“I spent this past summer working as an intern for the PBS NewsHour outside of Washington, D.C. Originally, the purpose of my internship was to assist with NewsHour Extra, a branch of the PBS NewsHour website that adapts content from the broadcast to make the news and politics accessible for school-age children. I enjoyed the work that I did for that a lot, but my supervisor saw that I ardently desired a greater challenge so she connected me with the digital politics editor of the NewsHour. He immediately asked me what current political affairs I was passionate about and what questions needed to be answered that no other journalists had answered yet. At the time, President Trump’s Election Integrity Commission had just asked every state and the District of Columbia to submit and make public a wide array of voter-roll data. I passionately felt that this was wrong. The digital politics editor repeatedly stressed the importance of asking the most important questions at the root of a problem and answering them; for me, this is a lot of what great journalism is about. I noticed that many of the states responding to the commission’s request had said that they would provide only “public” voter data. What did this mean? As it turns out, something different in every state. I spent about a week reading the public records laws of every state and the District of Columbia finding the answers.
Growing up watching the NewsHour with my family, I’d often said somewhat facetiously that my dream would be to have an article that I wrote featured on the part of the broadcast in between segments where they show “Now Online…” and screencaps of online content. Well, my dream came true: my article and byline were shown on national public television. It was a life-affirming accomplishment.
Not everything worked out according to plan, though, and in that way, my internship was a firsthand lesson in the fleeting nature of journalistic work. I was working on an article about the budget reconciliation process and had spent about a week and a half reading Senate standing rules and talking to experts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Overnight, though, that particular iteration of the health care bill was killed by Sen. John McCain’s dramatic “nay” vote. Since my article was no longer timely, it wasn’t published. That was disappointing, but at least I now have a party-trick worthy knowledge of budget reconciliation. If I’m ever a journalist, I’ll already know how it feels to have an article eclipsed by time. You just have to move on to the next beat.
To me, journalism–and especially public media such as the PBS NewsHour–is a way for information to travel so it can be accessible and understandable by all in a way that resists prejudice and conformism. I believe in the power of words and facts used strategically and logically, especially in this broken political era. It may feel like our political culture no longer values the truth, but if I can convince someone to care about politics with one article, I’ll write a thousand.”
Check out Amanda’s published article for PBS here