John Hughes
is an editor for Bloomberg News’ First Word DC, a breaking news desk in
Washington DC, and the 108th president of the National Press Club,
the world’s leading professional organization for journalists.
Hughes
welcomed the students to the Bloomberg offices in DC, where they had the chance
to take a tour. Bloomberg News produces
approximately 5,000 stories each day from more than 150 bureaus in 73
countries.
Tamila Khalikova: Hello John, thank you so much for taking the time
to answer our questions today. We’re
excited to hear you speak at VIU’s commencement ceremony on May 7th.
John Hughes: Thank you for being here – I’ve really been impressed
with VIU. Every contact I’ve had has
been fantastic thus far.
TK: You have started your career as a journalist in 1987 after
receiving your Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of
Minnesota in Minneapolis. What
influenced you to pursue this career?
JH: When I was a child, I started writing stories and books – I
think I wrote my first real story in second grade, about 8 years old. I would just have so much fun writing these
stories, so I pretty much always knew since I was very small that I wanted to
write and work with words. Initially, I
wanted to be an author. That was my
first career ambition. About the time I
got to high school, I learned about a great author by the name of Ernest
Hemingway and read some of his books. I
eventually learned that Hemingway was a journalist. So I decided that if you
were going to be an author, the best thing to do would be to start as a journalist.
At that time, the
Watergate Scandal was happening in the United States, and there were a couple
of reporters by the name of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for The Washington
Post breaking the big stories on corruption in President Nixon’s White
House. They were essentially heroes, and
another reason I wanted to become a journalist.
I focused my whole
education around being a journalist, and even though I was a political science
major in college, I knew I wanted to write.
I was working at the college paper and writing news stories every day,
and I knew that the political science aspect of my education would give me the
knowledge to more effectively write.
Mohamed Moustafa: How do you think your Master’s degree from
Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism shaped and inspired your
career today?
JH: Northwestern University has one of the best journalism schools
in the country, and probably the world.
When I finished my undergraduate, I knew that most journalist started
their careers at small newspapers in a small town back then, and I wasn’t quite
ready to do that. So I said, “I’ll go to this one-year program at Northwestern
and get a Master’s degree. Then I’ll be
ready to go into the small-town newspaper.”
I had that wonderful
experience of one year. I learned so
much, because Northwestern University’s Master’s program is focused on getting
students out into the field and doing real reporting. I was covering the police in Downtown
Chicago; I was part of the Washington program and covered Congress for Nebraska
during an internship; in my third trimester, I covered the courts of South of
Chicago. It was really a lot of great
practical experience that was useful for my career. That’s what a great
education system does – I’m sure that VIU does the same thing, give you
hands-on experience.
TK: Can you tell us about your role as an editor for Bloomberg
First Word DC? What are your key
responsibilities?
JH: As an editor on the First Word team is breaking news – telling
the customer what’s going on right now, as it happens. Our whole team is built around the “just
happening now” concept.
I used to be a reporter
covering transportation, and as a reporter at Bloomberg, you are out meeting
sources, going to lunches, doing all kinds of things out of the office, so
you’re not on top of the breaking news all of the time. So that’s why we created this team that I’m
on. When reporters are out, and
something happens, we don’t have to call them up and ask them to cover the
event – we just move on it right away.
We’ll be proactive. For instance,
just before you came in, I was covering the White House briefing on the Nuclear
Summit. There were three White House officials
briefing the media, and Bloomberg had a reporter in the room. That reporter was sending us emails on what
was being said, but I was watching it in real time and putting out headlines as
the words were coming out of the speaker’s mouths. That’s what our team does, it’s unlike what I
used to do as a reporter, where I would go out and cover things. Now everything comes to me via these data
portals at my workstation, and I will have to make the split second decisions
on what is news and what’s not news.
MM: So being an editor for a breaking news
desk is a 24/7 job – what would you say keeps you motivated when working a
demanding, yet rewarding, position?
JH:
The most fun part of being an editor for Bloomberg, or any breaking news desk,
is getting up every morning and not knowing what the day will bring. It’s a surprise every day. Take Monday, for example. It was going to be a quiet start to the week
in the nation’s capital, where a lot of people are on Spring Break, and
Congress was away, and then there was that shooting at the Capitol. Chaos, right?
We moved so fast to get on that story.
Donald Trump had made
his comment on punishing women if they get abortions, if abortion was against
the law. That was a huge story. So, not
only are we putting out what Trump said to the customer, but we’re also
reporting on what Hillary Clinton said about Trump’s comments, what pro-life
groups are saying about his comments, and what pro-choice groups are
saying. There are so many things that
happen so quickly in this 24/7 news cycle, and we’re doing it in minutes. It’s an adrenaline rush and it’s
unpredictable.
I find this job less
stressful than the last job I had as a reporter. As a reporter, it’s demanding when the news
breaks and you’re not in a position to handle it. I would be home with my wife, eating dinner,
and a plane would crash. From there, my
evening would become very unsettled. I
would have to write a story on it immediately.
As an editor, I come in knowing I will be handling this unpredictable
stuff. It’s sort of being a doctor in
the emergency room; the doctor knows that he or she will be receiving traumas
that day, whether it’s gunshot victims, fire victims, child injuries, what have
you.
Being a First Word
editor is very similar. You know that
you will be getting these crazy stories, but you’re set up with the technology
and knowledge to handle it on a daily basis.
You don’t really have anything else on your agenda except to look at the
news, so in that way it makes it relaxing.
It’s not as fun when you make a mistake, but you just have to recover
and move on.
TK: You served as a 108th
President of the National Press Club in Washington DC. Can you give us a little
insight on organization and its services?
JH:
The National Press Club is the world’s leading professional organization for
journalists. We have approximately 3,000
members from around the globe, it’s a very international organization. We represent working journalists and press
freedom and act as a resource for journalists.
These working journalists can come into the National Press Club to get
training on things like how to utilize Google, or Facebook, or Twitter. They can get training on how to do a FOIA
request, a Freedom of Information Act request.
They can also come in and see newsmakers. For example, we have the head of the Centers
for Disease Control coming in to make a speech soon, and we just had the head
of the Internal Revenue Service in. Basically, the
National Press Club is a hub for the profession of journalism.
MM:
National Press Club plays an important role in protecting press freedom and
journalists worldwide. What actions does the organization take to succeed?
JH:
We mainly raise awareness. That’s the
best thing we can do. The National Press
Club is known around the world, and when we speak the message is transmitted
around the world. It’s not always
comfortable to have the organization criticizing when you’re a government
entity.
TK: Technology and social media transformed
the way people communicate and receive news. How has this influenced you
professionally?
JH:
Social media has changed everything. All
news is now transmitted instantly. When
I started my career, we were still writing things down in our notebooks, going
back to the office and writing up a story, and then producing the story for the
next morning’s newspaper. Those days are
so far gone, because now the story happens the minute an event starts. We begin to put out information on Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat – they’re all instant. The press has to be as instant as the
technology. We have needed to be faster
than ever, and that’s what First Word is all about.
MM:
What do you think is the most important aspect of generally succeeding in a
career?
JH: I think the most important aspect is
determination to stick with a job and to do it well. I’m a personal believer in the saying by
Woody Allen, “90% of the job is showing up.” Get up, dress up, go into the
office, participate, work hard and do it.
When bad things happen, don’t get discouraged – never give up, I think
that is so important. Many people will
get discouraged and believe there is something that will always block their
way. I’m a big believe in never
quitting, because if you keep morning forward you will succeed.
TK: VIU has students from over 100 countries.
What advice do you have for the graduates that will be returning to their home
countries?
JH: The United
States are such a unique and wonderful place, with what I think are the best
education institutions in the world. So
it’s the hope that people will take their US experience back to their countries
and put into practice some of the positive aspects of this country, like
education and diversity. The people in
this country are so diverse, and a majority embrace that diversity. Not everybody, unfortunately, as there are
still many problems in the United States, but as a whole it’s a very promising
experience thanks to the United States’ successful democratic experiment. The
idea of students taking that taste of democracy and acceptance of religions back
to their home countries, particularly countries that do now have the freedoms
yet, is nice.
MM:
The theme of this year’s graduation is “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful
destinations.” What does that mean to you?
JH:
What we’re seeing in the world right now is more instant communication, which
leads to more interconnectedness than ever before. You can literally see what is happening on
the other side of the world within seconds, or talk to someone thousands of
miles away.
VIU has been, and is,
a place where people from around the world can come together in a very direct
way and learn together while celebrating an array of different cultures. I mean
that’s amazing, what a wonderful gift. So you have to take that same
interconnectedness out into the world, and keep that commitment to diversity
and learning. I mean, we hear bad news
like terrorism and human suffering often.
We need to take this interconnection and the ability to communication
around the world and use it to get over these global challenges that we face,
and I’m proud of VIU for being a part of that.
Ultimately, more
people are coming together, and being inclusive and accepting. Good triumphs over evil in the end; I believe
that.
To learn more about Bloomberg News and the First Word News Desk, please visit: http://www.bloomberg.com/
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