Question for fellow SJ'ers

[Cansportschick]

I am not sure if I am posting this in the right thread. My friend from ABC News and I were having a discussion about what would be his dream people to interview. He is really big on world leaders, so he rolled about some of the more controversial leaders. Also, we talked about his greatest journalism moment and he talked about covering the Hurricanes the Boston Archdiocese scandal.

Anyway, if this has been posted in another thread sorry but I do want to ask everyone the following:

1) What would be your dream "journalism" interview, regardless of sports/not and why?
2) What has been your biggest journalism moment and why?
3) Best journalism moment you were involved in.

If I posted this in the wrong section sorry moderators.

 

[Angola!]

1. Someone like Mitch Williams or Jose Mesa or Mariano Rivera, who blew a World Series. I think talking to the loser is where you get better quotes and I think it would be interesting to hear what they would say.

2. Probably the time I helped take down a school board for firing nearly every coach in a school and having a vendetta against said coaches that included a list of coaches and teachers they wanted out. The list was made four years earlier and the school board had been planning ways to take them out for years. I helped uncover a lot of stuff and even got threatened a couple of times at school board meetings. It was an interesting story to do that was out of the ordinary for me as a sports reporter.

3. I'd have to think about this one. It is probably something lame.

 

[chazp]

1] Barry Switzer. The guy is never at a loss for words and he won big, pissed lots of people off and had what looked like a hell of a good time doing it.
2] Breaking a story on a guy embezzling $20,000+ dollars from a high school booster club. It was eventually turned over to the news side, but I started the story.
3] Not sure...

 

[MGoBlue]

1. There are no dream interviews.
2. Probably the time I got in to do the college football/prep football special section. I was in at 6 p.m. on a Friday to START, and we found out the 30-page section was due for printing at 4 p.m. A 'Football Emergency' was declared. 24 hours later, we were done.
3. The great Midwest/Northeast blackout a few years ago. We went into the newsroom and heisted some computers, dragged all the **** about 10 miles to the printing plant, set up shop and published a paper on our laps over the next two days.

 

[huntsie]

1) What would be your dream "journalism" interview, regardless of sports/not and why?
2) What has been your biggest journalism moment and why?
3) Best journalism moment you were involved in.


[/quote]

My "dream interview" is any one that goes beyond pat answers -- questions that provide thoughtful answers; questions that the subject genuinely thinks about before answering. Could be anybody. Today, it was Jennifer Botterill, the Canadian Olympic women's hockey player. She's a girl with two Olympic gold medals and an honours degree from Harvard in psychology. Fascinating young woman.
2. Biggest journalism moment: If you mean times I've had the most fun, I remember working the phones from the press box with a colleague one night and getting the scoop that the players were going to the AD to get the hockey coach fired.
I remember working the phones and finding out who the successor was going to be and running the guy's picture two days before they were going to announce it.
I remember, as part of a weekly Q and A feature we run, interviewing Santa Claus (the veteran at the biggest mall in town) and asking him if, when he made his list, did he really check it twice? And did he really see kids when they were sleeping and know when they were awake? He played along beautifully.
Best journalism moment? Hmmmm...

 

[Cansportschick]

I have stumped people so far on the third question.

I forgot that my friend also said that covering the Rabin assassination and the War in Iraq and the Middle East Crisis (he reported from the Israeli border) were among his biggest journalism moments because it solidfied his career and elevated his stature at ABC News.

 

[TyWebb]

1. Muhammed Ali in his prime. His career/life is fascinating to me and he rarely gives the same answer twice. It is such a shame that Parkinson's has taken away his voice, but his wit is still as quick as ever.
2. Working at my college paper, I broke a story about the team's key defensive coordinator leaving the school (a major Div-I school) for the pros. I beat out the major metro and the town's daily. That day, I was hooked to this business.
3. Had a few that were good moments, but nothing worth talking about here. Still searching I guess...

 

[Cansportschick]

So I suppose that since I started this I should put down my thoughts:

1) My dream interview sports wise would be with my favourite hockey player Colorado Avalanche Joe Sakic. I have followed his career since he was in juniors. He is a humble, average Joe on and off the ice and he has experienced many great moments as well as some tough ones (ie. Swift Current Bus accident). Also would like to get this thoughts on staying with the one franchise all his career (if by the time he retires he is still with the Avs) that changed cities. Also, it would be interesting to see his thoughts on playing with some prolific names from the past and present.
Non-sports wise would be the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He was a charasmatic leader but he was also very controversial. I would ask him everything from FLQ crisis, to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms/Constitution and his thoughts on the recent debates with the non-withstanding clause, why he tried to screw Mulroney with Meech Lake, and minority governments among other things. He is the type of interview that would be thought provoking and engaging at the same time.

2) Biggest journalism moments. Well, I will be experiencing a huge one next year as I will have accreditation for the World Hockey Championships in Halifax. For the publication that I currently work for, the biggest moment came last year when I did a major piece on safety in schools and schools wouldn't talk to the main newspapers here in the city. However, I got lucky and they helped me out and we got an exclusive with a new school who gave us the first media look at their state of the art security system. They had an incident happen that week too. We were the first media outlet to break this news.

The one that stands out though is the exclusive I was granted from a star athlete about her illness and how she fought back to recovery. She again, only gave us an exclusive and it was well received when it was printed. We got a lot of emails and calls from others who were going through the same experience and were so glad we published this athlete's story. She battled cancer and was a standout basketball player.

3) I can see why number 3 is causing a problem. Crap, it won't come to my mind.
I will have an answer by the end of the weekend.

And another thing to add, one of my dream events to cover ever in my lifetime would be if Toronto and Colorado ever make it to the Stanley Cup Finals (bearing that Colorado doesn't move to the East so some weird reason). I would be there in a heartbeat, whether it is writing, doing broadcast or blogging (BLOGS!) Another would be if Halifax ever gets an NHL or CFL franchise (not in my lifetime will that happen). It would be to cover the first game played in Halifax.

 

[Cansportschick]

Hey, I should add this as a fourth question since I kind of answered it in my last post. Is there a "dream" beat or story you would want to cover and why?

I forgot to mention that another wish of mine is to report/write from the Press Gallery of Parliament Hill at some point in my life. I am so fascinated by the interworkings of Parliament and I have heard of the hustle and bustle of being in the Press Gallery.