So I think there were bonds that transcended the competition, because we were all kind of in it together. But we did all want to do well in our careers. We were all competitive. You had to be competitive to do this work. You couldn’t relax. But we had a lot in common. Several of us had young children. Lesley had a daughter. I didn’t have children at first, but after I was married I ended up having three children. Ann Compton had, I think, four. So we would compare notes about family and things like that.
On one of the most memorable debates she’s moderated.
I’ve moderated a lot of primary debates over the years. But the one that’s the most memorable for me was in 1988. It was the vice presidential debate for the general election between [former United States Secretary of the Treasury] Lloyd Bentsen and [former Vice President] Dan Quayle. Quayle was the choice of George H.W. Bush and Bentsen was the choice of Michael Dukakis, who had been the governor of Massachusetts.
The truly memorable line from that debate was at one point Dan Quayle compared himself—because of his youth and the promise he held for the future—to JFK. Bentsen used that and seized on it and said, “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.” And the room exploded. Those of us who were up there asking questions just figured, well, this is the end of this election. You know, he’s really showed him. But of course, Bush and Quayle went on to win the election even though Lloyd Bentsen had a great line that was the headline everywhere the next day.
On mentoring the next generation.
I try to be available as much as I can and reach out to younger female journalists when they arrive at PBS. Whatever their job is—whether they’re a desk assistant or a producer or on the air. I try to be available to them. I know it’s sometimes intimidating or forbidding for people to approach the anchor, but I try to be as available as possible and say, “Please come talk to me if there’s an issue or if you just want to just shoot the breeze or if you want to talk about your career or family or something, I’d like to be available.”
In the beginning of my career, there weren’t that many women. But today I’m so happy to be able to look around the newsroom and I see women who are researching, who are writing, reporting, shooting stories for us, editing. And I think we have a very open and frankly very diverse newsroom. That’s what we’re committed to. It’s bringing women along, bringing along people of color, people of all backgrounds.
I would put our newsroom up against just about any other when it comes to diversity. We’ve done quite a remarkable job I think, but the job is never done. I would never rest on our laurels and say, we have arrived. There are things we have to think about all the time. We are constantly thinking about whether our guests diverse. When we’re discussing the law or Congress or international affairs, foreign policy, have we thought about women, women’s perpsectives? Have we thought about guests who come from different nationalities and different ethnicities? The job is never done.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Samantha Leach is the associate culture editor at Glamour. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @_sleach.
