Category: Intern

A Chat with Susan Zirinsky

8/27/2014

If you don't know Susan Zirinsky, the Executive Producer of CBS' 48 Hours, you might know Holly Hunter as Jane Craig in Broadcast News. The latter character was inspired by the former.

Susan Zirinsky, Executive Producer CBS' 48 Hours

Holly Hunter as Jane Craig, Broadcast News

In the film, Jane Craig is a news producer for the Washington D.C bureau of a television network. She is slightly neurotic and tightly-wound. For example, in one of the most memorable scenes in the film, Jane sits down in her hotel room and cries for a few minutes seeming to be so overwhelmed with stress but stops almost as quickly as she began.

In a rehearsal room in the CBS Broadcast Center, Susan Zirinsky is a firecracker, with a personality and presence almost too large for her small frame. Choosing not to sit in the directors chair offered to her, she opts for the folding table and remarks that she hopes it doesn't collapse. In the first few minutes she is in the room, you are aware of an energy that was not there before.

Susan Zirisnky chose to open her session with the CBS News interns by having the room of interns, myself included, stand up.

"Repeat after me," she said.

Susan: I will get.

Interns: I will get.

Susan: A pretty good job.

Interns: A pretty good job.

Susan: When I get the hell out of college.

Interns: When I get the hell out of college.

Susan Zirinsky knows this to be true, having spent almost her entire career at CBS News in some capacity after graduating from American University. Around CBS and in the industry, she is affectionately known as 'Z'.

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The World at 3:30 AM

8/24/2014

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As part of my intern duties with CBS This Morning: Saturday this summer, my alarm went off Saturday mornings at 3:30 a.m. Well, the first one did and usually I got out of bed, but just in case, the second alarm rang ten minutes later.

When I accepted my internship with CBS News, I was really hoping to gain a spot working with CBS This Morning. A relatively new show, CBS This Morning launched in January of 2012 and has since gained a reputation as the morning show most focused on hard news, analysis and discussion. As they like to say, the News is Back in Morning News. You might remember from this blog post just how much I love morning television and its role in American society and I was hoping to spend my mornings that way in some capacity this summer.

My wish was granted and I was placed as an intern with CBS This Morning: Saturday, the Saturday counterpart to weekday CTM. CTM: Saturday (SATMO) has a greater focus on human-interest stories, even including a musical performance and food segment each week. NBC and ABC both have weekend editions of their morning shows but CBS airs CBS Sunday Morning on, you guessed it, Sunday Mornings, so our weekend morning show only airs Saturday.

So for ten Saturdays this summer, the alarm did go off earlier than ever, and I went to work.

Once I was out of bed, I was really happy to be exactly where I was.

For those of you wondering just exactly how that went, I explain it below:

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Leno's Last Tonight

2/7/2014

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If you can imagine the world of television as a high school cafeteria, I can tell you exactly who would sit where.

At one table, you have mornings: Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Natalie Morales, Al Roker, Willie Geist, Norah O'Donnell, Charle Rose, Gayle King, Lara Spencer, Robin Roberts, Josh Elliot, George Stephanopoulos and Ginger Zee.

At another table, you have evenings: Brian Williams, Diane Sawyer, Anderson Cooper, Scott Pelley.

There's entertainment: Giuliana Rancic, Terrence Jenkins, Ryan Seacrest, Mario Lopez, Catt Sadler, Jason Kennedy, Nancy O'Dell, etc.

Midday: Kelly Ripa, Michael Strahan, Ellen Degeneres, Barbara Walters, etc.

The legends: Dan Rather, Roone Arledge, Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, David Brinkley.

And then the late night: Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno.

I always pictured the evening news table the "popular kids." Cool, collected, classy, kind. If only for a day, that's where I want to sit. Or at least I'd want an invite to the prom to come from their table. The entertainment table is definitely the most fun. I feel like they'd just laugh until the bell rang? I'd like to sit with mornings too - trust me, that's the dream... but I feel like they're not as liked across the board as the evenings are. But late night is the party table. Late night has genuine good fun, is there to bid goodnight to America. And I'm pretty sure they have Dunkaroos and Sunny D (but you didn't hear it from me.)

Late night is full of rich history, it explains society and the world through laughter, and the hosts are as much of our family as our parents are. For those of us who turn on a certain show every night without fail, it is a big deal when the host leaves. Late Night tucks you into bed on your good days, and cuddles for a little on your bad.

Jay Leno has hosted The Tonight Show with Jay Leno since 1992 (this was before I was born). He left for a brief 146 episodes but returned, and in total hosted 4,610 episodes. He has never had an agent, and does not have a manager. He has interviewed Presidents, musicians, news makers and culture-shakers, and commented on tragedies, celebrations and just an average Wednesday.

In his final goodbye, Leno thanked his audience, and said he would not have been on the air without them. He said these have been the greatest 22 years of his life. Please do not forget the immense prestige, power and potential The Tonight Show boasts. He calls The Tonight Show an institution. I love love love that word. It is based in rich history, tradition and professionalism. He quoted Johnny Carson, and he cried. There is something so so special about sitting in a seat that an icon has sat in before you. I say special but even that doesn't seem enough. Please recall Jay Leno is only the 5th person in the entire world to ever do what he did: Host The Tonight Show.

Watch Leno's Goodbye Here. And please do yourself the favor and watch it.

Jimmy Fallon, formerly on SNL and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, will be taking Leno's seat and bringing Tonight to NYC on February 17th, which is also the 60th anniversary of the show. I happen to love Jimmy Fallon. Leno said it makes total sense that Fallon takes over his job- he is young and connected. He's collaborated musically with both Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus. He will surely usher in the new generation (I think this means me?) into the Late Night television world. The new generation will grow up with this show, the way my parents' generation did with Leno.

Further, Fallon does everything with such excitement and vigor. You can tell he is still the kid who came home from school and stayed up late to sneak in some late night television. I'm excited to see where he takes the show. But what I really love the most is watching these men navigate the transition. You can see how grateful and humbled Leno is in his final moments on the show, and you can see how hopeful and wide-eyed Fallon is as the torch is passed to him.

I'm curious to watch it happen. Torch-passing is not always easy, as we learned from The Today Show and the book that inspired this blog post.

At the close of his show, Leno joked that now that he had brought the room down, everyone needed some lifting up. Out came Garth Brooks to sing Friends in Low Places. Please understand I've cried every time I've watched this clip.

Blame it all on my roots
I showed up in boots
and ruined your black tie affair

I knew the lyrics to this song before I was in 1st Grade. If you will, this song is in my roots. I have vivid memories of this song blasting in the living room in our Melville, Long Island house. My dad would play it, and I'd sing and bop along. I love this song. I would argue this song is the reason my love of country music resurfaced years later.

In his last goodbye, Leno said, "And when people say to me, 'why don't you go to ABC, why don't you go to Fox?' I don't know anybody there." It got a laugh but I don't think it was supposed to be funny. The point is, NBC is Leno's roots.

And you know what they say about roots. You're never supposed to forget them.

Thank you, Jay Leno! Fallon promised that whenever you want a stage, you've got one. And I think it's a sure bet your seat at the cafeteria table is safe too.

You heard it here first,
Jordan

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Day 9: Lunch is on Them

1/31/2014

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I make coffee every day before I leave for work or class. So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the fridge that my whole Resident Assistant staff shares today unable to locate my Coffee-Mate. I keep it on the door, and it was actually laying on its side on the shelf. The rule with the fridge is that if it's not labeled, it's communal. My coffee-mate says my name on it a few times: JORDAN SCHUMAN. JORDAN. JORDAN. And around the lid, it reads, "JORDAN TAKES HER COFFEE VERY SERIOUSLY." I also take my coffee light with two Splenda but that is not important in this moment. I am not accusing any of my RA staff of using my Coffee-Mate. I actually think it was the night staff.

Once I got past this weird start to my morning, I got in the car and made pretty great time. It only took me a half hour instead of the usual 45 minutes it does to get to work. In the car, I thought again about my interview with CBS News for a summer internship that I had yesterday. I wondered how long you're supposed to wait in between haircuts. I also realized everyone in the traffic on the way to work is really getting in each other's way and we could all be nice to one another and get out of the way once in a while. These are real thoughts I have sometimes.

Work is pretty slow today. I'm typing at 11:30 a.m. and none of us have done much today except small tasks around the office. I'm feeling very sleepy and I was hungry early on today, but I'm glad to be at work. I really genuinely love the people I work with. It's a mostly female staff, and the conversation is flowing and fun. I realized the other day that in only my third week here, I know I'm going to miss it when it's over.

Today I'm wearing black pants, a coral sweater, two-tone boots riding boots and my black fake-leather jacket. I do love waking up on a Friday and not having to get all dolled up. I'm usually the only one wearing heels so I know I get a pass when I take advantage of a casual Friday. Today for lunch I brought vegetable stromboli and roasted potatoes... but like my outfit choice, that doesn't much matter either.

Lunch is on NBC.

After the hectic storm coverage we put together, NBC decided to treat both our Birmingham and Atlanta affiliate folks. Oh, and while we were at it, we decided to treat ourselves.

I love how classy it is to recognize good work and reward it. (If we do say so ourselves?) When I left work after covering the storm, the staff at the bureau said they were glad I was there that day. They thought I was helpful. It was a pretty cool pat on the back while I know I would've been fine leaving never hearing it.

I enjoy the tradition of acknowledging busy and tedious work, like the Chicago Tribune did for the Boston Globe after the marathon bombing:

In response, the Globe sent the Tribune hundreds of doughnuts.

More than ever, we’ve been honored to be journalists these last weeks, helping our community understand and process the Boston Marathon bombings and related events — but, as you guessed, the experience left us exhausted emotionally and physically. Then your surprise lunch arrived, feeding out appetites and lifting our spirits. Since you helped keep us going, let us return the favor.

Your friends at the Boston Globe

I so frequently feel in my life that 99% of what I do goes unrecognized by the public. I work 9 to 5 three days a week and I still manage to carry a full-time job on campus and go to class. I was on the Homecoming Executive Committee! I'm in a sorority! Look how well I match my clothes and do my makeup!

But you do not do anything for recognition, or you will not do a job that is true to yourself. You must do what you to because you are intrinsically motivated to do so. You must do it because you feel it is right. You should do the best job you can because that's what Jordan is about, not because you'll get praise for that.

I so frequently want friends at the various Globes and Tribunes in my life to pick up lunch and say, "You know, Jor. You're killing it lately." At the end of the day, it's important to compliment those who we think deserve to hear the outside confirmation, even thought they might not need to.

We are, after all, all in this together. And, after all, we do not do it for the recognition.

I'm so glad NBC gets that.

You heard it here first,

Jordan

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Day 8: Weathering the Storm

1/29/2014

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www.instagram.com/hurrigator

Well, I got 3 hours of sleep last night. I got in bed around midnight and spent the next four hours doing pretty much anything but sleeping. I don't know what kept me up, but I told myself that if I really needed to be sleeping, I would have been. At least I'll sleep well tonight. At some point during the night of non-sleep I considered changing my blog name to "The Intern Logs," like the Intern Diaries, but logs because they are the logs of the intern and also logging is something this intern does. I tried looking up if "The Intern Logs" is trademarked but couldn't figure out the website. It was also very late.

Before leaving for work, I reached into my fridge to grab some snacks (Red Bull for rare occasions like this, Naked juice, salsa for my tortilla chips) and noticed the plug had come loose from the wall at some point and there was a lack of refrigeration in my fridge.

Today I'm wearing a navy pleated skirt, a lilac sweater, nude wedges and a denim jacket. Oh, and it's raining. Because why shouldn't it rain? It made me glad that I decided to fill up my gas tank last night instead of this morning.

I slept later than usual but still made it to work on time. When I first hit the road there was a surprising lack of traffic. Did I miss everyone? Did everyone get to work already? Did people see the rain and decide to stay home? But nope. I caught up to everyone later on.

The man on Sirius XM The Pulse said the South was having weather, and corrected himself because as I pointed out on my Facebook page, there is always weather. But sometimes, it's news.

At work, I heard my Bureau Chief say my name on the phone followed by a task she's putting me on. I felt grateful because on the way to work I thought if today was going to be a slow day my exhaustion would just silently build inside of me. The winter weather in the South clearly heard my prayers.

More on weather- my task today is to scour social media for people in the South who are clearly unequipped to deal with snow. We can't really get crews places due to aforementioned weather. The first photo I found was from a producer at The Weather Channel. The next was from a web producer at our Atlanta affiliate. Next, a former producer at CNN. Where are all of the normal people? I thought. This is going well.

I didn't immediately understand the situation in Atlanta because I'd been told there's 2 inches of snow on the ground. The Long Island girl in me could not comprehend. There was a foot of snow on the ground last time I was home. All cars are made the same, there is just no reason for the cars to not make it through the two inches. But I see people have been in their cars overnight (or worse just abandoned their cars and walked home), sleeping in grocery stores overnight, separated from their children overnight because kids can't get out of school.

I'm proud of the teamwork at NBC today. I'm in an email chain between the staff here in Miami and those producing Nightly News in NY. At one point, a Nightly News producer asked me to track down a photo about the National Guard. I emailed the Manager of Social Media at the NBC Affiliate who told me their reporter had video and pics of the Guard. I saved 6 photos off of instagram and commented to get permission from those users to air them on Nightly. I commented on 30-40 instagram posts out of Atlanta to get pics and videos from those in the storm. I was asked to track down a woman who slept in Home Depot last night. I did. I was asked the location of the photos. Roswell, GA. I received an email from Nightly in NY that said, "Rockstar, thanks." My inbox was alive with contributions to tonight's story.

I learned in school last semester that research shows Americans find weather to be the most important part of a newscast. I learned stories of kindness while researching the story: we have heat, come sleep at our place. We have gas, text us your location and we'll come to you. People were making sandwiches for drivers stuck overnight. Parents were walking 6 miles to spend the night in elementary schools with their kids.

Sure, it's 2 inches of snow and ice that this Long Islander cannot understand. But the story of community and society that it demonstrates, I would never hesitate to tell.

You heard it here first,
Jordan

See the story here.

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Day 5 at Work; Day 4 at School

1/24/2014

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If you're wondering how many days it takes to memorize your way to a destination such as work, it's 4.5. The 4th day, you'll be fairly certain you can get to work without your GPS but leave it on anyway, and the 5th day, you'll leave the GPS off.

On the always riveting commute into work, a gorgeous black puppy was fearlessly running across traffic on US-1, an extremely busy main road by school. I felt so sad for this puppy but I watched cars slow down to try to let her get to the other side safely. I'm not sure what ended up happening, but I sure do hope the puppy made it home.

On Day 5 I wore a navy wrap dress with flowers and birds printed on it, and coral heels to match the flowers. I just could not with my contact lenses so I wore glasses instead. Lasik is sounding better and better by the day.

Nothing too big was happening at work except the follow up to the George Stinney, Jr. case. Mark Potter was with producer Erika in South Carolina for the hearing. We logged and logged and logged, hearing from relatives and witnesses. I realized how painful it must be for these people to have to dig up these memories 70 years later. I've been very fortunate in this life but even I understand closing the book on a painful chapter when the time is right.

I really was hoping for a positive outcome for the Stinneys. It was shocking to me to hear how similar the details of the case were to every fiction story I've read about a town like Alcolu in a time like 1944. The more I listened and logged, I hoped, for the Stinneys' sake, that the aforementioned-imagined painful digging will be worth it. The judge decided to give 10 days to both sides to evaluate legal issues of the case. No timeline has been set for when the two sides will return to court. I could empathize with Mark Potter's imagined defeat. I really hate showing up to a story and finding there might not be one.

We continued to log tape just in case we do revisit this story. I'm not sure how it'll play out- check back in 10 days. For the Stinneys, I hope justice, closure and peace. For the intern and producers who logged the hearing and still logged the hearing and still logged the hearing, I hope a really wonderful story.

I was once again proud to work for an organization that places value on news-gathering, and allocated funds for a reporter and crew to cover a hearing, while understanding there might not even be a story.

I left work exactly at 5 to get to a meeting at school that started at 6. Sirius XM The Highway played "No Hurry" by the Zac Brown Band exactly as I hit a ridiculous amount of traffic. I questioned what Sirius XM was actually trying to do to me, and then I chuckled at the irony.

In other far less important news, the day after Day 5 was Day 4 at school- also known as Justin-Bieber-Gets-A-DUI-Day. The same Mark Potter who was in Alcolu the day before was now outside of the courthouse, like many other reporters who I imagine were not too thrilled to be there. I laughed when Fusion's morning show covered the story with an "Insignificant Breaking News" chyron. You go, Fusion. You go.

I wondered how many times Justin Bieber's mugshot was posted to instagram, and I really disliked any time someone asked me if I had heard about it. I dislike myself as I type this for giving more time to it this morning. I also want it on the record that the first time I wrote this blog post I misspelled Justin Bieber's last name and I'm pretty proud of that fact.

Today is Friday which is, no pun intended, very good news. I was on RA duty again last night. The good news there is that I'm almost halfway done with duty nights, and I think that was my last one on a night before work. Duty tours on weeknights require you to be awake until at least 12:30 a.m., and as I walked into my room I turned to a resident who was in the hallway and I said, "be quiet tonight, okay?" They were.

No duty calls, but a call from a friend in need. Yes, he was "sexiled*". This is college, after all. So at 2:38 a.m., I converted my couch into a futon, threw the extra comforter down, opened the door, felt like a really good friend, and said, "go to bed."

And then we did.

You heard it here first,
Jordan

*Sexiling: the act of being isolated or exiled due to your roommate taking someone home with whom sexual relations could occur.

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Day 3: The Kindness of Strangers

1/17/2014

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As a Resident Assistant at my University, I have the obligation to be on duty 8 nights a semester. My second night on duty was last night. Being "on duty" is essentially being "on call." At 8 p.m. you pick up the duty phone and you along with one other RA are the on call people for the building. If anything comes up, you will for sure get a phone call in the middle of the night.

I got a phone call at 1:30 a.m. or so (?) which I didn't mind so much because it was a quick deal and I probably was only 45 minutes into sleeping. I also didn't mind it because my alarm was set for a whole 45 minutes later than it usually is for work.

Remember the news gathering I was telling you about on Day 2? The not-dead-actually-quite-alive news gathering?

My first task Friday morning was to complete the assembly and sending of the letters. I left home around 8:45 and went to Publix to buy more stamps, completed the assembly in the car and went to the post office on the way to work.

I wasn't sure where the drop box was for the letters and I had 147 of them. The woman who worked at the post office showed me where it was, but then was nice enough to take all 147 letters from me and take care of them herself. She called me "darling" and wished me a good day.

I appreciated all of that.

More on the kindness of strangers: the parking attendants at the garage at work are always the kindest. I'm sure their job is boring sometimes but they always ask how I'm doing and then wish me a good night. It's the exact send off from a day at work that everyone deserves. I bet they know that.

Today at work, I met Mark Potter. Mark Potter is an extremely impressive NBC correspondent (with a wonderful news reporter voice.) Mark walked up to me and said "I don't believe we've met," and gave me a handshake. Introduced himself, and said "I'm one of the reporters here." As if I didn't know.

Took a mental note to always introduce myself followed by who I am. Because who really is even Oprah to make the assumption that everyone knows?

It was the perfect touch of humility.

Mark Potter asked me a few questions about UM and explained a bunch of the ties he had to the broadcasting department there.

Mark (although I think everyone here calls him Potter) showed me the package he did in South Carolina about the new details in the case of George Stinney, Jr., the 14-year-old sentenced to death by electric chair in 1944.

Check out the story here.

This isn't a spoiler, by the way. NBC is teasing the heck out of it, rightly so. I watched the story and said out loud, "this is big."

I slowly learned a lot of the new witnesses and details in the story came out of the woodwork because of NBC's coverage of the story, and witnessed the kindness of strangers at work once again.

The attorneys have planned a retrial for Stinney, Jr. on Tuesday, and will assess the potential clearing of his name after he was killed for the accused rape of two dead white girls. To me, it was the justice that rang as 3 Scottsboro Boys were pardoned posthumously 80 years later.

That's why this is big. In the piece airing on Weekend TODAY, Stinney's cellmate says Stinney told him, "why would they want to kill me for something I didn't do?"

And because of the kindness of the strangers at NBC and the justice they are working to reconcile, the world might ask the exact same question he did.

You heard it here first,
Jordan

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A Chat with Susan Zirinsky

The World at 3:30 AM

Leno's Last Tonight

Day 9: Lunch is on Them

Day 8: Weathering the Storm

Day 5 at Work; Day 4 at School

Day 3: The Kindness of Strangers

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