Mark Halperin

And so I didn't do any student journalism.

And then when I got graduated, I wanted to get I wanted to get into journalism.

And I had an interview with

the ABC News Washington bureau chief, a guy named George Watson.

And this is the pre-internet day.

So if you're getting a job interview with someone, it's hard to really look them up in any way.

So I didn't know much about him.

And so in the interview, he looked at my resume and he said, see, you went to Harvard.

Did you write for the school newspaper?

And I said, no.

And I sort of got up on my high horse and I said, I had roommates who wrote for the newspaper and it was just a huge waste of time.

And I think in college, you should really focus on learning.

And then afterwards you can go into journalism.

And he looked out the window, he said, huh, that's not the way I felt when I was president of the Crimson.

He did not hire me, but someone else did.

And I eventually went on to work for him and appreciated his candor with me.

But I did not think about journalism at all in college.

I graduated, didn't really know what I wanted to do, and I was always interested in presidential campaigns.

And so I graduated in 1987, and the 1988 campaign was sort of underway.

uh and i thought well it'd be interesting to be in a big news organization and sort of see how it works again no internet no access to the associated press wire cnn existed but there was no other cable news and um uh and so through family connections i did get a job with abc not through george watson in washington but but here in new york city