A fact of modern life is that it takes women longer to get ready than men.
— Jessica Savitch
Anyone who writes an autobiographical work at the age of 34 is, at best, presumptuous. It occurred to me that it was time to set the record straight.
Every time I am in danger of believing the glamour of my own press, some incident inevitably brings me back to earth.
I don't exactly know what it means to be ready. A cake when the oven timer goes off? Am I fully baked, or only half-baked?
I very much wanted to be accepted by my peers, to be considered a serious journalist.
In interviews I gave early on in my career, I was quoted as saying it was possible to have it all: a dynamic job, marriage, and children. In some respects, I was a social adolescent.
It had not occurred to me that marriage requires the same effort as a career. And unlike a career, marriage requires a joint effort.
Men still control the news, both on and off camera.
My goal was to be a network correspondent by the time I was 30.
News events are like Texas weather. If you don't like it, wait a minute.
Newscasters cannot call attention to themselves by being too attractive or too unattractive.
Our free enterprise system of disseminating information is collectively referred to as The Media. But there is no collective.
Television is intensely personal.
The bad news is that 50 people died in a hotel fire; the good news is that we got exclusive footage.
The idea of stardom was difficult to grasp. It was like being schizophrenic; there was her, the woman on television, and the real me.
The most important event I covered was the Panama Canal debate, which dragged on for months.
The single life is not one I willingly chose for myself.
A press card does not provide you with an invisible shield. You're flesh and blood.
Being a novelty had its advantages.
For every two minutes of glamour, there are eight hours of hard work.
I hadn't realized until I covered the police beat just how seedy crime is.
I worked half my life to be an overnight success, and still it took me by surprise.
In real life, events seem much less dramatic.
It is my belief that one's salary is between an individual and the IRS.
Mistakes are not always the result of someone's ineptitude.
My most lucrative job in college was a stint as the regional Dodge Girl.
News events cannot be controlled, nor can newscasts be mapped out like entertainment shows.
No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one.
Shootouts are not gunfights of honor, they're gang wars and racial riots.
Television news is a delicate balance of serving public good and private gain.
The better the coverage, the more discriminating the viewer.
The latest wrinkle is on wrinkles. There is a widespread belief that women can't grow old in television news.
The news anchor is exactly that - an anchor, a center, a focus.
To get it first is important - but more important is to get it right.
Although I was entirely relaxed on camera, if I had to stand up and say something to an assembled group of people, I was rendered all but inarticulate.
By far my most perilous assignment was covering a tank car explosion.
How valuable NBC Magazine was in my career is questionable.
I have had a lifelong phobia of snakes.
In every interview I have ever read or seen or taken part in, the final question in our future-oriented society is always, What next?
In the beginning, my mother humored me when I told her I wanted to be a reporter.
Many senators have developed a canny sense of what will play best for the audience.
My current goal is to place a moratorium on goals.
Never refuse an assignment except when there is a conflict of interest, a potential of danger to you or your family, or you hold a strongly biased attitude about the subject under focus.
News reporting is a cycle: No matter how much you work at sending a message, it's only successful if it's received.
One reason I left local news was that I was tired of the constant musical chairs among news directors.
Some news managers have been slow to grasp that good television news is always substance over form.
Texas was defined by its larger-than-life characters, particularly politicians.
The code of the road is, if there is anything to eat, eat; if there is a place to sit, sit; if there is a restroom, go.
The minute viewers callin or write about your looks, they were not listening to what you were saying.
The relationship between talent and management is uneasy, at best.
