By Lauren Zelt

Washington - For CBS producer Kia Baskerville, life has come full circle.  Born at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center on the grounds of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Baskerville returns to the base frequently, though she has only visited the hospital on one occasion.  Now when she arrives on base, she boards Air Force One with the President of the United States as a member of the White House Press Corps. 
Baskerville is the CBS News special events producer and is logistically responsible for arranging coverage of presidential television appearances for the network.  It's a job that has taken her around the world.  But she says her career started with an improbable chance encounter. 

In 1994, Baskerville worked full-time at a local shoe store to finance her education at the University of the District of Columbia, where she studied Journalism and Television Production.  Always chatty and cheerful, she struck up a conversation about her journalistic ambitions with one of the customers at the store.  This customer happened to work for CBS News and offered her an internship on the spot.  The following semester she went to work three days a week as an intern at the CBS News Washington Bureau in the Evening News division. 

She pressed and impressed the right people enough to land a job at the bureau immediately following her internship.  Baskerville worked as an editorial assistant in the Political Unit for two years, and then she moved to the Evening News department, where her duties included everything from toting Dan Rather’s luggage to reporting stories in Washington.  She continues to work her way up the CBS ladder.  She became an associate producer in 1999 and producer in 2002.

Now Baskerville splits her time among her office at the CBS Washington Bureau, the press suite at the White House and trips aboard Air Force One.  On September 11, 2001, she boarded the plane with the President and the press corps, only to land a few hours later amidst the tragedy of an American terrorist attack.  She assessed the situation, prepped President Bush for his first television appearance following the attacks, counted down from five and guided him onto the air.  She wrote a story about her experience that day for CBSNews.com.

Since then, Baskerville has accompanied the First Family on trips around the world, from the Olympic Games in Beijing and their travels throughout Asia to diplomatic trips to the Georgian Republic and Europe.    
Baskerville, 36, is well liked by her co-workers, due to her irresistible charm and also to her role as coach of the “Eyeballs” company softball team.  An avid bicyclist, she has endured vigorous mountain bike treks with President Bush at the Quantico Marine Corps Base.  Baskerville also enjoys playing Rock Band with her friends and co-workers and listening to her favorite group, Hall and Oates.  She lives in Washington with her husband John and her black lab mix named Max.

Kia Baskerville discusses her craft in the following Question and Answer Section

Q: You started at CBS as an intern, and then covered the election of ’96 in the CBS News Political Unit.  What did you do when the campaign was over? 
A: I wanted to do something different and so I convinced them to create a position for me back down in Evening News as a broadcast assistant and they managed to make that happen.

Q: Dan Rather was the face of the Evening News at the time.  Was he an influential figure for you?
A: Absolutely.  I just thought that he was the guy that delivered the most truthful information.  So it was cool to actually be able to work for the same network and on the same show as him.

Q: What was the experience of meeting him like?
A: Nerve-wracking!  He’s an iconic figure.  I was about 23, 24, so that was pretty neat.  He was very nice and was the kind of person who remembered your name, just by remembering your face, even if you hadn’t seen him in six months to a year. 

Q: Now that you have met a lot of influential people, what is your strategy for approaching them?
A: To not sweat it.  I have met two presidents, and will be meeting a third soon, and first ladies and honestly I just don’t even sweat it any more.  I try and be polite and just be smart.  I try not to make them nervous because most people who are like that just want to be made comfortable and be treated like everyone else.

Q: Do you a lot of writing and if so, what are your strategies?  Do you have a favorite place to write?
A: I love to tell stories.  I don’t do a lot of story writing but I do enjoy it.  When I’m writing about experiences at work, it’s generally in a blog format.  And I’m not a big blogger, but if I’ve got a good story it’s so much easier for me to write something in the first person that I’ve experienced more than anything else.  There are a lot of times when I go on international trips and if something interesting has happened, I’ll write about it and submit it to the web.

Q: Do you go out of your way to find stories? 
A: From time to time, the web will know I’m on a trip and they’ll want to hear more about it, but that’s not a big portion of my job.  My job is to make everyone else’s life, television wise, easier.  It’s a lot of strategic planning and just being nice. 

Q: Do you have to do many interviews?  If so, what is your interview style?  Do you write out questions ahead of time?
A: I do.  There are some days where aside from wearing my planning, logistical hat, a particular show like the Evening News will call and need someone to go out for an interview.  Typically, it’s about a subject I don’t know very much about at all.  I’m a quick study, and that’s actually one of the more interesting parts of my job is just being put on the spot.  A lot of times the producers or the correspondent on that story will give me some suggested questions.  Some will give me questions and some will just say, “look, we really just need for him or her to say this, so whatever you can do to make them say that.”  I hate when they do that.

Q: What research resources do you use?
A: I used to use Lexis Nexis a lot, but my world has pretty much changed with Google.  If I know something specific that I need I will tend to use Lexis Nexis, but if it’s random and I don’t know where to look I generally just look at various websites.

Q: Since we’re on the subject of technology, do you have any thoughts about where the journalism profession is going, technology wise?
A:  I’m not even middle aged yet and even though I’m not home at 6:30 I still want to see the Evening News, it’s just what I grew up with.  I’m sure that there are a lot of folks out there who feel the same way.  CNN is still one of the major leaders in news because they’re on 24/7.  And it’s great, but I think it’s tough to say where the evening news is headed.  I would like to think that the big three networks will stay the big three networks, and that evening news will continue.  The morning news, for most stations, is still making money. 

Q: Should the evening news change its format to increase viewership?
A: They’ve got to do something.  There’s still a market out there, but it’s smaller and there’s no question about it.  I still think the future of evening news is anybody’s guess.  I think it’s more than just better writing, better stories, slicker graphics.  There’s more to it than that but what the answer is, I don’t know. 

Q: You travel a lot for CBS.  How do you find it?  Exciting, exhausting, or something in between?
A: A little bit of both.  I really do like the travel aspect of it because I’ve been able to see the world and I’m grateful for that.  Is it easy?  Heck no.  It’s not all glamour.  Essentially my job, when it comes to putting the president on television, is much like travelling to a different city and putting on a rock concert, except you have a lot less people to help you.  You’re one person trying to figure it all out and it’s really difficult.  The reward, to me, is the experience of a different culture. 

Q: Aside from your experience with President Bush on September 11, 2001, what is your most interesting story from travelling with the president?
A: Honestly, one of the most exciting things for me still to this day is just getting to ride on the president’s plane.  That’s pretty freaking cool. 

Q: What’s the most important quality for a journalist to possess?
A: I think you just be yourself and don’t be afraid to ask questions.  It’s about doing your job to the best of your ability and then some.  You can’t be afraid.  Covering President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal was not easy- asking the president about his sex life.  You’re on a golf course, and you’re within shouting distance of the president, and you’ve got to ask him ‘Mr. President, did you have a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky?’  I didn’t get into journalism to ask questions like that.  But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

Q: Have you been in any other particularly difficult situations as a journalist?
A: The day after the Million Man March in 1995, I was sent by a producer to ask Minister Lewis Farrakhan, “After the Million Man March do you feel like you are the new leader of the black race?”  I identified myself as an employee of CBS News, and I asked him straight up, and I just wanted to curl up under my seat but I couldn’t.  At that time, I didn’t challenge the producer on that question, I was trying to do my job and impress.  I remember my boss at the time saying, “You know, you can challenge these producers when they tell you to go out and ask questions that you don’t feel comfortable asking.”

Q:  Did you end up getting the answer that they wanted?
A:  That’s interesting.  First of all, there was silence after I asked the question because people were like “oh my God, what is he going to say?”  And he says, “You know, young lady, I look at you and I know that question is not coming from you.”  And that’s all I heard.  After he said that, which was seriously letting me off the hook, he went on to say something that, of course, didn’t answer the question. 

Q: What is your advice for an aspiring journalist?
A:  Honestly, if you believe in the craft of television journalism production, if it’s something deep down inside you really want to do, you should pursue it.  It’ll be forever changing, and you have to adapt and change with it or you’re going to get left in the dust.  That’s what I see happening to unfortunately a lot of the older generation in network news.  You have to change with the times. 

Q: How important is higher education for a career in journalism?
A: I definitely think for anybody who’s interested in getting in to this type of career it’s not mandatory to go to school.  Some of the greatest journalists never even went to college, like Peter Jennings.  But overall, your skill set will be that much more if you take time out to go to school.  Study, work hard, and take as many journalism classes and do as many internships as you possibly can.  The more people you know the better chance you have at getting a job and having a successful career.  It’s not a particularly hard job but you have to be a very focused person.  You can make money at it, but you pretty much have to become a Dan Rather to make some really decent money.  It gets to the point where you really have to love doing what you’re doing.  This is pretty much always what I wanted to do, and then some.

 - Interviewed, condensed and edited by Lauren Zelt

Kia’s Tips for Aspiring Journalists
1) Never be afraid to ask questions!  It’s what journalists do.
2) Go to school, get as educated as you can in journalism.
3) Don’t underestimate the strength of weak ties.  All it takes is one person to take an interest in you and give you a job.
4) Be organized about your reporting.
5) Always tape-record your interviews.
6) Know when to push and when to step back.  This applies to getting a job as well as to reporting.
7) Even as an entry-level employee, you can challenge a producer or other superior about a situation that makes you feel uncomfortable. 
8) Don’t sweat meeting important people.  They are human just like the rest of us.
9) Appreciate the opportunities that journalism affords you.  Don’t be afraid to enjoy your ability to see the world.
10) Be conscious, alert and safe when you travel to areas that could possibly be dangerous, but don’t be afraid to travel to areas that are presumed to be safe for Americans. 
11) Never give up.  If journalism is your dream, live and breathe it.