JOHN WALCOTT, McClatchy News Washington Bureau Chief

We visited Walcott in his office and heard a very smart man with impressive experiences give us sound advice. He told the students they had to learn at least one other language in order to compete in the global job market. He himself has worked in 83 countries.

He led an investigation of how we got into Iraq (the only news agency to do so) when he was still working for Knight Ridder (which was later acquired by McClatchy). They won many awards for their work, and he gave a wonderful speech at the National Press Club that can be accessed online.

He attributes their success with this series partly to the fact that they wrote from military towns rather than from D.C. “We wrote it for them,” he said. He said many of the reporters in McClatchy who volunteer to go work in Iraq are Arab-American women.

He recommended we read two things: a book by Paul Starr called THE CREATION OF THE MEDIA and the series on Guantanamo by reporter Tom Lasseter.

QUOTABLE QUOTES:

“A democracy cannot function without someone standing outside the circle of poer who doesn’t want to be in the circle asking the hard questions.”

“These guys [politicians] are like a bunch of whining children who need a babysitter. Washington is very seductive.”

“To do reporting right, it’s a blue-collar job.”

“ I don’t think the Obama team has been forthcoming [to the news media].”

“We need this president to succeed – we ALL do. . .I think there is a liberal bias [in the news media], but I do not think Barack Obama got a free pass.”