The purpose of part of this blog is to provide resources to young journalists and students.  The stories linked to my YouTube Channel reflect the “old school” approach of cultivating sources, in depth records research, and the use of “shoe leather”—getting out and talking to people face-to-face.  I believe that today that there is too much “repeating” what spokespeople say and not enough “reporting”.

My investigative reporting career evolved from working as a Congressional investigator on Capitol Hill.  Senior staff delegated press responsibilities to me—I realized later they didn’t want to take the heat in case something blew back from a news story.  However, I often felt frustrated that taxpayers didn’t get the whole story from Congressional inquiries and admired the reporters who were digging for the truth.  The Watergate scandal provided the backdrop for this and the Representative that I worked for, Wright Patman, started the initial inquiry into the burglary of the Democratic Campaign headquarters at the Watergate office building.

During this time, I became friends with the late Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper reporter Clark Mollenhoff, Washington Bureau Chief of the Des Moines Register and Tribune.  Clark broke numerous stories about the Watergate scandal and malfeasance in Pentagon weapons programs.  I recommend his books Game Plan for Disaster, The Pentagon, and The Man Who Pardoned Nixon.

Mollenhoff was a charter member of the Investigative and Editors Association (IRE), which had recently been formed to investigate the bombing murder of Don Bolles, a fellow reporter in Arizona.  In those days it was a small close-knit group that provided great mentorship and resources. I highly recommend membership to any reporter.

After a stint on Capitol Hill and in two political campaigns, I felt a calling to journalism.  I really believe in some respects it is like the priesthood—you really should feel called to do it.  Many of the finest have lost their lives doing it.

With Mollenhoff’s encouragement I set out to break into television news and learned that I needed an audition tape.  How do you get an audition tape if you are not already in news?

Fortunately, I had met Bob Schieffer who was then the Capitol Hill correspondent for CBS New. Bob is the genuine article. What you see on TV is what you get in person. He took pity on a fellow Texan and secretly loaned his camera crew to me.  My stand-ups were absolutely awful and I received many a rejection letter in response to my audition tape.

After receiving a particularly cruel assessment of my on air presence from a news director, I stopped by the Capitol Hill studio of Bob Squier.  Bob had taught filmmaking at the University of Texas and we struck up a friendship from our Texas roots.

At that time, Squier was an upstart producer of political TV spots for Democrats and worked out of a cramped English basement apartment a few blocks from the House office buildings.  He would become one of most sought after and respected consultants for presidential and senate campaigns.

The rejection letter had deflated me and I told Bob that I was ready to give up. He then shared a story from when he worked on the floor crew of a small market television station in the Midwest.  The news director charged on to the set at the end of a newscast and belittled the anchor in front of everyone before firing him.  The anchor loaded a U-Haul and drove away in search of another job.  And then Bob delivered the punch line, it was Harry Reasoner of ABC and 60 Minutes.

With spirits uplifted I returned to Schieffer for advice.  He and his producer, Charlie Thompson, emphatically stated that my goal should be to work for WFAA-TV in Dallas.  They described it as a mini-news network with the best reporters, photographers, and staff in the nation.  They stressed that WFAA’s excellence resulted from the leadership of its News Director, Marty Haag who they described as the Edward R. Murrow of local news.

I called Marty immediately and he invited me to meet with me in the Dallas newsroom.  Marty explained that I had the investigative skills but was too green for broadcast in a market the size of Dallas.  He suggested that I freelance produce a series of investigative reports on a Texas related subject from Washington, D.C. for a new show on WFAA called Evening Magazine.  That series of reports became my audition tape and led to a 27-year run in television news. I will forever be indebted to my mentor, Marty Haag.

It took me more than a year to get my first reporting job in television. I would find that the same dogged determination to break into the industry would serve me well as a reporter.