Who Am I? August 2020
I was born in Manhattan as part of the post-war baby-boom generation. My dad, Stuart, was a senior broadcast producer at ABC. My mom, Francie, earned an M.A. in Jewish studies and was an accomplished author, lecturer, and educator. One of her missions was to return Jews who vanished after completing their bar/bat-mitzvot to synagogues. We lived for awhile in Teaneck but I really grew up in Montvale. I attended a Jewish summer camp in Kunkletown, Pa. At Pascack Hills High School I was active in sports and other athletic activities. We were members of Temple Beth Or in Washington Township.
I graduated from George Washington University in D.C. where I majored in political communications. I guess it was there that I caught the political bug that was to shape my career. I interned briefly at several networks but found a long-term home on one of the cable networks. After ‘making my bones’ I advanced to be a political correspondent, an anchor, and a producer of weekend shows. I can honestly say I have covered every major story in more than a decade. I have described my job as “trying to explain and make sense of political news in Washington.” I did return to Bergen County to give a talk at Temple Beth Rishon in Wyckoff in 2015 so you see I haven’t completely forgotten my local roots!
I’ve had at least two absolutely harrowing experiences in my current job. The first was on
9/11/01 when I entered the Capitol parking lot and was instructed by the policemen there to ‘run for my life’ because there was still an airborne plane that was expected to crash land into that building. The second experience was during the anthrax scare in D.C. when I was obliged to take antibiotics for fear of exposure to that deadly infection.
My first husband was the son of the conservative rabbi of the Arlington Fairfax Jewish Congregation in VA. My ex- is a lawyer who served as the chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Defense and the CIA. He often appears as an analyst on MSNBC. That marriage ended in divorce. My “second time around” was with a Roman Catholic co-worker who was considerate enough to convert to Judaism for me. I am currently separated.
Elana Gross, a freelance interviewer, once asked me, “What was the biggest lesson I learned at work and how did I learn it?” My answer was, “I learned early on that TV is a team sport. There are so many people in so many corners of the company – from technicians to editors to producers – make things happen.” I also told Gross that the best advice I ever received was “to take as much
time to enjoy what really matters in life – but also not to take everything so seriously. Things will happen. Mistakes will happen. Learn from those inevitable mistakes, but don’t dwell on them or beat yourself up."
I have earned many awards for my work. One was being honored by ‘Elle’ magazine. They named me to be on the “Women in Washington Power List.” I am pretty sure you know me by now. That’s me, the soccer player, in the photo below.
(1a)Who Am I? (1b)What specific athletic activities did I participate in while in high school? (2a)Where did my first marriage ceremony take place? (2b)What is the name of my first husband? (2c) Who did I marry the second time around? (2c) Where did my second marriage ceremony occur? (3) For what breaking story did I earn my first Everett McKinley Dirksen for Distinguished Reporting of Congress Award from the National Press Foundation? (4)Who were my co-hosts for the 2016 Democratic presidential debates? (5) I am the primary fill-in for “Jake” on Sundays. Who is “Jake” and what show am I referring to?
