By By Ryan Kennedy and Geoffrey Sorensen
Encouraging students to follow their aspirations 100 percent, a CNN anchor said never go to plan B.
The University welcomed preeminent broadcast journalist Aaron Brown, who shared tips for success in journalism with a student audience as part of the School of Communication’s “Reel Talk” lecture series last Wednesday.
Brown, 56, anchors “NewsNight,” CNN’s flagship evening newscast at 10 p.m., as well as the cable network’s documentary series, “CNN Presents,” on weekends.
A veteran journalist with more than 25 years of experience, Brown was on the scene of such major events as the Columbine shootings, O. J. Simpson trial and the Beltway Sniper attacks and was CNN’s chief reporter in the wake of 9/11.
He addressed students, relating his career high points, hopes for the future and his conviction that tenacious and determined students can find success in journalism.
“What your parents want is for you to be safe,” he said. “I want you to be great. I want you to live life on the wire. I want you to look at the chapters of your life and say ‘what a ride it’s been.'”
Recounting the chapters of his own life, Brown shared annecdotes ranging from working alongside Peter Jennings at ABC, to his four years of anonymity before landing his first TV assignment, to the strangeness that accompanied his catapult to fame after 9/11.
A college dropout from the University of Minnesota, Brown joined ABC News Radio in Minneapolis where he was soon fired.
“I was devastated,” he said. “I had nothing on paper except that I could write.”
Brown said his talent in writing, along with great persistence and determination, helped him get back into the broadcast journalism business.
Unemployed, Brown moved to Seattle, where every Thursday at 10 a.m. he would make a call to the news director at KING-TV asking to be hired for a job. He was constantly turned down in what he said became a game.
Four years later at 9:45 one Thursday morning in the summer of 1976, Brown’s phone rang. It was the KING news director who finally told him, “You win.”
Brown accepted the job before he knew what he would be doing and his salary; it ended up being, what he said was the lowest possible job ripping wire copy, but he knew that he would be able to work his way up after getting back into the business.
Brown later became an anchor and reporter for ABC News in New York.
He reflected on his former colleague at ABC, Peter Jennings, who lost his battle to lung cancer in August at the age of 67.
He added that Jennings was “hugely important” to him and that he misses him every day.
“Peter Jennings was the best anchorman I have ever seen,” Brown said, noting that even Jennings had failed in his first stint as ABC News anchor but eventually succeeded.
“If we were here until 4 a.m., I’d still be talking about the things Peter taught me, many of which I disagreed with,” he said.
Brown most ardently stressed the importance of persistence.
“I decided to be an anchorman when I was 10 years old,” he said. “I’ve lived my life through the decision of a 10-year-old. I’m still standing because I never had a plan B – I didn’t have a fallback.”
Brown closed with a few words of advice on overcoming obstacles and uncertainties.
“I had to find a relationship between the things I dream and the person I am,” he said. “They don’t have to exist separately. But I’ve been where you are and I know how scary it is. Just remember that you can do this – whatever your ‘this’ is.”
“In the difficult times that will surely arise, remember that it is possible – think about my life,” Brown added. “In my life, all I worried about was plan A and plan A was to get in the door. Everything else will work itself out.”
Aaron Brown went from working anonymously as a journalist for four years to becoming famous for his coverage of 9/11. (Tara Conry/The Chronicle)