Reporting and passion come together to form opinion writing, professional columnists said at the Walter Cronkite School’s weekly Must See Mondays speaker series.
The panelists, Laurie Roberts and Stephen Lemons, are columnists for the Arizona Republic and the Phoenix New Times, respectively. Moderator and Cronkite School professor Rick Rodriguez questioned the panelists on their careers as journalists, op-ed writing experiences and advice for being an effective columnist.
Both panelists advised passionate writing and finding unique and personally relevant topics before embarking on an op-ed piece.
The potential for topics in opinion writing is huge, Roberts said.
“The best part of the job is you don’t have to write about what everyone else is,” she said.
The panelists also stressed that journalists have to remember to do the biggest part of their job — reporting. Before writing an opinion piece, columnists need to get the facts.
“A column without reporting is basically worthless,” Roberts said. “If you’re going to be a column writer, don’t just sit there and stare at your navel and write about how the world should be.”
Conducting in-depth research and uncovering facts are especially important for Lemons, who broke the story of Olivia Cortes. Cortes was linked to incumbent Sen. Russell Pearce, a Republican from Mesa, Ariz., and was allegedly running for office in order to dilute votes against the incumbent.
“Anyone can be a reporter if they want, but they have to do the work,” Lemons said. “They have to go and get the spiders.”
Meredith Walker, a political science sophomore and opinion blogger, said she appreciated the panelists’ advice about writing columns that are based off quality reporting and facts because she wants to write well-supported columns.
The fact that both Roberts and Lemons did not intend for their journalistic careers to end in column writing surprised Walker, she said.
“It was interesting to see how they got into opinion writing,” Walker said. “I always thought that was something you aimed for.”
A columnist’s attitude is a key factor to his or her success as an opinion writer, said the panel as the discussion concluded. Since columns focus on expressing the author’s opinion, there is a definitive voice in the writing, Lemons said.
“I can be a pompous bastard,” Lemons said. “You have to be kind of pompous to be a columnist.”
Contact the reporter at carolina.m.lopez@asu.edu
