Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Anchor sees a thirst for information
NEW YORK — Norah O’Donnell has seen a lot during her career, including sexual assault in the military, the Las Vegas mass shooting and interviews with world leaders. Yet, the CBS Evening News anchor says she’s “never covered a year in my entire journalistic career like this last year.”
From the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd protests to the contested 2020 presidential election, O’Donnell says “journalism is more important than ever.”
“There’s a thirst for information because there’s so much going on in the world,” O’Donnell said.
This interview with O’Donnell has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: As one of the most prominent women in TV news, do you see yourself as a role model for other young women?
A: Well, I hope that we’ve made a difference. This year, we’ve tried to cover the stories that people care most about and affect their lives. And we certainly saw since the beginning of the global pandemic, people were hungry for news about what is COVID-19, how is the coronavirus spread? We’ve essentially not only played the role of a news organization, I think we’ve played the role in some ways of a public health organization imparting real health news.
It was very important to me that we be there in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd to be there for his memorial to see and talk to people about why they were so outraged . ... We went to Houston for his funeral … because this was a seminal moment in American history not to be eclipsed by a global pandemic, that this movement for racial justice in America should not be eclipsed even by a global pandemic.
Q: Did you expect COVID-19 to be in the news for this much time?
A: It’s still leading for nearly a year, in fact, it’s worse than it was, much worse than when we started covering the pandemic. I mean, we were talking about in the beginning, hundreds of deaths a day. Now we have around 4,000 deaths a day. I don’t think any of us could have imagined that it would continue to spread so rapidly and so dangerously. … Now we’re going to be covering (this story) for the next year because it’s going to be how to roll out the vaccine.
Q: Tell me what you learned about your family on “Finding Your Roots.”
A: I guess the one story that particularly resonates with me is my mom’s mom, my grandmother … who grew up in Northern Ireland, Protestant-controlled Northern Ireland. A Catholic who had to walk through barbed fence at the age of 12 to work every day in a linen factory. … I can’t imagine my 12-year old having to go to work every morning and not to school in order to support her eight brothers and sisters and her parents. And so those kinds of experiences sear something into someone.
Jan. 19 birthdays: Actor Tippi Hedren is 91. Journalist Robert MacNeil is 90. Actor Michael Crawford is 79. Singer Dolly Parton is 75. Singer Dewey Bunnell is 69. Actor Katey Sagal is 67. Comedian Paul Rodriguez is 66. Actor Shawn Wayans is 50. Actor Marsha Thomason is 45. Actor Jodie Sweetin is 39. Actor Briana Henry is 29.