Internal affairs
By Cate Cauguiran, USC
Editor's note: We asked the summer interns to write about their experiences at 'Nightly News.'
It’s 2 o'clock in the morning.
It’s my last day at Nightly. I was the last intern to come into the program, and the last one out. That night, I had two hours to pack before my flight back to Los Angeles, where I would begin my senior year at the University of Southern California the next day.
Finally, I placed the finishing touches on my piece. After having spent the last seventeen hours putting together a two-minute news segment - breaking only to help with the evening newscast.
I left the newsroom with one of those lump-in-the-throat feelings, so I swallowed hard, smiled and walked out of the revolving doors with Nightly News fleece in hand and four basic lessons in mind.
Timing
It is everything.
When I commented how an interviewee spoke fast as I was logging it in real time, I was told, "Well you better type faster."
The news waits for no one, but that is the best part. They don't call it the "Rundown Routine" for nothing.
I could always count on a daily dose of cardio at 30 Rock.
Connections.
A professor told me "it’s not who you know, but who knows you... then it's what you know." The statement speaks for itself.
However, connections aren't always professional. During my internship I was able to encounter some of the most talented people in the business, not only through observation but in my conversations. As an intern I thought I could either keep my ‘I'm-so-in-awe-of-you distance’ or not. I chose not. The rewards were exponential.
Among the many people I encountered, I made a great connection with producer Maria Alcon, who unconditionally took me under her wing in making sure I learned and applied every one of these lessons I listed here. At the end she was not only one of my greatest mentors, but a good friend.
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Editor's note: Today and everyday through the rest of the week, we'll be posting guest blogs from the news interns who joined us this past summer. We wish them luck on their first week back at school.
by Jenna Hanchard, NBC Nightly News Intern Summer 2007, Syracuse University
Every time I heard the words, “We’ll look for you right back here tomorrow night,” I wished that one night I could respond by saying, “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Brian.” Luckily this summer, that wish became reality. As I began to settle into the rhythm of the newsroom, my job quickly went from simply greeting the staff and blossomed into valuable hands-on experience.
Each day was as if someone held down the fast forward button on my life. It was exciting to work on different projects almost every day. The challenge of finding what worked best for each story and seeing it get on the air was thrilling. The pace of the day forced me learn how to make the best decisions in the shortest time.
One of the highlights was the daily 2:30 p.m. editorial meeting. I couldn’t wait for the comical yet journalistically sound editorial contributions from Brian. But even more, I yearned to understand how each broadcast was put together. Each editorial decision, from Paris Hilton to the London car bombings, provided me with a new insight into what is newsworthy and important to the American people.
Yet the intern interaction with the news staff wasn’t limited to an observation of how they think. I loved that we had personal and interactive time with many amazing journalists. Brian Williams and Ann Curry both halted their busy days and put down their BlackBerries to talk with us about the extraordinary journeys that ultimately lead them to NBC.
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Editor's note: Today and everyday through the rest of the week, we'll be posting guest blogs from the news interns who joined us this past summer. We wish them luck on their first week back at school.
by Joshua Clark, NBC Nightly News Intern, Summer 2007, Boston University
For all young men and women who aspire to be broadcast professionals, you would be well privileged to spend any part of your career at NBC Nightly News. I was asked to write about the singular highlight of my intern experience this summer but I assure anyone who reads this that the aforementioned task is quite impossible. It was all a blessing.
During my time at NBC Nightly News, I was given the opportunity to accompany producers on field shoots, submit story teases and pitches and assist with parts of segment production along with every other aspect of the broadcast. While many tune in at 6:30 p.m. EST and watch the news for a half an hour, I was part of the chosen few who help get the news on the air.
Click here to read more intern posts via Internal Affairs.
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Editor's note: Today and everyday through the rest of the week, we'll be posting guest blogs from the news interns who joined us this past summer. We wish them luck on their first week back at school.
by Alex Bregman, NBC Nightly News Summer 2007 Intern, University of Pennsylvania
As I meandered through the construction of NBC News’s soon-to-be new digs at 30 Rock and finally made it to Nightly News’s temporary office, the first person I met was M.L. Flynn, the senior foreign producer for the broadcast. She heard me walk into the office, looked up from her computer and said, “You look like a new summer intern.” I guess I immediately showed my cards. She kindly told me to grab a newspaper and take a seat. Then the phone rang. It was none other than NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, calling from Mexico on her way back from a trip to Cuba. This whole episode was pretty ironic for me considering that last summer it was the opposite. Back then I was in Andrea’s office during my internship at NBC’s Washington bureau, listening to M.L.’s voice on the phone. I suppose it was listening to those voices in New York that lured me from Washington to 30 Rock—from the center of the political world to the center of the network.
In Washington I learned how a reporter covers a beat. In New York I have learned how all those beats come together to make a broadcast, and it is not as easy as Brian Williams may make it look. At the end of our daily morning editorial meeting the executive producer, Alex Wallace, goes through the stories, saying, “If we had to do the broadcast at 9:30,” and writes a preliminary list. Never would that list be the same at 2:30 p.m. at our afternoon editorial meeting and, come time for the actual broadcast, that morning list would sometimes seem like last week’s news. The amount of debate that went into the final list of stories, called the “rundown,” which was never really final until 6:30 p.m., was one of the most interesting parts of the job this summer.
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