A lot of the tools that we developed during the pandemic, for example, make working this way very easy. Having a presence in Atlanta helps us offer a lens that is not quite as coastal or New York-centric, which is great for the news coverage.
What I was trying to say with that shout-out is that television is a team sport. That’s my favorite part about it. There are so many people that do top of the line work in whatever their field is to get us on the air and have us be the best that we can be. It means a lot to me. In the case of CNN This Morning, it relocated from New York to Atlanta and that required my EP Bruce Williams to move his family down to Atlanta to keep working with me. I was really grateful to him for doing that.
As a D.C.-based show closely following what the Trump administration is doing, what do you think about the recent news about the White House restricting press pool access?
I’m not sure CNN has put out a formal statement on that, so I don’t want to get ahead of that in any way. I used to work at the Associated Press, so I have been in the White House press pool and you cannot overstate how important it is, especially in times of a national crisis like September 11th.
That someone who is a highly trained journalist who explicitly goes in with the goal of providing unbiased actual accounting of what has happened with the most powerful person in America is something that every American deserves, regardless of who they vote for. And ensuring that it is possible to have someone like that with the president at all times is something that every single American deserves. There’s a reason why the news organizations who have been included in the pool have been there for so long, and that previous Republicans and Democratic presidents alike have respected and responded to it.
Anyone who supports the current president may have to consider what it may be like if a president that they don’t support politically is doing the same thing in terms of trying to control information.
There have been several news industry shake-ups lately, from Lester Holt’s decision to step down from the Nightly News to several changes at MSNBC. What are your thoughts on the changing media environment and how is this show positioned to succeed amidst the upheaval?
Upheaval is nothing new. I came to CNN for streaming. I am not someone who is afraid of change or afraid to take risks. I have said a couple of times that I am a reporter first and the skills that make you a good reporter and a good communicator are things that translate no matter what the medium. I have written for wire services, magazines, and newspapers, I have been on broadcast TV, I have been on cable TV, and briefly was on streaming.
One of the things I think about a lot in an information environment that is incredibly crowded is how do you cut through the noise and how can you help viewers? I spend so much time thinking about my audience and I’m in this business because I want to be able to help people understand what was going on here in Washington. And help them make their own decisions about how they were going to vote and how they were going to conduct their own lives—not because I told them what to do, but because I gave them information that would help them.