Lafayette Campus News (www.lafayette.edu), February 21, 2008 — Marie Garofalo ’10 (Randolph, N.J.) is double majoring in English and an individualized major in arts & media studies. Carrie Lee ’89, morning business anchor for CNN Headline News, hosted her in an externship during interim session.
- Hitting the Ground Running. By Carrie Lee '89
- Exploring the Field of Broadcasting. By Carolyn Freundlich ’08
Walking around Columbus Circle on Jan. 17, I spotted the Time Warner Building and took a deep breath. I stepped through the front door and anxiously waited for my externship host to meet me. I was about to embark on a day of shadowing Carrie Lee ’89, a business news correspondent for CNN Headline News. As an English and arts & media studies double major, I have known for awhile that television is something I am very interested in. When I learned that I would be externing at one of the most popular news stations in the world, I was thrilled.
When Ms. Lee greeted me in the lobby of the building, we instantly got to talking about Lafayette and she started sharing some of her experiences with me as we rode the elevator up to the fifth floor newsroom. I walked in and was fascinated by all of the televisions, computers, lights, and people working to put the quality news coverage together that viewers hope to get when they tune into CNN. Ms. Lee impressed me with her extensive journalism background, having worked for companies like The Wall Street Journal and CNBC before coming to CNN.
After settling in, I was given an extensive tour of the CNN facilities, seeing everything from the control rooms to the sets of Larry King Live, Nancy Grace, Lou Dobbs Tonight, and Anderson Cooper 360°. I also got to meet journalists who cover topics from breaking news to actually going to events and reporting, such as at the New Hampshire primary in January. In addition, one major highlight of the day was meeting with Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN/U.S. Talking to someone with such knowledge of the world of broadcast news was such a rewarding experience.
After these activities, I met back up with Ms. Lee who was getting ready to actually go live on the afternoon Headline News show. She explained that she goes live on air about 10 times a day doing what are called “hits.” When the anchor of the program starts talking about the stock market, real estate, and general economic updates, Ms. Lee is often the correspondent who does the reporting.
The day that I was externing happened to be a very big day for the economy. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman, was making a big speech about his plans to boost the economy and the Dow Jones was down to its lowest point this year. Needless to say, Ms. Lee was very busy getting the facts together for each of her “hits,” which helped to show how fast-paced the world of news coverage is.
At the end of the day, I felt very fortunate for this externship opportunity and it is one that I will not soon forget. For a current student to see how successful a Lafayette graduate can be is truly motivating and rewarding.
