Shhh. NBC News superstar lives in Houston
NBC network reporter Janet Shamlian got the phone call about 11:30 a.m. one day last week.
Arianne Zucker, the “Days of Our Lives” soap-opera star who greets Donald Trump as he gets off the bus with Billy Bush in the infamous “Access Hollywood” video, was willing to talk to the press.
NBC News would get the first interview. The first thing NBC did was call Shamlian.
“We want you to do the interview with Zucker. There’s a ticket waiting for you at the airport on the 1 p.m. flight to Los Angeles. We need you to get there fast.”
Shamlian was at home, wearing “yoga pants and T-shirt.” She could make the 1 p.m. flight if she hustled out of the house, didn’t hit traffic to the airport and breezed through airport security.
She was the last person on the plane before they closed the door. She wrote her questions and prepared for the interview during the flight. After landing, a car raced her to NBC News in Universal City. She did the interview with Zucker. NBC had its scoop.
In June, she was sent to cover the terrorist/hate-crime attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. A month later, she was the first U.S. reporter on the scene of the terrorist attack in Nice, France, reporting live on MSNBC with anchor Brian Williams via her cellphone, holding it up like a selfie.
In August, she was NBC’s reporter on the scene in the Louisiana floods.
During her career, she’s covered the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf, Hurricane Katrina and hundreds more stories and interviews for the network. Her reports appear on “NBC Nightly News,” the “Today” show and MSNBC.
Shamlian calls herself an “old-fashioned gumshoe reporter.”
“It’s the best job in the news world, but it’s the most intense,” Shamlian said. “I may be called to do one story a week or eight stories a week. You can put me on a hurricane story, or I can sit down with a woman who’s suffered a tragedy. I have a mini-studio in my house, but I can be ready in 15 minutes to leave for the airport for an assignment.”
What news viewers around the world, the U.S. and probably most of Houston don’t know — this real-life “Brenda Starr, Reporter” lives in Houston. She started working for Channel 11 some 25 years ago and never left. She works out of her home, on streets, in floods and airports. She’s married to Le Melcher, and they have five children.
Tell me about covering the terrorist attack in Nice.
“I happened to be in Nice on vacation with my family. We were coming home the next day, starting with a 6 a.m. flight to Frankfort for our connection back to Houston. We went to bed early that night. I have two phones, one for personal use and one for work. I set the alarm for 4 a.m. on both phones just to be safe.
“Around midnight, both of my phones started ringing. I figured it had to be something very serious. It was NBC. They knew I was in France and asked if I was anywhere near Nice. I said that I was in Nice, and they told me about the attack. They arranged for a car to pick me up, and I was on the Promenade des Anglais, where the attack occurred, by 1 a.m. — the first American journalist there.
“It was the most horrific story I’ve ever covered for several reasons. When I got there, there were dead bodies on the ground. Some were covered with sheets from a hotel, but limbs were sticking out, you could see purses on the ground and bicycles tipped over next to the bodies. And the sheets were bloody.
“The attack came after the fireworks ending the Bastille Day celebration, so the street was packed. That’s why people couldn’t get out of the way of the truck speeding toward them. Also, my family has attended this event many times, and we could have been there. It was such a senseless and tragic event. Of everything I’ve covered, this has affected me emotionally.”
Shamlian always has two bags packed, waiting in her closet, ready to leave at a moment’s notice for an assignment. One bag has “nice” clothes, the other is packed for bad weather. “I cover a lot of hurricanes.”
Aha, finally I may get an answer. I asked her, “How come we always see reporters standing in floodwater, warning viewers not to stand in floodwater because it’s dangerous — there may be snakes, electrical wires and bacteria in there? It’s ridiculous.”
Her answer: “I’ve been asking myself that same question for 25 years.”
OK, so how did I get this scoop on Miss Scoop? Well, I’ve sort of known Shamlian since we both started working in Houston around the same time. She was a TV reporter, and I came here as a TV columnist.
But the real reason: 10 years ago, I was the manager of the Biscuits in the Minors Division of West U Little League. Because my kid was a lefty and would play first base, I had to draft a right-handed fielder who could cover shortstop and pitch.
“With their first selection in the 2006 Little League draft, the Biscuits select Max Melcher.”
I took Shamlian’s kid. It was a smart pick, too. Max was a terrific player. His father, Le, often came to practice and helped out.
The funny thing about Max was, I don’t remember him ever saying a word. I do remember him laughing when I went out to the mound for a strategy session (really just to calm the kids down). I always hit them with a joke. The one that never missed:
“Why don’t cannibals eat clowns?” Answer: They taste funny.
Then I’d tell them that we were going to Baskin-Robbins after the game, and I pretended to take down what flavor cone they wanted. We won a lot of games that year. Nineand 10-year-olds hit better when they’re thinking about chocolate chip ice cream and not worrying about striking out.
What’s my former shortstop up to now?
“He’s a junior at Texas A&M, and he’s killing it in the engineering school. He loves flying. He’s got his pilot’s license and instrument rating. I’m speechless. He’s making the rest of the family look like slackers,” Shamlian said.
And he knows why cannibals don’t eat clowns.
Reporter Janet Shamlian keeps two bags packed at her Houston home so that at a moment’s notice, she can go anywhere in the world to cover breaking news.