Media, students address questions to CNN journalist Soledad O'Brien

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
Oct. 25, 2007

During a press conference preceding the Bishop's Dinner for Catholic Education, CNN journalist Soledad O'Brien answered questions from the local media and Catholic high school students who are interested in journalism.

O'Brien has been in the broadcast business for about 20 years, but acknowledged that wasn't her initial career path. She had been a pre-med student at Harvard and against her parents' wishes she decided against medical school.

"I started working at a TV station and I loved it, the minute I walked in. My job was to fetch coffee, answer mail and answer phones," she recalled. "Every time I got a promotion, another opportunity, I felt so lucky."

Her early studies weren't unused, she noted, as her first job was working as a medical reporter. O'Brien's jobs eventually ran the gamut from production assistant, to line producer, story producer, reporter, anchor and editor.

She spoke of ups and downs in the business such as not getting one job because the station didn't think she was dark enough - they wanted a minority and didn't think viewers would know she was Black. Her mother is of black Cuban heritage and her father is Australian with Irish parents.

Another station wanted her to change her name because people wouldn't know how to pronounce it. Her full name is Maria de la Soledad - which in Spanish translates to Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude.

Through faith and believing in your own abilities, she said things have a way of working out in the end.

O'Brien spoke of some big stories she covered such as the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Because there was such great loss of lives, the tsunami was tough to cover.

"I think all people who have kids get so much more connected because you more fully understand the depths of somebody's loss," she said.

As a working mother of four children, the journalist acknowledged that balancing work and family life can be difficult. She does stuff that mothers do like making brownies at 10 p.m. the day before coming to Sioux City so her daughter would have treats for school.

"It can get crazy. I learn to love the chaos to a large degree," said O'Brien. "I was lucky growing up in a big Catholic family. My parents showed you can learn to live with chaos as long as you have people around you who really care about you and you don't focus on the small things - you focus on the big, important things."

With four children she said you can get caught up in little things but then covering things like the tsunami can put things into perspective pretty quickly.

"When you have kids and they get to a certain age, you start thinking a lot about your own faith and what matters to you," she said. "As my kids get older I think about what type of person I want to be and how you live your life that way."

One of her most recent assignments was moderating the debate with Senators John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama.

"We talked about faith and values. It was incredibly interesting I thought because you really don't get the candidates talking about those issues in a personal way often," she said. "There was a combination of deep religious questions along with some other platform-related questions. Often politicians hold back from talking about their faith and values because they don't want to alienate anyone."

O'Brien asked one of the candidates what they prayed for. Later in the press conference, a student asked her what she prayed for.

"I pray for trying to find what I was put on this earth to do," she said. "The times that I feel lost and confused are when I'm not really sure what I am supposed to be doing. I felt very much in my element when I was covering Hurricane Katrina. I felt good at doing it and it was effective reporting."

After the press conference, she answered additional questions from Spalding Catholic High School students of Granville.