John Goes to Washington

Yes.
 
I know.  It's a rare occurrence.  But I needed to make a correction to the last item I posted.
 
"Why didn't you use the edit function to change the error?"
 
That's simple.  It's because this is more dramatic.
 
 
CORRECTION
 
I'm going to down here in DC for another month.  I know.  I know.  You miss me, and you're really excited for me to come home. 
 
I understand.  I can't fault you for that.
 
Not that I would miss you, if you were gone.  But I realize that I'm easily missed.
 
In all seriousness, though, I will continue working at the NBC News Washington Bureau through January.  I'll spend the holidays with my family, and then, I'll be headed south again. 
 
But this time, I'm going to stop before I get to Virginia.
 
On the first Monday of the new year, it'll be back to the slave labor of fall 2009.  Well, maybe it's closer to an indentured servitude.
 
Whatever, either way, I like it enough to come back for another month of it. 
 
 
"They like me.  They really like me." 
 
Well, I don't know that that's true. But they must like me at least a little, if they invited me back.
 
And I got a kiss on the cheek from a network news correspondent (You have to guess who. But I'll give you a hint: it wasn't David Gregory)  before I left work today.  How many of you can say that? Hmm?
 
Boo-yeah!
 
I think that's the first time I've ever used the word, "boo-yeah," but it seemed fitting for the occasion.

It's my last day as an intern at the NBC News Washington Bureau.
 
Or as I prefer to say, my final day as a "free sample" to the General Electric Corp.
 
While speaking to Rich Gardella--one of the Investigative Unit's producers--inside the green bricked walls of NBC's Nebraska Ave NW building, he told me to enjoy my last day.  To do whatever I wanted (and legally could get away with).
 
My decision as to what I should do might surprise you, especially if you frequent this blog.  I chose to take this time, sitting in my brightly lit office surrouned by tapes and manilla folders and legal pads, with a little more than five hours left as an NBC News intern, to blog. 
 
Yes, I know it is pretty surprising.  I'll be first to admit that I did a poor job of maintaining this blog.  It was a great idea, but I just couldn't keep it up-to-date.
 
I generally spent most of my days here in front of computer... for hours.  By the time I made it home from work--4001 Nebraska Ave NW to the Tenleytown Metro, riding the Red Line train to Metro Center where I transferred to the Blue Line train, got off at Van Dorn Street in Alexandria, Va and walked up Van Dorn St. to my apartment--it was time for bed.  That aside you just read through, my journey home, took a chunk of time out of every day.   
 
I left my apartment at 9:20 a.m. every morning and usually didn't get home until 8:30 p.m.
 
It might be my only complaint about this Washington experience. 
 
 
The Experience
 
Fall 2008 will be forever cached in my memory as the best of my many undergraduate semesters.  Not to take anything away from the work I've done in Fredonia.  But Washington is just a different--and honestly, more exciting--world. 
 
When I "google" my brain with the key words, "best college experience" AND "sober," my time as an intern with the NBC News Investigative Unit will be at the top of the results page.  And let me tell you, it's going to receive a lot of hits...
 
Network News is an exciting business. I've learned what it is, and what it isn't.  The networks provide a powerful and important service to this country, but it has it's limitations.  
 
Those of you who have worked with me in the past know that I tend to be long-winded and that I enjoy producing and consuming long-form news/documentary pieces.  
 
But when you're producing something for an evening news program, you're lucky if you get three minutes.  The people with whom I've been working, however, are extremely talented at communicating a message in the small amount of time that they're given during a newscast.  
 
I'm very appreciative that I've had the opportunity to meet and work with such a talented group of people.  
 
And trust me, they're very skilled at doing many more things outside of communicating in short time.  
 
As an intern I've had the opportunity to observe and contribute to the production of investigave  television news reports from conception to completion.  I can only hope that, as I navigate the waters of the job market after graduation, I have a portion of the enormous skill set that I've seen displayed here by the producers and the correspondent on a daily basis.  
 
I think that I've learned more than I realize just by watching these people work on a daily basis.  
 
As I prepared for my semester in Washington and throughout the semester, family and friends have told me how lucky I was to be where I'm at.  How lucky I am to work in the shadows of some of the greatest broadcast journalists in the world.  How jealous they are that they never had that opportunity.  How, if they could go back and do it again, they would strive to be where I'm at.
 
My response: "Well, I'm just an intern."
 
Which is true, but I realize now that it's a gross understatement. 
 
The work usually wasn't glamorous, and it took a while to adjust from "News Director" to lowly intern.  But once I realized that this is where everybody starts.  That I was a big fish in a little sea at Fredonia.  That now I'm a guppy trying to swim across the Potomoc. I understood that my experience is one to be envied.  
 
I'm not bragging.  Yes, I worked hard to earn a position with NBC News.  But what I'm trying to do is to encourage you, my reader, to try.  To go for it.  
 
Contact Professor David Rankin on campus, who can get you into contact with Professor John Fitzpatrick from SUNY Brockport.  He coordinates the Washington Semester Program.  Getting into the program is the first step to landing a big internship.  
 
Once you're in, google and search your heart out.  Find internships that fit your skill set, internships that you're dying to have.  And if you play your cards right, you might land that spot you've always dreamed of.  
 
Like I said, being an intern isn't glamorous, but it's the first step towards the career goal that some might call a "pipe dream."
 
I say if you want to get there, go for it.  The people at the top had to first try.  
 
You can email me at johnmackowiakjr@gmail.com if you want more information about SUNY's Washington semester program.   
 
The program is more than an internship.  It's a Washington experience. And it's an experience that I wouldn't trade for the world--which is an overstatement to rival my understatement.
 
I mean if someone said to you, "You can either have a great experience in the nation's capital, or you can own the world," admit it, you'd probably take the world.
 
This semester has been a great experience, and I encourage all of you to look into this program.
 
 
To end, I just want to say thanks to all of the people I've met down here, especially the people that I've spent hours and hours working with--Lisa Myers, Rich Gardella, Jim Popkin, Amna Nawaz and Aram Roston.

Where were you when the twin towers fell? When the Berlin Wall came down? When President Kennedy was assassinated?
 
Take a second to think about where you were on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at just a few minutes past 11 p.m. That's when most of the networks officially announced that history had been made.
 
Senator Barack Obama became President-Elect Barack Obama.
 
Some pundits were quick to say that the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been fulfilled. Many thought that they would never see it happen in their lifetimes. It was a victory for race relations throughout the country.
 
The United States of America elected its first African American President.
 
I was sitting in the control room inside the NBC News Washington Bureau.

 
 
 
Election Night from the Control Room
 
My chair was positioned in the back of the room, but it was a front row seat to history. Television monitors were spread across the wall in front of me. Cameras were focused on events taking place across the country. Compelling footage was constantly rolling into the Washington control room.
 
Images from Chicago's Grant Park, as it filled with Americans from every walk of life. Excitement was written across the faces of the adoring Obama supporters. As state after state was called for the junior senator from Illinois, the smiles got wider and wider. The diverse crowd of hopeful voters roared when CNN called Pennsylvania for their candidate.
 
Hopes remained high at the Republican headquarters in Arizona. Hank Williams Jr. strummed his guitar and sang his heart out for the gathering of McCain fans. The battleground states were falling in the Obama victory column, but the gathering refused to give up hope.
 
An NBC correspondent in Kenya set up his video phone to capture images of Kenyans anticipating the possible presidency of a man whose ancestry is rooted in their nation.
 
Another reporter was in Wasilla, Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin's hometon was surprisingly dead, but maybe the camera just wasn't positioned in the right spot.
 
While all this was taking place, while the nation was witnessing history, I was (loosely) contributing to a major network's coverage of a pivotal night in American history.
 
Most of NBC's election coverage came from “Election Plaza” at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York, but the Washington Bureau still had an important duty to fulfill.
 
As you might have noticed if you were watching, at 22 and 52 minutes past each hour, the Network would take a break and let the local affiliate stations take over the airwaves.
 
It was the local newsrooms' opportunity to notify viewers of the results most important to the community. Who's leading in the congressional race? Who's going to pick up that seat in the Senate or city council, whatever the affiliate thought the audience needed to know.
 
However, some affiliate stations are so small that they have no news operations. No newsroom. No local news coverage. Nothing.
 
That means that somebody has to fill that void when the network anchors take a break. Otherwise, a decent sized chunk of the audience will have to watch a blank screen for 7 ½ minutes.
 
So, that's what we were doing. Filling the gap for the network.
 
“Literally dozens of people will be watching,” NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams joked prior to anchoring the “fill the gap” coverage.
 
My role in the production? To be ready to lend a hand to the show producer whenever he needs it. It's not glamorous work, but it could have been critical.
 
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it. The show producer was pretty “low maintenance,” and he didn't need that much help.
 
Truth be told, he was so busy trying to make sure that the production went smoothly that he really didn't have much time to even ask for help. It was an easy going gig for me, but high stress for everyone else.
 
It was an interesting place to watch the election results. I feel privileged to have been able to sit in that swivel chair in front of a computer screen and a wall of television monitors for five and a half hours while history was made.

 
 
 
Yeah, I took Survey of Calculus.
 
 
Over the past few elections, the West Coast has been called the “Left Coast.” It makes liberals cringe and conservatives smirk.
 
Former Democratic Presidential Nominees John Kerry, Al Gore and Bill Clinton colored California, Oregon and Washington a thick, solid blue.
 
Prior to the West Coast polls closing at 11 p.m. EDT, the NBC political team had put 207 electoral votes in the Obama column. And as I'm sure you're aware, my dear, well-educated and wise reader, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the White House.
 
So let's do the math.
 
California has 55 electoral votes.
 
Oregon voters control 7 electoral votes.
 
And Washingtonians decide who gets 11 electoral votes.
 
Okay, so 55 plus 7 plus 11... that equals. Wait, let me get my calculator. It's, umm.. 73! It's 73. 55+7+11=73.
 
But what does that mean? Since the West votes with the Democrats so consistently, it was likely that most of the networks would call the states for Obama as soon as the polls closed.
 
Wait a second. I think we need to go through some more math.
 
There are 73 West Coast electoral votes. Add those to the 207 that Obama already had, according to NBC News, and you get—HOLY SMOKES!—280 electoral votes.
 
And 280 electoral votes equals a new president—that one's more like algebra.
 
So to recap, if NBC called enough states in Obama's favor that his electoral vote count, prior to polls closing in the West, totaled 207, then that means that, as soon as the 11 p.m. struck the clock, most news organizations would officially declare Obama the victor.
 
What I'm saying is that Obama-supporting mathematicians who have faith in exit polling popped the champagne earlier than the rest of the Obamaniacs.
 
 
 
TO BE CONTINUED...

 
Election Night ran into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Check this blog on Monday for my thoughts as Senator Obama officially became the President-Elect, for a description of the scene outside the White House and for some post-election reaction.

The goal of this blog is to be part politics blog, part travel blog and part DC survival guide.

I'll keep track of any interesting political happenings taking place here in Washington or on the campaign trail.

I'll let you know what I see and what you should see. Everything from government buildings to museums to concert venues.

And I'll keep you posted on how I survive inside the Beltway.

Read consistently, comment excessively and return often. Check this blog like you would creep your crush’s facebook page.

More to come!