Commencement speech at Field Kindley, Coffeyville, KS

Thank you. I want to begin by offering a note of thanks to everyone who played a role by inviting me here today, beginning with Darrell Harbaugh, who began here at Field Kindley just as I was leaving.

On the podium at Field Kindley High School, Coffeyville, KS with (L to R) Darrel Harbaugh, retiring Debate coach, myself and Principal James Dodge, who is also retiring.

Come to thing of it, it seems like I'm the only person here who isn't graduating, retiring, or getting a promotion.

Congratulations Mr. Harbaugh for your excellent leadership of the Debate program here and best wishes on the next phase of your journey.

Also to Principal Dodge and Assistant Principal Vargas. Congratulations on your new responsibilities, as well as to Principal Dodge as he wraps up his successful tenure here.

Also thanks to Superintendent Dr. Robert Morton and Dr. Hamm, whose career here goes back to when I was a student. But he was a child prodigy, so he was quite young then.

Let me begin by saying what a wonderful honor it is to have a few minutes to speak to you here today.

My beginning here

All those many years ago when I was in your spot, I could have imagined many things, but it never crossed my mind that I might be back here addressing the Field Kindley Commencement. So this is a great pleasure.

Graduating students. First, congratulations. Today marks a key achievement of your promising lives.

I'm here to encourage you, to continue your journey with pioneering Kansas spirit, however your own vision of the future might look. For me, I always knew that I wanted to work in broadcasting, I just wasn't sure how I'd get to where I wanted to be.

I did know that I had to leave, not because I didn't love it here, just because that's the nature of the media industry. The best opportunities for a broadcast journalist are in larger cities. And so, I worked hard, here first as a student, got my foot in the door of KGGF. My journey led to Washington, where I've been for most of my life now.

I've talked with a lot of college students over the past year.

It is understandable why they have been concerned about their own prospects given the severity of the economic crisis that presented itself in full view 4 years ago.

But instead of focusing on the negative, it is more important for you to embrace opportunity.

And to realize the many unique good things that are happening at this moment in the history of our country, and our planet.

When I was a student here, we spent a lot of time in the library, looking at news magazines, like Time and Newsweek. 

 Awash in information, misinformation

 From an access to information and media standpoint, and in other ways, we were more separated from the rest of the world because the Internet and personal computers were still being developed.

In the past 20 years, everyone in the developed world, particularly those in free societies, have been more closely tied to one another than any other point in all of human history.

One of key reasons why there have been uprisings in the Arab world over the past year, has been access to information, both through Facebook and Twitter but also because of television news, such as the Al Jazeera network.

What does that mean for you? Well for one, you have excellent access to information. 

While the world is awash information, there's also excellent access to misinformation.

Whether it is to do something as evil as fomenting terrorism, or just trying to take a shortcut in winning voter support for a political aim, there are plenty of forces in play that seek to distract all of us, from the truth. As a journalist, I'm involved in the fight for truth. Millions of dollars are spent aimed at distracting people, both voters and our elected leaders.

The father of American humor Mark Twain, who himself was a journalist and died over 100 years ago, said “The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so.” 

Manage your digital reputation

There's also more information available about connected individuals that's accumulating in our digital world. That puts the burden on each one of you to take care managing your activities online, managing your image, in a way that won't do damage when it comes time to apply for a job, or date, get married, or have children who can look up what you have done.

If you haven't started thinking about what kind of digital footprint you are leaving, I'd urge you to do so, for your own protection.

Even though you are graduating today, your work isn't done. Your futures are tied to your own ability to seek the truth, to seek knowledge and to continually engage in a search for your own identities.

If you are headed to work, to learn a trade, attend a college or university, or raise children at home, all of those are the places where the next opportunities are presented.

Maybe it has already been the case for some of you. I can tell you my own journey, personally, professionally, and spiritually, has taken many unexpected turns.

Opportunities for doing good

One of the beautiful things about life, is that we do not know how it turns out. At this point, you might be saying, I don't like thinking about the unknown. There's too much white space on the blank page.

But try to look at all of that blank space, as an opportunity for your own achievements. They are opportunities to seek the best in other people and set a high standard for your own life, whatever the day to day might bring.

I'm the father of a college student, Christopher, who graduated from high school just two years ago.

When my son was in elementary school, I gave him some advice.

I urged him to offer a compliment to at least one person, ideally a different person, everyday.

He learned over time that this was something that gave him positive feedback. By helping others, perhaps in just a small way, he was building goodwill. Helping his community and support team, one day at a time.

I can tell you far away from here, in busy Washington. That's not the way things always go.

You might say "good morning", or hold a door open for someone, and the simple gesture might go unnoticed and not returned as it is here, where people are more willing to acknowledge strangers. But we should always do what we can, trying to make a positive impact where we can.

One of the other assets you have is that you are living in the United States. Just by being born here, you have an advantage that other people on the planet envy. We live in a nation of law, free from a shooting war in our homeland. Most people have access to health care, food and other vital resources.

With great power comes....

Super heroes are big in the movies these days.

One of the lines in the Spiderman movie was “with great power comes great responsibility.”

Late former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had a similar, more elegant and developed sentiment when she said “Freedom makes a huge responsibility of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”

So, we can extend from that the hope that all of us can be -- the best we can be. he smartest we can be. The healthiest we can be. To be the kindest we can be.

We have the opportunity, we have the freedom. Now we just have to choose to take the right turn.

Look for mentors

I've had a lot of good fortune in my life. It is important to be open to opportunities when they present themselves.

Even after high school, you'll meet people who can serve as mentors whether you are my age, or yours. They might help you to know more about religion, or they might also help you to learn a skill, or to guide your career.

I've had the benefit of having many people like that in my life. Here in Coffeyville, it was then-debate coach Les Kuhns, government teacher Gene Neely, who was also our adviser in Key Club.

At the radio station KGGF, a man who some of the parents here might remember, Bill Miller gave me a huge break and great room to learn, and most importantly, to make mistakes on the air.

Even in recent years, I’ve sought the counsel of people who could help me to learn about something.

As Kansans, you carry inside you a pioneering spirit, the same one that helped to settle the Old West and to stare down the Daltons. It is a heritage that involves rugged individualism. Whether your own journey keeps you close to home, or far away, those characteristics will be a great help.

I talked earlier about access to information and technology, which are, on balance, positive.

There are risks presented with technology also. I see that people are less willing to make real connections. So while having friends on Facebook has its benefits, it is the non digital connections that you make that will help you the most.

Look up from your phone, and embrace the beauty of the world around you. There's a lot to be said about going outside your house, looking at the sky and seeing what kind of day it is. It is the difference between saying, it is a beautiful day, and appreciating that, as opposed to seeing the digitally presented weather forecast.

You, too, can do it!

Over the years, I've met all kinds of people, leaders at the highest levels of government, celebrities and just good, hard working people.

At one level, it is a great thing to be able to have a conversation with some of your heroes. For me, some of those have included, baseball ironman Cal Ripken jr., or the Reverend and great civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, or Betty White or Morgan Freeman.

Just over a year ago, we celebrated at the National Press Club with two of my heroes from Montgomery County, Bill Kurtis who has been a great success in the news business, not to mention the narrator in Wil Farrell's Anchorman (a sequel is in the works by the way). You know Bill Kurtis also as the force behind the development in Sedan, originally from Independence. Another great person from here in town is television's Chuck Bowman, who went from Coffeyville, to Tulsa and then Los Angeles. He acted on TVs old Dragnet, and then directed TV's Incredible Hulk, Dr. Quinn and more recently ABC's Castle among others.

These are great men who worked hard and made their marks in the most competitive of fields. And there are dozens like them, hailing from Southeast Kansas, who have done well, thanks to their dedication and hard work.

So you all of you, you can make your own way too.

A seemingly never ending series of decisions are yet to be made. You have your minds, and your hearts, including your education here, to help guide the way.

You can expect to have a great journey, if you decide to make a difference across the street, or half a world away.

Challenge "conventional wisdom"

So, before I close, (and that's not a cheap way of getting you to applaud because I'm signaling that I'm almost finished) I'd like to point out how we can all look at the world a little differently, a little more clearly, if we challenge popularly held notions.

And we can begin by knocking down the concepts of conventional wisdom and common sense. Wisdom is not conventional and sense isn't all that common.

Proverbs abound that are just a bunch of bunk. Let's take a look at a few.

1. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. What's actually true is that what doesn't kill you can mess you up for life and even make you wish you were dead.
   Many of these have to do with health, it seems.
2. Time heals all wounds. All wounds, really? Have you ever heard of a scar?
3. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Wrong. Otherwise, the multi-billion dollar drug industry would fold. When was the last time a doctor asked you how many apples you've had? Good try, apple farmers!
4. Honesty is the best policy. Maybe most of the time. But most people would rather be complemented than be told the absolute truth. And whenever my wife Jeanne brings home some new clothing, it always looks absolutely fantastic. Right dads out there? Actually, in my wife's case, it does always look great.
5. Love is Blind. Again, contradicting the popular notion that I just mentioned. So are we supposed to be honest, or be act with the blinders on? Probably something in-between is best.
6. All good things must come to an end. Well, not all good things end. A lot of bad things must end too. Or don't. So, I don't know what that saying is supposed to do for us.
7. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Actually, you can. In fact, before you eat it, you must have it.

And finally...

Just two weeks ago, as I was working on this speech, I realized I was celebrating my connection to Kansas . That same afternoon I went out in to my yard to plant some seeds I had grown over the past couple of weeks.

Those were Sunflower seeds. And as I was working with them, I thought, “ah, ha”.

A celebration of my connection to the Sunflower state.

Our collective journeys have all brought us here together today. And I consider that a blessing.

Stay in touch with your Coffeyville and Kansas roots. Embrace your inner Kansan. Plant some sunflower seeds. Question that “common” wisdom.

If you do that, continue to work hard and strive to do the right thing, maybe even set a goal of helping to make other people's lives better, the result, just might surprise you.

Oh, and there's one more saying that doesn't hold true, “You can't go home again”. Everyone here has been so nice and welcoming. It has been a wonderful visit back to my hometown.

Thank so very much for having here today and for being such a kind audience. Congratulations, parents, students and teachers, and Go 'Nado!

The best of pitches, the worst of pitches (not baseball)

From time to time I have some fun pointing out some less than effective interactions with people pitching stories to me. And there are some cases where I'm reaching out and run into a roadblock. Those aren't a lot of fun either.

Some things happen that are so outside the lines, that they make me laugh.

I was reminded this week of one where a PR person sent me a story from Reuters, which was their enterprise story, suggesting a source or expert to react (not from Reuters). We don't steal stories and we wouldn't be looking to piggyback on someone else's work like that.  I've also been on the receiving end of a group email blast where I was pitched a story that originated from our own newsroom.  Yeah, I think we should cover that, which is why we already did!

One just this week was hilarious. It came from a New York publicist looking to get out the word that a Manhattan Japanese steakhouse was offering a Surf and Turf special on Father's Day. Yeah, that's the kind of story I do. Of course, that's what advertising is for. I can't imagine anyone other than a possible restaurant blogger who could possibly care.

It is important to note that there are all kinds of communications professionals, good and bad, just as some journalists are better than others. I've never liked it when journalists refer to PR pros as flacks, no more than I'd appreciate being called a “hack” journalist. Why characterize an entire group based on a few bad examples? I've said many times that my experiences in leadership at The National Press Club demonstrated tremendous examples of high achievers in the PR/Communications world, along with wonderful journalists of all kinds, from all levels and from around the globe.  Same for my work as a reporter over the year.

I get several hundred emails a day urging coverage or use of a certain person in coverage of a story. Only a few are potentially useful, but going through them is part of the job. Better to have people interested in what we do, than not.

Pet peeves? One is false familiarity when someone I don't know makes a cold call to my desk. I answer the phone and the first thing they do is start asking essentially personal questions. Unfortunately, there's no time for that. Have to move on. Most folks understand that we're always potentially on deadline and ask about that right away. I know within 10 or 15 seconds whether the caller has something that might be useful.  It doesn't help in that rare instance when someone thinks that being overly persistent or argumentative will win me over. 

One particularly frustrating tactic is where companies don't make their media contacts reachable. Maybe they should be called “media don't contacts.” These instances include where you have to create a user name and password on a website to initiate communication, which would be unique to that company. How about making a professional email address and wireless phone number available instead?  That's not asking for much.

The best enterprises or organizations understand that ease of access is key to facilitating effective communication with the news media. I'm a huge fan of technology, but not where it is used to discourage or disrupt interaction.

In the meantime, if you want to know about that Father's Day meal special....

A Person's "Best Side"

For a video shoot recently, in preparation of an enterprise story, we were interviewing an older gentleman.  I was working with one of most experienced and capable videographers who has seen it all, natural disasters, danger, you name it. So this was tame by comparison, to say the least. Most of the time, the dangers I'm reporting on are economic.
We had about 30 minutes to get set, under the watchful eye of the attending public relations professional. During this time, which was something of a luxury, the photographer gets the shot right waiting for the source, works with lighting and gauges the room for noise.
At virtually the last minute, this same professional asks if we can shoot the subject's "best side".  It was a surprise for a number of reasons.  One was that we'd had a half-hour to prepare the shot. Secondly, there's no way anyone else would have a way of knowing that one side or the other was best.
The photographer had the right reply to the PR person, which was to say that we didn't have time to re-set the shot, mindful that we're not in the business of worrying about "best sides". That's movie making, industrial films and commercials.  If there had been a medical issue, or something truly worth worrying about, it is possible we would have taken under consideration. But this was vanity and PR run amok.
As it worked out, no one would have ever known the difference, and I was glad that we stood our ground on a fabricated issue. 
The episode served as a reminder that even visual considerations must be weighed as journalists look to provide balance.  Proper lighting is a necessary technical concern.  Protecting the source's best side is not.

World Press Freedom Day -- Not Just For Journalists

As a journalist I have my own special reasons to care about the issue of press freedom.  But so does should every freedom-loving individual on our planet. Americans enjoy the fruits of a well-conceived system of law and values, won through sacrifices including many wars and constant vigilance. Among the most necessary institutions which must help us to sustain our precious liberty is a free press.

So, I bring World Press Freedom Day to your attention. It is proclaimed by the United Nations and supported by the U.S. government, celebrated by many organizations and professional journalists. This year's events are being held in Tunis, where the Arab Spring is thought to have been inspired by a young street vendor who set himself on fire in late 2010. Supporting press freedom celebrations or events are being held elsewhere around the world, including at the National Press Club. 

I had the honor of presiding at the key World Press Freedom Prize ceremony last year at the National Press Club. Both on that day and ever since, hearing first-hand accounts from journalists who suffered oppression or torture have touched me to my core, as would any compelling tale of human suffering.  You can read about one of those stories, about Mukesh from Pakistan, here.

Take a moment to think about where we stand at the moment.  Reporters Without Borders counts 21 journalists killed while doing their job so far this year. Some 161 have been imprisoned.

The Committee To Protect Journalists is drawing attention to countries that are the worst offending  censors. Perhaps surprising to some is the worst censor listed, Eritrea in Africa, where the last accredited foreign journalist was expelled in 2007.  Better known are the repressive conditions in North Korea, number-two on the list. Others cited as top censoring offenders include Syria, Iran and Cuba. China gets the equivalent of a dishonorable mention.

Also on this day, it is time to think about journalists who have died in the line of duty, both recently and long ago.  CPJ says there have been more than 900 such deaths since 1992, including 692 murdered over those 20 years. Three of the journalists murdered just this year have been in Somalia.

All lives are precious, of course. But by monitoring how journalists fare, we can also get a sense how well all people are engaging in their own treasured pursuits of life, liberty and happiness, or all too often, how they are not.