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I’ve always loved delivering great stories to
the public.
As a kid I considered the life of a rock star, Hollywood
director, and professional daredevil. However growing
up in New England no global celebrity was more important
than our local weatherman. When you are 8 years old
nothing is as vital as school being cancelled because
of a blizzard. Great story. Therefore I watched our
local news religiously.
Perhaps that’s how it started.
Watching our local news evolved into watching World
News every night as well. So no matter how appealing
the idea of touring with U2 was (and still is), Tom
Brokaw dissecting Iran Contra was an addictive unfolding
daily drama that couldn’t be missed.
I have a
fascination with movies, Rock & Roll, and great
TV (Twilight Zone anyone?) but watching the coverage
of the Berlin Wall coming down, LIve Aid, and the Space
Shuttle disaster was riveting, real, and historic. It
felt like I had to watch these events.
At that time I recognized that the lines of various
media disciplines were starting to blur. Who was this
Oprah person that started in local news, acted in Steven
Spielberg’s The Color Purple, then morphed into
the queen of her own media empire?
How is 60 minutes always entertaining and informative?
In college I had no choice but to study television and
film.
I’m a lucky guy… I got out of school and
landed on MTV.
“Here’s a studio kid, now interview Jodie
Foster”.
“It’s Woodstock 2 and we’re live around
the world”.
“There is Mayor Giuliani – go ask him some
questions”.
Every time I worked with MTV News my adrenalin flowed.
My film professor called me as he was watching me cover
New Years Eve from Times Square and said: “Sencio,
you are a bona-fide journalist”. He must have
been guzzling champagne. Even if my film professor was
lit, and even if at that time I felt it was absurd to
describe me as a “bona-fide journalist”,
he recognized something – I loved delivering news.
I’ve
found myself in the fortunate position of participating
in a wide variety of television productions. Just when
I think: “maybe I’ll call David Letterman
and ask if I can be a Luke Skywalker to his Yoda”
another news jobs enters my life and I’m hooked.
I also recognize the immediate, important impact that
telling true stories has on people’s lives –
not just the lives of the subject… but also of
the viewer. When NBC hired me to be one of the Reporter/Anchor’s
of “Home Delivery” I witnessed this phenomenon
regularly.
Our media
landscape is very different then it was growing up in
the 80's – the various styles of broadcasting
are rapidly weaving together. When I started on MTV
I briefly shared a dressing room with Jon Stewart (there
is a joke there somewhere). We shot at different times
of the day so I didn’t see him much - I was the
“new kid” and he was getting ready to leave
the channel and find tremendous success. Stewart was
an obvious talent, funny, quick and a nice guy…
but I would have never imagined a decade later that
the president of CBS, Les Moonves, would publicly suggest
him as a possible replacement for Dan Rather…
before settling on Katie Couric. I’m not saying
this because I don’t think John Stewart couldn’t
do the job (he’d probably do a fantastic job)
but there was a time when this type of suggestion was
inconceivable. The impresario of The Daily Show on Comedy
Central being considered as the anchor of the CBS Evening
News? Wow. To me, nothing illustrates the massive transformation
of broadcast journalism like this does.
So here we are now, in a 24-hour cable news world that’s
influenced by the relentless proliferation of the Internet.
Humans crave the news… and now we get it, if we’re
in the mood or not, second by second. In a democracy,
covering the news with integrity is crucial. “Freedom
of the press” is vital in an unstable world. The
fact that the news is now seen as "entertainment"
does not mean contemporary broadcast journalism is any
less important or genuine… it simply means more
people enjoy watching.
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