn't go in with our microphones and basically shove them in the president's face and then Reagan was shot and after that we were forced way back this goes to the question of about accessibility and after that our ability to shout questions or gently ask questions whatever became much much much more difficult and of course you and I had Sam Donaldson covering with us who was a foghorn and he could shout he I think it could shout about two miles and the president would hear as a question he used to make me furious I mean I'd be shouting what I thought was in a loud voice and then Sam would boom over and then the president's head would turn back with Sam Sam Donaldson's voice how we doing right here here my question deals with the the crisis that we're facing today and the fact that people are all saying that we are delivering fake news and the fact that the numbers that are doing that are saying that appear to be growing what do you think that we can do as the news media as reporters to make people aware of the importance of the truth and chasing the truth and the the lives that are even lost in chasing the truth and how important the the job the career of journalism is you know I covered Watergate and people forget how intense the dislike of the press was then and President Nixon and his vice president Agnew whipped it up the same it's it's not exactly as pointed as it is now but there it was similar and as then as now as Judy was saying the press just kept doing its job doing its job putting his head down not fighting back just doing its job and in the end the press at that stage this would be in the middle 70s had enormous respect meaning that public opinion completely flipped now we don't have much respect now we're way down there we're down there with the lawyers I see this is not an audience of lawyers that always get to laugh but but I think what you said Judy we just do our jobs that's it and I I would I would add though that I think that we are we are in such a bad place with so many increasing numbers of Americans that it's going to take it's gonna take time to get through this this is not going to go away quickly yes we we have to do our job that's what we should continue to do but I think we're gonna need to think about how do we educate children as they're growing up about the role of the media there need I think there need to be more programs in our schools talking about the role of journalism I don't think we've done enough of that I think a lot of people kind of have a vague idea of what the press is but frankly we are now seen by what is a third of Americans or more as as being ideologues as being anti-trump and it's interesting Republicans mainly see the presses prejudice biased Democrats and independents tend to see the press is somewhat less biased so we're we're in a we're in a tough spot right now and I think we're it's gonna take the long haul before we work our way through this Judy when when we retire I think we should go out and campaign for civics in in the schools bring it back assignments sign me up I'll do it would you take civics yeah yeah yeah it's a real I mean everybody after older I don't know what age maybe over 50 or 60 took civics everybody in the whole country and then they stopped teaching it which would do exactly what you just said we were all taught it yeah I think we need some kind of program I mean it's it's that's not an easy thing to do every state has its own educational rules and regulations but I think that I do think the public we should be having more public conversations about this I get asked and I know you do too everywhere I go to speak around the country if I do an event for public television or somebody else people ask me well talk about the role of the press and talk about facts and Whydah facts matter so I think that conversation is starting but we need to do more and more of it I think we should end by ringing the bell for the First Amendment I'm serious somebody ring a bell first amendment means everything yes thank you good thank you they turn the mic up one more thing Judy's right in the early when we started in journalism the assumption was that women would get only in catfights and we moved them totally wrong [Applause]

Channel: Deadline Club

Views: 130,600

Keywords: journalism, awards, Deadline Club, Judy Woodruff, Lesley Stahl, interview

Id: nq6Tt--uAfs

Length: 31min 3sec (1863 seconds)

Published: Tue May 22 2018