Celebrating Lifetimes in Local News: News 12's Doug Geed & Danielle Campbell

FMC Fast Chat takes you inside the news so you can be in the know in 30 minutes. Hosted by Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement, Fast Chat features notables in news, media, and business.

To give you some insight into the work of the Fair Media Council, this is a special bonus episode of FMC Fast Chat. I'm Jaci Clement. What you are about to hear is part of the program from the Fair Media Council's annual Folio Awards, where we honor the best in news and social media. In this portion of the program, 2 local news icons received the Fair Media Council's Lifetime Achievement Awards in Local News. So listen now to the remarks from Doug Ead and Danielle Campbell, who have each served the Long Island community with distinction for more than 30 years. We open with the program already in progress as Christine Gede introduces her husband. I'm nervous. I am the only one here without that pedigree behind me. I'm not a journalist. I'm not a news reporter. I'm not a producer. I'm not— I'm the wife. And so I— so when the wife is asked to come and speak about her husband, it's very, very difficult to put pen to paper. So I'm the only one here without prepared remarks. Today, I speak from the heart. I am blessed to have walked this walk with Doug for the past 40-plus years, 38 of them married. But we started together at WALK, where he honed his skills as a budding journalist. And walked the halls of the Mineola press room with some amazing people and again honed his skills to tell a story, to gather the facts, to report the news, and all without pictures. He had no video. It was all the word, the spoken word. And so he took that Career, award-winning career in radio, and followed me to cable. I guess I was the real deal. And we jumped on something pretty special, the two of us. As we joined the Dolan team and started something very special for Long Island, which was— became News 12 Long Island. He was a trailblazer and tried to embark on special things of his own, looking for areas that he thought was going to change the scope of news and news reporting. So we went out in the deep, dark depths of the East End and started the East End Bureau. I'm very, very proud of that. And that's one of the things that I guess Doug is going to become most Known for is his reporting on the East End, but he's done so much more. He honed a craft of making news manageable, to take news and make it wholesome and household. He took Albany and made it a table— Dinner table conversation. Because it was so unapproachable before, but he literally dumbed it down for the rest of us so that suddenly the Albany budget became something we could talk about. And teaching was something incredibly special for Doug. He, he liked to teach. I think it's kind of a— maybe it's a missed calling, but he always did like to teach and always did like to delve in to not only help us as viewers and listeners and readers. But he also tried to support his colleagues. And I heard a lot about that from many of you who came up here and spoke already, that your responsibility as journalists is not just being you. It's really out there to help us be us, to tell that story that we can learn, we can grow, we can form opinions. How about that? How novel. The opinion of your journalism, your reporting, is to help us form our own. Pretty novel. But Doug continued— oh, by the way, one of the things he's very, very proud of when we first went to work at WALK was he was just a recent graduate from what is the oldest journalism school in the country, the University of Missouri. MIZ.

M-I-Z.

Thank you, Mike Del Judice. Thank you, thank you, thank you. M-I-Z-Z-O-U. A very, very proud graduate of the University of Missouri. And he took that proud pride and stretched it along his entire career, helping those who were dabbling in the art of television news to really bring in a spin of journalism. That commitment, that oath, that dedication of fact-finding and telling a story. So after we left WALK and went on to Cablevision, he became— I kind of stepped aside as the role as the partner, and he had so many more others that walked side by side with him, with one of the people that I called the best anchor team ever in the history of Long Island journalism, Danielle Campbell. When Doug and Danielle were on that set together, it was pure magic. It was pure magic. And I miss it to this day. And an incredibly well-deserved honor. And then as he went out to the East End, he grabbed another partner, Which is one of the most honored and award-winning photojournalists in the history of the world, is Mike Del Giudice. NBC News photographer. And he became the other partner. So he had a work wife, he had a work brother, he had a work everybody. And Doug learned to embrace everyone and bring everybody in to the table with him. But Rich just mentioned, and others mentioned, that it's not just who you are on camera, on the byline, on the radio, but it's who you are as a person. And I just have to say, Doug is an amazing man of faith. He has brought that into our lives every single day of the week, and we're very proud of that. Doug, we have 3 children. Kyle, Kendall, and Kieran. He's an amazing papa for our grandson. He was a Little League coach. He was regular on the lacrosse field for our daughter and is an avid, avid sideline football coach for my son's football team that he coaches over at Lehigh. He is a dedicated man and not just a journalist. He's a whole person. He's a whole person that just loves on a daily basis to give back. He loves on a daily basis to tell the story. He loves on a daily basis to show everybody that it's not just what we do here in our jobs. He used to say that I'm very fortunate that millions of people get to watch me do my job every day. And if you were a plumber and we put a camera on you and a million people got to watch you every day, they'd be praising you too. But he has done so much with his career. I'm very proud to say he was the first Emmy Award-winning journalist for News 12. His first Emmy Award was a piece called Pecker Problems. And to dispel any rumors, when Doug won that Emmy Award that night, I went into labor with our first son, our first child. So that's to dispel any rumors that pecker problems was a problem. And he also won an award for city and state, or was named as one of the 50 most influential people on Long Island. And I thought that that was very telling because the work he does and what he does on a regular basis, either be it journalism or what he does in our church or what he does in the Little League field or what he does out in the community, those are beneficial to people, to all people. It's not just what he does on the TV, it's what he does every single day of his life. And with that, I would just like to say that I am beyond honored and beyond proud to introduce my husband, my friend, my hero, Doug Eadie.

Thank you. Thank you very, very much. One thing I'm terrible at is dancing, and you just saw that. I didn't know which way to go. It's a great honor to be here and a great Honor to share with Pat. He's just a legend and a giant. And I never got that last paycheck, by the way, as a stringer. So I'm still waiting for that, if we could take care of that. My dear friend Danielle, more about her later. And Tim Scheld. It's just an amazing profession. Chris mentioned teaching and me wanting to be a teacher. It's funny. University of Missouri on the journalism school is a big archway and it says, the schoolmaster of the people. And that always stuck in my mind. You know, we are— I think we're public servants. You know, our viewers are the people that we're to serve and to teach. And it's a great honor and an awesome one. And just being fair and accurate and credible all the time. Set your ego aside and do what you have to do. So it's Lifetime Achievement. I was going to talk about my lifetime. So I'm 64 and a half. I have to squish that into 10 minutes. I grew up in Syosset in the early '70s. I remember having a baseball catch with one of my friends in the front yard, and there was some guy walking around the neighborhood going door to door. Turns out he was from a place called Cablevision, and he was trying to pitch this new concept. We'll take a cable and bring it directly to your house. You can take down that ugly antenna. And you can see all your TV shows without commercials. You can watch movies and it's $6 a month. And I remember that very, very distinctly. And I don't know why, it's just so vivid. I can picture being there right now. But I just feel like sometimes God like taps you on the shoulder and just said, hey, just pay attention for a couple minutes because I always remember that. So I graduate high school, I go to Missouri and I wanted to be in radio. Radio back then was awesome. Every radio station had a news department, news director, assistant news director, morning, evening anchors, very exciting. Loved that and wanted to be part of that. But when you graduate in 1980, you, you know, there's no internet, there's nothing. So I remember going to the library, spent like 2 hours looking at a reference book, which is like an encyclopedia, writing down every radio station in Long Island, the metro area, the name, the news director, the phone number, the address, sent out like 50 cassette tapes to all of them. A couple of weeks later, I started making phone calls. And, you know, mostly it was like, don't need anybody, hang up, don't need anybody. The reference book also wasn't totally up to date. You know, I'd ask for the news director and like, who? And I'd say the name of— he left like 3 years ago. Okay. I mentioned one guy and they said, I'm so sorry, he died last year. I'm so sorry. Never mind. And then I remember calling WOR, giant radio station, very credible, terrific. Mom listened to it, Rambling with Gambling, Bill Corbell, the whole thing. And Ridge Leight was the news director, giant. I asked for him, never thought he'd pick up, picked up right away. I said, hi, my name is Doug Geed. I just graduated, sent a tape. And he said, a little pause, and he said, Doug, I got your tape. He said, you know, you're going to tell me that you got great grades in school and you did so well at the college radio station, maybe you were the news director. That doesn't mean a damn in New York. And he wasn't nasty about it. He was just being very blunt. He said, Missouri is a great school. He said, go back out there. Get a job in St. Louis or Kansas City. Get a couple years under your belt. Come back, and we'll talk again. And I, you know, I was sad, obviously. But you know, I took a break. I walked upstairs to my bedroom. I remember laying down, trying to clear my head. And I'm like, all right, you know, maybe I have to do that. But let's give it another shot. My very, very next phone call was WALK. Asked for Frank Brinker, the news director. Immediately, yeah, hi. I liked your tape. He said, you know, I need someone a couple days a week. Can you come in? Came in that next day or whenever. And that's where I met Chris. It was a great distraction. I'm so nervous on my first job interview and I'm looking at this beautiful girl and I'm like, holy— but I got the job and I got the woman. So that is— That's the good thing. Took much, much longer getting her than the job. So I loved working radio. It was terrific. Great learning experience, the writing, everything. But 5 years later, Chris, who's doing government affairs for Cablevision, tells me that the half-hour newscast that they're doing at Cablevision, they wanna make 24 hours. So I put in, long story short, I had no resume tape, I'm in radio. So I paid this cameraman friend of mine $20 to just have me talk on camera. I mean, it was terrible, but I got the job. And John Hillis was the first news director there. And months later, he said, oh, hands down, yours was the worst resume tape ever in my career. But he said, I knew you'd learn TV. He said, what I needed is that you cover town board meetings, and you would know what's news and what's not. You could go to the Suffolk County Legislature, which is very complicated back then. He said, I knew you would learn the TV part. And it was A blast working at News 12. In the beginning, you know, it was a little rough. It was a combination of retired old guys from the city and young kids who didn't know what they were doing, and that was the mix. But it was a great learning experience. Long Islanders embraced this immediately. But I'll also say, for those young people, the goal was put together a resume tape, send it to the city, and become like the Long Island correspondent for 2 or 4 or 7. That was the ideal job. And Pat, plug your ears, but that's what I did. I sent out tapes, but for whatever reason, it just didn't, you know, didn't pan out. But I have to tell you, looking back on that, I'm so grateful that that happened. It was just a terrific career at 12. And I'm sorry, I just got to go back a second to radio. After the interview with Frank Brinca, it was 2 days later, the phone rang. And he said, Doug, it's Frank. I'd like to offer you a job. He said, it's 3, 4 days a week. And I said, great. The pay was great. I think it was $4 an hour. I'm like, oh my God. I asked about benefits. He said, what is that? But I was so excited. Now I hung up the phone and I'm walking upstairs to my bedroom and I didn't even make it to the top of the stairs, I swear. And the phone rang and I picked it up. Hi, I'm looking for Doug Geed. This is Doug. He goes, hi Doug, it's Shelley Sunstein from WPLJ. Which was a giant of a radio station back then, rock and roll, but they still had a news department. I listened to it all the time. And I'm like, hi. And she said, I got your tape. I like it. I really need someone like fill in like right now. Are you available? And I said, Shelley, I like 2 minutes ago, I just took a job. And she said, oh, you're kidding. And she said, is it full time? And I said, no, it's a couple days a week. And she said, okay. She said, I can give you 2, 3 days, but there's a lot of turnover here and I can almost guarantee you Full time, and I said, "Yeah, I I said I just I feel like I just gave my word. I can't." And she said, "Okay, what what's the radio station if you don't mind me asking?" And I said, "WALK." And she goes, "Where's that?" And I said, "Patchogue." And she said, "Patchogue, Long Island." And I said, "Yeah." And it was just three or four seconds of silence, which which in the broadcast business is like a half an hour. And she said, you do know we're in New York City? And I said, yeah, I said, I listen to you every day. You're great. I love the station. But I don't know, I just, I told them I'd start later this week. And it was more silence. And I don't know if she was saying like, wow, that's very honorable, or like, what an idiot, I would never hire this kid. But I go back to News 12. And I just look at that career, the family atmosphere there was absolutely amazing. And that it all emanated from Chuck Dolan, the founder of the company, the founder of News 12. An amazing man, just a giant, such a visionary. And I always have like a Mount Rushmore of Long Island in my mind. And number one is Robert Moses. I mean, we're not here at this beach or any state park or any of the highways without Moses. William Levitt basically invented the suburbs. Leroy Grumman, giant corporation that everybody knew someone that worked there. But honestly, the 4th person I'd put up there is Chuck Dolan. I mean, he changed Long Island media, but media around the world. The guy invented cable TV, founder of HBO and News 12. And how many News 12-like stations are there across the country? That's incredible. But the best part of him is his humility, his dedication to family, and that included all of us. And Chris will tell you and others who worked at that company, It was a big corporation, no doubt about it. But I always felt like I was working for like an ice cream shop, a mom-and-pop ice cream shop in my neighborhood. That's the atmosphere you had. Chris mentioned we have 3 kids. Yes, I coached Kyle's Little League team from T-ball all the way up through his teenager, managed that team every single year. Our youngest played softball, same thing, managed her team every year, kindergarten, T-ball all the way I made 99% of their back-to-school night, meet the teachers, their concerts, their school plays. And that was made possible because of what I had at News 12. And I wouldn't change that. I mean this, for all the money in the world, I wouldn't trade any of those memories in. So I just thank God for that. I thank God that Frank Brinca got to the phone before Shelley Sunstein did. And I think of, in my mind, maybe Shelley's about to call me, and I would've taken that job. Of course, I'm not an idiot. Maybe she's on the phone and someone came in. Shelley, you got a second? Yeah, yeah, what's up? And maybe that was that 90 seconds where Frank slid in. I don't know, that could be. And I thank God for those stupid, ignorant, short-sighted TV news directors who rejected my resume tapes through the years. Just had that bitterness I needed to get out. And I'm standing here and they're unemployed. Okay, I'm relieved. I'm a free man. But I really do thank God for being in this profession, which is amazing. It's such an incredible honor working with so many of you. Mike back there, the co-founder of The East End Show, which is in its 26th year. It's like the 5th longest running TV show. It's amazing. General Hospital, The Simpsons, Gunsmoke we beat a few years ago, but But, but as Tim mentioned, you know, we all learn from each other. You know, it's a weird profession. We're competitors, but we also share and we also learn from each other. And I've had a blast. So thank you all very, very much for this honor. Thank you to the Council. Thank you, Jacqui. Thank you. It is me again because I get the great honor of introducing the 4th Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Danielle Campbell. For this, I need notes. So of the many, many, many, many Danielle Campbell bloopers there are, I wanted to talk about this one. If you remember the early days of News 12, beginning of the newscast was like the New York Philharmonic was playing. It was like, from Great Neck on the west to Montauk on the east, this is News 12. And then it would show the studio, a wide shot, and the anchors at the desk, and it would push in. So one morning, that's the situation. Camera's pushing in, and Danielle with a big, beautiful Danielle Campbell-y smile, so happy. She's like, good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us on this Friday. I looked at her, I said, actually, today's Monday. I know. And, you know, after you're in the business a long time, you know your viewers, you know, you love your audience. I know at that moment there was a tiny fraction who's just like, who is that? But I guarantee you 99% of the people just said, I love Danielle. And that is the mystery and the magic of Danielle Campbell. We had a lot of fun. We were a great anchor team. I adored it for 12-plus years, I think. Danielle said we always— the chemistry. She'd always say, stop being so German, because I was, you know, I'm very like, you know, it's just me. I have to be in studio for an 8 o'clock newscast at 7:40, and 8:02 is the local news, and 8:11 is the weather. And she's like, you know, welcome to the party, everybody, you know, having fun. And she always called us Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. That's 2 Lucille Ball references in this, this luncheon. That's amazing. But it would kind of be like, Danielle, what did you do now? She's like, I want to be on TV. But it worked. And that is the fun side of Danielle that we make fun of. But there is another side of her, which is why we're here. And she is an amazing journalist. Scribbled down some notes. 5 Emmys, 2 Edward R. Murrows, which is fantastic, and too many local, state, and regional awards. To mention. But I just wanted to read this because Danielle was just inducted into the Long Island Hall of Fame, the Journalism Hall of Fame, and I was asked to write a letter in support of her. So I just wanted to read what I wrote. Danielle is a well-known and beloved figure across Long Island, and while her engaging smile and personality may be the first thing that comes to people's minds, Danielle is an excellent storyteller. It can be seen in everything from her short stories involving innovative techniques in the classroom, To many in-depth, multi-part series she's done on such things as Long Islanders traveling to Haiti to help in recovery efforts after a devastating earthquake. Her writing is compelling, personal, poetic, and somehow, even while telling a dark story, uplifting. As a lifelong Long Islander, Danielle was always able to add a personal touch to all of the stories we told on air, and viewers knew that she was able to identify with their plight. Finally, what I think makes Danielle worthy of this great honor is the way she handles herself with the people we serve, our viewers. She's a kind and warm-hearted person who will listen at great lengths to people as they talk about whatever the situation is that caused the media to get involved in their everyday lives. And no matter what story she's covering, she handles it with kindness and fairness. In these toxic times that we now live in, where the noble profession of journalism itself is often seen as the enemy, She is a breath of fresh air. And that's the truth. With all due respect and apologies to my dozens of co-anchors that I've had through the years, Danielle, you were always my favorite. So come on up and just keep in mind, today is Friday.

Thank you so much. Ah, I'm shaking like a leaf. I didn't know Doug loved me that much, actually. And I'm laughing because the bloopers— I don't know, should I tell that one?

President Bush?

This is a tough crowd. You can take it. The copy— Doug Two-Shot, Doug and I, the copy read, how would you like to wake up? Well, it was about the President Bush doll, and it was available for Christmas. So I said, and Doug had to finish the second line, which I don't know if he did. So I said, how would you like to wake up with a president under your bush? But the best part is that it was a two-shot, and Doug's eyebrows, I swear, I swear, made a triangle.

They like went—

he was like horrified. And I just went, tree! Christmas tree! The Christmas tree! I had a few. I had a few. All right. Um, you know, Doug's talking about being a teacher, and he, uh— I'm sorry if that was off-color. I, um— but Doug would love to hold writing seminars. As anchors, we were required to hold writing seminars. For the staff. And Doug loved to teach us all about hamlets, villages, towns, making sure that we all knew what we were talking about. You know, Huntington Bay is a village, and, you know, different places. Thank you, Doug, so much. We've had so much fun. It's an unknown story, but he has a list, and he calls it, Why I Hate Danielle. I wish I had it in front of me. It's so funny. But, you know, like, I'll— we'll be, you know, talking about some story and I'll say, well, I'll go completely off script, getting, you know, the director yelling at me. And I'll just say, oh, did you— did you ever drive that kind of car? Or, you know, and he's like, what are you— So I was kind of a pain in the neck. So listen, thank you to the Fair Media Council, Jaci Clement, The good work you do and your mission, it does not go unnoticed. It is deeply appreciated by all of us here on Long Island, and I cannot say that enough. I want to thank the, uh, the Folio honorees. Of course, Tim Schell, for your kind words. Um, I am the biggest CBS News Radio 88 groupie you'll ever meet. So when I saw Rich Lamb, I was like, oh, Rich Lamb. And of course, Tim Sheld and Carol Dioria, who I worked with at 1010 WINS, and Craig Allen. You know, these are such radio greats. Pat Milton. I have a story about Pat later. Patty, yes, held my hand during labor through the phone. I have a little story. I'll tell a little bit later on, but Patty really taught me about not taking no for an answer as a journalist and getting the interview. She'd say, ask him again, try this way. Well, maybe you could do it, I don't know. Of course, my co-anchor Doug Geat. Who knew when I walked into that local radio station in Huntington, WGSM, one day I'd be standing here, Receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award. It was a summer afternoon. I passed that radio station and I thought, eh, that would be a fun summer job and work at a radio station. Pretty cool. I had been attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, so I was going to be an actor. But I happened to realize as I was attending these classes, it really wasn't me. It just didn't feel right. So there I was in the lobby of WGSN, and the receptionist said to me, oh, hi, you're here for the interview? And I said, yeah, sure. I was hired on the spot. I didn't even know what the job was. My job was to keep the overnight Muzak radio station WCTO on the air. I did this by threading the reel-to-reel machine every hour to make sure the music played nonstop. I also had a very important job, and the radio people will know this. I had to warm up the transmitter before the DJs arrived in the morning. I was, I was so nervous, I barely knew how to, you know, drive a car. I was probably like 19. There were times around 3:00 AM when I fell asleep, the dead air alarm would go off.

I scrambled.

I got the music back up and running, and I realize now that was very good training for these early morning news anchor jobs that came my way. It was a terrible job. It was my summer, overnight, weekends spent stuck. I was inside an empty building for 8 hours, no one around. But somehow I was hooked. My love of radio and news, I really believe, began though when I was a Brownie. Our troop went to WGSM, and I remember watching in awe the man behind the glass announcing on the radio that the Brownie troop from Huntington was at the station. I think I was 7. My birthday came up. I asked for a cassette recorder. And I interviewed everybody I could find, including the Santa Claus at the Walt Whitman Mall. He was like, who's this crazy person? Crazy girl. So WGSN was great. I had the opportunity to meet and learn from the talented staff, including news anchor, the beautiful, just like bigger than life Carol Silva. And she would come in, she would like swoop in and deliver the news flawlessly. Did it twice an hour, and she did it with such ease. I had to rip her wire copy, and I was a nervous wreck making sure they were in the right piles. But I realized, that's what I want to do. So I want to thank Carol— she's not here— but for inspiring me and supporting me throughout my career, including at that very beginning. At WGSN, I met Gary Dellabotti of Howard Stern fame. He and I both went to Adelphi. He helped me get an internship and eventually a job at the flagship radio station, 66 WMBC. Now, Gary, it was funny because I had to train him how to do the reel-to-reel and keep the Muzak station going. Craziness. At NBC, I was a production assistant. I later became assistant to the news director. Too many stories. share there. Just watch that Howard Stern movie, you'll get it. But let's say, just say that, you know, working at 66 with Stern and Imus was a far cry from my overnights at WGSN. On a side note, I do want to add that that's when I met the former New York State Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro. Thank you, Bernadette, for being here. Means so much. She appeared, I would say, almost daily on the Imus Show. God love her for that. With Imus. Um, and she was brilliant. She was able to just take all the quips and go toe-to-toe with Don Imus. And I know that he was so fond of you, and we were so fond of listening to you. With Imus in the morning. So thank you for your brilliance, your comedy, your fun. You're just such a warm, beautiful person. And the Castro family has done so much for Long Island. So thank you again for being here. I want to touch the mic. I'm used to holding— During my NBC days, I also freelanced at other Long Island radio stations. I had a sleeping bag in the car and I would spend nights on the floor at a radio station called WBAZ in Southold. I bounced around. I wrote for the New York Times. I was able to get on the Long Island section of the Times, and I was pretty proud of that. When 66 went off the air, I somehow miraculously landed a job as the Long Island correspondent for 1010 WINS News. A wild job because at this point, news was— on Long Island was breaking every other day. We had the Avianca plane crash, the tank lift, the Golub murders, the arrest of not one but two serial killers, Joel Rifkin, the infamous scandal and shooting involving, of course, Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher. And that one, it's so funny, I was in Florida and someone said, Oh, you're from Long Island. Do you know Joey Buttafuoco? It's my accent, right? That's— So I'm at WINS working in the Mineola press room, and that is when I met fellow honoree Pat Milton, who was working for the Associated Press, as you know. She was so kind and nice to me. She would explain to me what an arraignment was. She— I was still a little green, but really a perfect role model. Refined, tenacious, the real deal, a real reporter. She even brought me to the rendezvous in Riverhead where we had a few drinks with the detectives that were working on the case we were covering. I was like, we're really— we're doing this? I had a white wine spritzer. That was bad. Gotta go with the beer. During my time at WINS, I gave birth to my first child, and often I could not find a babysitter, and they'd be like, Campbell, get up! Mr. Barbecue's on fire! You gotta go! We need a story! So I'd pack the kid up, jump in the car, get my tape recorder, on the way to a mob hit in Holbrook, a hostage situation in Franklin Square, Now, the Franklin Square story with the hostage thing, my grandmother was on the way. So I grabbed Grandma, put her in the car with the kid.

It's true.

This is all true. And she saw the hostage team race by wearing riot gear and asked me, is this safe? Are we— So that's when I realized it's time for a change. So that change came as News 12 had just launched. They were about 2 years in the making, and now I had baby number 2. Yeah, Grandma was like, what's going on? I was just like, don't worry. We also— I brought Grandma to follow Al D'Amato around Island Park during During the HUD scandal. So that was kind of crazy too. So baby number 2 comes again, no babysitter. I get an interview with Mr. Pat Dolan. I have the baby in the basket, the other kids running around in the newsroom, and somehow I was hired. And I think it was because My resume had quite a few, you know, good stories. I somehow made it. I freelanced at News 12 for 10 years, and I also anchored. And what Doug said is so true. News 12 gave us the capability to cover real news, stories that mattered, but also be in the community we love and also take care of our families and be present to them. It was Such a gift. I talk a little bit more about News 12, but I want to thank the Dolan family and Mr. Chuck Dolan and Pat. They believed in us. They held us accountable. Pat demanded the integrity, the truth. They allowed us to pursue stories that mattered, and we did it with the relevance that we was needed. We didn't just tell the story about taxes, we told the story about how the taxes are affecting Susan Smith and her family who are trying to make ends meet. Um, I want to just also congratulate Pat Dolan with the launch of Newsday TV, which is very exciting and just a tremendous asset to the Long Island community and to all the colleagues and all my former colleagues that have Working there now, and just congratulations because again, like father like son or son like father, like son like father. Yeah, I mean, it's really it's a really wonderful asset to to the community, and I I thank you for that. So now I'm at News 12. Again, the news is fast and furious, breaking stories. They're heartbroken stories, stories of heartbreak, stories of terrorism, stories like the 1995 wildfires, the crash of Flight 800, as you know, 9/11, Hurricane Sandy. We covered it all. And one story I I kind of like to tell. During a particular 5 o'clock live shot while covering Flight 800, it was about 5 minutes to air, and I did notice a rainbow over the crash site. And I said to my camera, my photojournalist, please get that, get the, get that, get the, get the rainbow. We ran to the live truck, and I said to this— he was cranky.

Cranky.

My cranky live truck operator, very nice guy, very cranky. I said, listen, I'm gonna go live.

I'm—

they're gonna roll my donut at the end. When I— they come back to me, I'm gonna mention this rainbow. You gotta roll the rainbow. Roll the rainbow. And he's like, nope, nope, not rolling the rainbow. And I was like, just please, I don't have time to explain to the producer what I'm doing. And, you know, they're counting me down and I'm still begging him. So, well, bottom line is, at the end of my report, I just said, I just want to leave you with this, this image that we just saw over the crash site. And it's of a rainbow. And he rolled it. He rolled the rainbow. So it was, it was, you know, I was just so proud and happy and whatever. I was just happy. I didn't want to, didn't want to kill him when I was done. My producer that was yelling in my ear, wrap Campbell. I traveled end to end across Long Island covering the stories of joy, triumph. We all did together. Carolyn Gusoff here and Jen McGlogan, some of my— all the different reporters in the room. I just see your faces, but we all were together. Jodi is over there. We helped each other. We care so much about this island that as a Long Island core of news people, we worked together, helped each other, made sure we all got the story right. I thank you to my colleagues for doing that. I also was able to, with News 12, cover stories across the globe. As Doug mentioned, I was sent to Haiti twice during the earthquake. Funny story with Haiti. Again, the story behind the story is always the best story. I managed to find CNN. They were in a Holiday Inn that had not crumbled because it was built in 1980 with rebar. CNN had taken it over. I was in a medical camp. We were sleeping in the dirt with a hose.

Oh, my God.

I found CNN, and News 12 told me you're not allowed to go into Haiti. You can go to the border of Haiti. Hi, Pat. However, I was like, screw that. We're going into Haiti. We get there. We had sleeping bags and things like that. But I knew I had to get to CNN. CNN was our affiliate, and I could go live from CNN if I found CNN. There were no roads. There's rubble everywhere. We finally find CNN. It's going to be in my book. You can get my book in a few years. I'll let you know. One of the assistant producers, they had— it was almost like The Wizard of Oz. They opened this little door and I said, hi, I'm Danielle Campbell from News 12 Long Island. This is my photojournalist, my cameraman. They were like, who the hell are you and how the hell did you get here? It's like, I have a lot of bribe money in my pocket. Pat trusted us to do these stories that really— I was with the networks in Haiti. It was just amazing. Anderson Cooper that night did his report. And then I got to stand in where he was standing and do mine. And they were gracious and kind. And again, they were like, wait, where are you? What? Who are you? How did you? I also had a chance to travel with the Central Islip High School Choir to Salzburg. So those are the kinds of stories that our newsroom empowered. I went with this choir that had an opportunity to sing at Beethoven's 300th birthday celebration, and it was just the most beautiful story. There were students, mostly minority students, that had never really gone on a plane, and to watch them experience this and to be able to cover this story was just so beautiful and a lot of fun. And Sound of Music's my favorite, so I got to see that too. And one of my— I just want to mention one of my most precious stories was, again, I don't know how I convinced Pat to let me do these things. I traveled to Lourdes, France, with young adults with special needs and NYPD Detective Stephen McDonald. which was just life-changing. He's the officer that had been shot and paralyzed. I think most of us know who he is. And he brought with him his encouraging message of faith, forgiveness, and fortitude to young adults from around the world that traveled to Lourdes on this special week. And it was, A story that I'll never forget covering. Pat, thank you for believing in the stories that were just out there, but so beautiful and important to cover. Back at home, I was promoted to full-time morning anchor, and I had the privilege to sit next to the amazing, the perfect, the wonderful Doug Yeade, but truly an outstanding journalist. He was professional, he was witty, His expertise, his attention to detail, his care and concern for the news product guided me. I thought we were together 16 years. He said it seemed like 30. A lifetime. But really, Doug helped elevate my craft and made me much better. Realize it's not— what was it, Monday, Friday, whatever day it was. No, but Doug, I thank you for that because you truly led the way for all of us in the newsroom with your journalism and just your commitment. It's something that has made me a better person, not just because of your journalism, but because Of your faith and your care for your family, your beautiful wife, your beautiful children. And it's a role model of how to live your life. Doug has served that for me. All right, so enough of me. I just want to leave you with my favorite Walter Cronkite quote. How appropriate. He wrote this and I just thought, Wow, so simple but so great. I never wanted to be something, I wanted to do something. So today, this honor from the Fair Media Council has made me believe that possibly, somehow, I have accomplished that. And I wanna thank you for this rainbow in my life. Thank you.

The Fair Media Council is a 501 nonprofit organization advocating For quality news and working to create a media-savvy society. For more information about the Fair Media Council and upcoming Fast Chat shows, check out fairmediacouncil.org.

Thank you.

This podcast is a part of the C-Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-suite-radio.com.