By Rebecca O’Halloran
Making time in her busy day to mentor young people, Soledad O’Brien, co-anchor on CNN’s “American Morning,” spoke at the University on Tuesday about women in journalism and the work force.
O’Brien, who is a quarter African American a quarter Cuban and 50 percent Australian, discussed being three different races and a woman in her career,
“You have to constantly speak up to protect yourself,” she said. “You have to be your own best advocate.”
At eight and a half months pregnant she pitched an idea for a story in Baghdad. The network executives loved it so much they wanted to send a man to cover it because they didn’t think that she would, “want to travel in that condition.”
After a self-proclaimed “hissy fit,” O’Brien was on her way to Baghdad. “I was pregnant, not lobotomized,” she said.
Aspiring broadcast journalists who hope to follow in O’Brien’s footsteps where interested in discussing her internships, first few jobs and advice on starting out in the industry.
O’Brien accredits her success to her willingness to outwork everyone around her. She was happy when at the beginning of her career a co-worker would complain about having to stay late to cover an uninteresting story. Their complaints made her look better, she said, and eventually she prevailed over them.
It took this attitude of hard work and perseverance for her to improve reporting live on the air.
O’Brien began with the television station KRON in San Francisco.
“I was smart enough to know how really terrible I was,” she said.
On her first day she went live from a bar and a man pinched her backside the same instant she was cued to begin her report. She stood in front of the camera stunned and speechless until the studio realized the difficulties and switched cameras.
“To this day I get such a yucky feelings when I tell that story,” O’Brien said.
Clearly, that wasn’t the end of her career. It was only the beginning.
“Luckily, reporting is a pretty learnable skill,” she said. “I got progressively better.”
O’Brien kept contacts in New York at the ABC offices, where she sent tapes while she was still in California and recommends students do the same thing.
“Get your foot in the door, and then show people how smart you are and how hard you’re willing to work,” she said. “Everyone has the ability to succeed if they focus.”
O’Brien recently switched jobs in July from NBC’s “Network Today” where she had been since July 1999 to CNN’s “American Morning.”
“I knew in my heart as a journalist I needed to grow and tackle harder projects. [Now] I feel challenged and fulfilled.”
With two daughters, a three year old and a two year old, and twins on the way, one of her biggest challenges is a 3:30 a.m. wakeup call.
“I love my job,” she said, “I’m certainly not complaining. It provides a window into other peoples’ lives.”
Being a mother and having a job that demands flexibility with hours and travel, she stressed the importance of balance.
When her 3-year-old was going through a phase where she was preoccupied with talking on the telephone, she had a difficult time conducting an interview with New York State’s Governor Pataki because her daughter was anxious to participate.
“[I said] ‘Governor, you’re going to have to talk to my kid or we’re not going to get anything else done’,” she said. “That’s balance.”
She used to think that it would be great if her children remembered her as a wonderful and talented journalist, but things have changed.
“I really hope that at the end of the day my kids would say, ‘my mom had her priorities right,'” she said.

Soledad O´Brien talked about the T.V. news business.