Looking Back (Part 4)
(For the past couple of weeks I have been writing about my own experiences as an education reporter. Here’s another segment.)
I left the warmth and security of NPR in 1982, but in early 1985 I was unemployed and, to put it mildly, nervous about my future. The 7-part documentary series I had spent 2 ½ years working on, “Your Children, Our Children,” had not resulted in a flood of job offers for me, but it had won an Ohio State Award [1]. I went to Columbus for the ceremony, and, before that event was over, I had an invitation to try my hand at reporting on television. It happened because of Doug Bodwell, then Director of Education at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the umbrella organization over both PBS and NPR.
Not only was Doug a big deal at CPB, but he was also a big guy, standing about 6’ 8”, which turned out to be just as important.
I was hanging out by the wall in a large room full of journalists when I saw Doug standing in the center of the room, towering over everyone. With one hand he was motioning to me to come over; with the other he was signalling someone else. I made my way through the crowd, and Doug introduced me to the other person he had been beckoning: Linda Winslow, then Deputy Executive Producer of the NewsHour. “Linda, John should be reporting for you,” Doug said. Linda asked me if I had some story ideas. I didn’t, but of course I said that I did. She asked me to send them to her, which–once I came up with some–I did. She hired me to report on two [2] of them, and before long I had a half-time job, which within a few months turned into a full-time job, and a great one at that. A big and influential audience, and lots of time to tell a story.
I have often wondered how my career would have turned out if Doug Bodwell [3] had been only 5’ 8”.
*****
Sometime late in 1989 I got a phone call from a person with close connections to the White House. The caller wanted to know if I had any interest in becoming George H.W. Bush’s Education Advisor?
Who, me?
There was a backstory to the offer, which I was familiar with. The Administration’s first choice, John Chubb, had apparently told one person too many that he would soon be in the White House, riding herd on Lauro Cavazos, the elegant but supposedly ineffectual Secretary of Education. When that bit of gossip showed up in print somewhere, probably in the Washington Post, Secretary Cavazos made it clear to the White House that, if Chubb got the job, he would resign. Well, the Secretary had enough juice to get Looking Back (Part 4) | Taking Note: "Looking Back (Part 4)"