NYT’s Ryan and Barbaro Sit Down with MHS
The side concession stand room in the Manchester Courtyard Marriott is small and sterile at first glance. Twenty-one student journalists from Mamaroneck High School crammed into the space last night in front of two reporters in red hooded sweatshirts, as they recounted tricks of the journalism trade.
Less than an hour before the GOP debate was set to begin down the road at Saint Anselm College, Michael Barbaro, political writer for The New York Times treated the young journalists to an up-close and personal set of stories about how he covers the election and what it takes to be a professional journalist. Together with Carolyn Ryan, Senior Political Editor at The Times, Barbaro offered the students anecdotes that ranged from the “translation” of Sarah Palin’s Trump endorsement speech into English to the story of how he convinced Trump to show the world how “Donald J. Trump tweets.”
Barbaro drew some laughs with his first piece of advice, reminding students in a simple adage of the journalistic creed of fact-checking: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” The lesson: Always dig deeper into whatever you’re told; even if it comes as reliable a source as your own mother.
Barbaro on fact-checking: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
During the extended Q&A, NH16 editor Hannah Lachow asked about the state of print media. Both Ryan and Barbaro discussed the broadening variety of journalistic mediums. Surprisingly for print journalists, they weren’t daunted by the perceived death of print media. In fact, they suggested that journalism was entering into a golden age, joking that any old NYT editor would be “rolling over their grave” if they were to see what they were doing today. Ryan said, “There used to be one way to tell a story, but we are blowing that up, and that’s exciting…”
The quote that resonated most with the group involved Barbaro’s advice on political reporting: he told the J-students to simplify. “Don’t look at your phone during campaign events. The time is too valuable,” he went on to say, “instead, focus on what’s around you. Watch the candidate closely. Watch the message evolve.” The message struck a note for a number of students. One student likened it to the Yogi Berra quote, “You can observe a lot by watching,” and openly wondered if Barbaro carried around a book of Yogi-isms just for moments like those. Later, while watching the debate back at the hotel in Concord, multiple students who were interviewed by video teacher Emily Dombroff cited Barbaro’s message, stating they would try to practice it themselves in hopes that it would enhance their own reporting.
When the sit-down ended, just 15 minutes before the GOP debate was set to begin, Ryan and Barbaro took the students back to the newsroom, which resembled something more akin to a war room than a hotel conference room. Filled with a dozen other journalists, designers and editors from The Times, the room glowed from the low lights of computer screens.
Post-its and cold pizza crusts covered every surface of the work station, as the team prepared to cover the debate. As they watched the journalists prepare, a few students noted that (save from a few beers, and the two flat-screen tv’s) the room was not too far off from where they had been working as journalists just an hour or two before back at The Holiday Inn in Concord. As two journalists from one of the nation’s most read publications settled into what has become a routine evening for them during this election, the MHS NH journalism team headed back in the snowy night with inspiration to make the Concord NH Holiday Inn as productive a newsroom as the Courtyard Marriott.
