Journalism Heroes

"Oh, ye of little faith."

Actually, my dad says that all the time, usually whenever someone says he isn’t going to be able to do something. “Dad, you can’t learn to ride a jetski. You’re OLD!!” and, well, that’s the response he gives. And yes, my father was riding a jetski around in his sixties.

I bring it up because I was contemplating self-defeatist thinking. How many times have people not even tried to do something, simply because they were already convinced they wouldn’t be able to? It’s probably common. And I’ve been sitting here for a couple of hours, meditating about it.

On Monday, I went to the National Press Club to see The Kalb Report. George Washington University had piles and piles of students in there, and so I was in this really interesting live taped show with a bunch of students, and press. Well, I guess we all just wanted to see Christiane Amanpour. I know I did.

Christiane Amanpour is, without a doubt, one of my big heroes. In my opinion, she truly shaped what it means to be a female war correspondent. I really would like to be a globe hopper like Christiane. I uber love politics. Washington and all its idiosyncracies are really entertaining, oh yeah. However, I report on a lot of stuff about the Middle East and got really interested in what is going on outside of my own country.

After the taping, Christiane hopped off the stage and stood around talking to those of us that wanted to chat. She is extremely personable, obviously genuine, extraordinarily sincere, and well, really really nice. She’s got all my respect. Because there were quite a lot of us wanting to take pictures with her, we all just jumped into groups and got pictures together. I have NO idea who the other people are in the photo with me, lol. I am also royally lame and got her autograph. I swear. I really did. I got her to sign the program paper and then I put it in a plastic thingie and hung it up on my wall. I don’t get impressed by much. But Christiane impresses me, a whole lot.

When I was a kid I idolized Madonna. Um, no, I’m not Catholic. I mean Madonna, the singer. I was totally in love with Duran Duran while I was at it, and listened to Kenny G even when not hanging out in elevators. I also loved Queen, Phil Collins, and pretty much every one hit wonder out there. I am terrible with names of songs or groups, which drives my friends crazy. I’ll be singing some song and someone will be like, ‘Oh, you like Rush?’ and I’ll just sort of nod, since I never can figure out who sings what.

It was suggested to me that I sign up for last.fm, and I thought about it for about half of a nanosecond. I’m on technology overload. I already have a Motorola Q, a Blackberry, three laptops, two video cameras, a digital camera, a personal mp3 mini-recorder, and probably more stuff hiding elsewhere. I don’t have an iPod. My brain might explode.

So when I was little, after wanting to be Madonna (and memorizing the song, True Blue, so I could sing on Star Search, no kidding……) I didn’t really have any big time hero. I would like a teacher of mine, and aspire to be like them in one way or another, but I think I really wanted to grow up and be my own dad. I’ve got a lot of people in the media that I really like, and I pick an element here and there from people that I think is a great quality, try to find it within myself, and then work on it. I consider people a constant work-in-progress. What better thing to work on, than yourself? Making yourself a better person makes everything better all around you.

I love Tim Russert, from Meet the Press. He’s always asking stuff I would want to know. That, and he is VERY in-your-face. He wants to know, he just asks. No beating around the bush with Tim- he just says it. He’s cool. I haven’t met him yet, but I've got my fingers crossed!

Mmmmm, well, I LOVE Jon Stewart. I LOVE JON STEWART. YES. YES I DO. Can’t really say much more than that.

There was a discussion about the differences between cable news, and well, not cable news. Everything is about to get a bit screwy on that, because of the nothing-analog-or-whatever law. That confuses me. Hey. I deal with radio. I presently do not have to actually know, right? Anyhow, my parents watch Fox, my sister reads Yahoo news, my brother doesn’t own a television and I have Google Reader with which to read a zillion political and/or news blogs all at the same time. My television, should I turn it on, is on MSNBC.

I am very curious who other people find as heroes. It's awesome that I keep running into Congress and other big-deal people over here in Washington. A couple days ago, Bill Gates from Microsoft was down the street. I never know day to day, who I might have the opportunity to meet!