I have interviewed countless famous and infamous people over four decades on television. I write about many of them in my upcoming memoir, Confessions of an Investigative Reporter: Stories I Couldn’t Tell on TV. Coming in May from Koehler Books.
My thoughts on my interviews with everyone from the “Son of Sam” serial killer David Berkowitz, to Dizzy Gillespie (Google him, kids) to Donald Trump are in there.
But you won’t see many photos of me with famous people.
While I told approximately 10,000 stories since 1977, I saved a grand total of four photos of me with someone famous. Three are with Berkowitz. One is with, of all people, Colonel Harland Sanders, who started Kentucky Fried Chicken.
This was a conscious decision I made long ago. I thought it was unprofessional and fawning to ask my interviewee to pose for a photo. He or she was not my friend. It was part of my job and they wanted their message or side of the story to get out. I also didn’t want to ask them for any favors, however small. You may disagree and say I was being too old school or tight ass or whatever you want to call it. I just never liked asking them to pose for a photo.
Even if I did want one, for the first 15 or so years of my career, no one had cell phones, and my photographers did not carry around a Polaroid or any other type of still camera. They had just their video cameras.
Here is how I ended up with the four photos: In around 1978, Colonel Sanders was in Utica, New York, to plug the grand opening of a new KFC store. I was a reporter at WUTR-TV, my first on-air job, and assigned to interview him. After the interview, his publicist asked if I would pose with him and I did. I saw no harm in it. I was 24 and thought it was cool. I wouldn’t do it now if Sanders were alive. It would appear that I was supporting his business or a fan of it. Of course, by reporting on his new store, that was a free commercial. But I had no say as a rookie reporter, and the station wanted KFC to buy commercials.
The other photos I have were taken during my prison interview with Berkowitz in May of 2002. The promotions manager at my station asked me to have stills taken showing me with the serial killer. This was a big interview and the station wanted to put ads in the New York newspapers to promote it. So my cameraman took several photos.
I was recently at a colleague’s surprise birthday party and his wife made a beautiful collage of him with many famous people. I felt a pang of jealousy, but only for a moment.
###
If you would like to receive updates on my book, personal appearances and speaking engagements, you can sign up below. Thanks for stopping by.
I would love to hear your suggestions for my future blogs. Please send them to me by completing the Suggestion Box form below.
