Clarence Page, syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist, was a professor who taught a young Joie Chen the basics of journalism in college. She was inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists Washington, D.C., Professional Chapter’s Washington Journalism Hall of Fame on June 11, 2024, at the chapter’s annual Dateline Awards and Hall of Fame dinner at the National Press Club, where the two are here photographed after Chen received her engraved obelisk marking the honor. Photo by Randy Showstack
Among the three journalists of distinction that were inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists Washington, D.C., Professional Chapter’s Washington Journalism Hall of Fame June 11, 2024, at the chapter’s annual Dateline Awards and Hall of Fame dinner was Joie Chen, veteran journalist with at least 25 years practicing strong journalism in Washington.
Chen, a former reporter and anchor for CBS News, CNN and Al Jazeera America, is now director of Northwestern University’s Medill programs in Washington, D.C.
“You know the old chestnut – “Do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” We need to stop saying this to young people, because it’s not true. Some days, this job is actually *hard* — the hours are crap, it doesn’t pay and fairly often, you gotta work for jerks. But nothing about that, if I’m honest, is as hard as what emerging journalists face today: the skepticism, the harsh criticism, both in social media and in real life, the public’s doubt about your work. It didn’t happen [like that] back in the day.” — Joie Chen
Since 2016, Chen has been a consultant and host for CNN’s branded content production studio. From 2013 to 2016 she was an anchor and correspondent for Al Jazeera America’s flagship current affairs program, America. She was a Washington-based correspondent for the CBS Evening News and CBS Sunday Morning from 2002 to 2008, serving as a correspondent at the White House, Capitol Hill and the Pentagon. Chen was awarded a national Emmy as a lead correspondent covering the D.C. sniper attacks and awarded a national Emmy as anchor and lead correspondent of the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing.
She invited a former professor of hers to introduce her that evening — Clarence Page, Washington-based syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune — and, calling him C-P, she thanked him for being there for her, saying he was and remains “a mentor and hero to me. And I appreciate the ‘A’ in ‘Basic Writing’!”
Following are excerpts from her prepared acceptance remarks, written in the block letters of broadcast script style:
I THANK S-P-J FOR THIS RECOGNITION . . .
ESPECIALLY MEANINGFUL TO BE INCLUDED IN A CLASS WITH THE GREAT MICHEL MARTIN WHO I LISTEN TO WITH AWE AND ADMIRATION…
JESSE HOLLAND… WHO IS A REMARKABLY VERSATILE AUTHOR I’VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF INTERVIEWING MYSELF…
AND JOHN KELLY… SPEAKING OF COVERING GROUND…
I’M A FAITHFUL READER OF HIS SQUIRREL COLUMNS!
SO IT’S WONDERFUL TO BE RECOGNIZED WITH THE THREE OF THEM.
I HAVE A LONG-STANDING APPRECIATION FOR S-P-J.
WAY BACK IN 19-84… I GOT MY FIRST HONOR AS S-P-J CAROLINAS’ YOUNG JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR…
SO IT FEELS VERY FULL-CIRCLE TO BE BEFORE YOU THIS EVENING.
WHILE THE “HALL OF FAME” IS ABOUT THOSE OF US AT THE *MATURE* END OF OUR CAREERS … I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE OF OUR INDUSTRY.
IT WAS IMPORTANT TO ME … AND A LITTLE INTIMIDATING, FRANKLY, TO REACH OUT TO MY FIRST COLLEGE JOURNALISM PROFESSOR, WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE A PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING COLUMNIST… AND ASK HIM TO BE HERE TONIGHT.
I REMEMBER MANY OF THE ASSIGNMENTS HE GAVE, AND CRITIQUES OF MY WRITING THEN … AND THEY’VE STUCK WITH ME, MAYBE HAUNTED ME … TO TODAY.
THERE WAS THE ‘HARD NEWS’ STORY — WITH INACCURATE ADDRESSES, FALSE ‘FACTS’ WE WERE SUPPOSED TO SUSS OUT AND WRITE A 20 LINE STORY —
AND THERE WAS THE MOVIE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT — WHICH I DIDN’T MUCH CARE FOR, SORRY C-P.
I SUSPECT EACH OF US HAS SOMEONE — OR EVEN A FEW SOMEONES — WHO SET US OFF ON THIS JOURNEY INTO JOURNALISM … WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE TO SEE OURSELVES IN THIS BUSINESS … EVEN WHEN THERE WEREN’T MANY FOLKS WHO LOOKED LIKE US HERE.
MAYBE THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THEY WERE TO OUR JOURNEYS.
AMONG THE BIG INFLUENCES ON ME —
MANY YEARS AGO, I INTERVIEWED AN OLDER, CHINESE MAN … IN HIS 70S.
HE TOLD ME IN THE LATE 19-30S, HE TRAVELED FROM SHANGHAI TO BERLIN, GERMANY TO UNIVERSITY.
NOW… AS YOU KNOW… THINGS WERE NOT GOING REAL WELL BY THEN.
HE DOESN’T KNOW A LOT OF GERMAN. BUT HE CAN READ SOME SIGNS. AND HE’S NEVER MET A JEWISH PERSON BEFORE. BUT HE KNOWS THERE’S *SOMETHING* GOING ON, AND IT’S NOT GOOD.
AND THEN HE STARTS TO SEE PEOPLE PUSHING BACK.
SO I ASKED HIM… DID YOU JOIN IN? DID YOU HELP?? DID YOU STAND UP FOR JUSTICE??
I ASKED HIM, WHAT DID YOU DO, POP??
BECAUSE THAT MAN WAS MY FATHER … AND I WANTED TO BELIEVE HE WOULD HAVE SEEN INJUSTICE, LEARNED ABOUT IT, AND FOUGHT BACK AGAINST IT.
INSTEAD … HE SAID … YOU THINK IT’S SO EASY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON. YOU CAN GET REAL INFORMATION, FACTS, ANYWHERE, RIGHT AWAY, ANY TIME YOU WANT! *WE* COULD NOT.
HE WAS RIGHT. WE CAN GET GOOD INFORMATION, FACTS. BECAUSE WE HAVE JOURNALISTS … PEOPLE WHO ARE TRAINED TO FIGURE OUT THAT 300 *EAST* DIVERSEY IS NOT A REAL ADDRESS IN CHICAGO … IT WOULD BE IN LAKE MICHIGAN. PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS … AND WHEN TO PUSH FOR ANSWERS. PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO BE JOURNALISTS.
MY FATHER UNDERSTOOD THE VALUE OF JOURNALISM AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO DEMOCRACY.
FROM THE TIME I COULD READ … HE SAT WITH ME EVERY EVENING READING THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS.
AND THE EVENING NEWS … HE AND MY MOTHER (BOTH IMMIGRANTS AND SCIENTISTS) WORRIED THAT I WOULD TALK LIKE BUGS BUNNY IF I WATCHED TOO MANY CARTOONS … SO INSTEAD … I LEARNED TO SPEAK BY WATCHING WALTER CRONKITE EVERY NIGHT.
POP TAUGHT ME TO MAKE NEWS PART OF MY LIFE.
BUT FOR MANY ‘EMERGING’ JOURNALISTS … TRADITIONAL “NEWS” IS NOT PART OF THEIR LIVES.
SO WE ASK THEM TO STEP INTO CAREERS THEY AREN’T EXPECTING—AND THAT ARE… HARD.
YOU KNOW THE OLD CHESTNUT — “DO WHAT YOU LOVE, YOU’LL NEVER WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE.”
WE NEED TO STOP SAYING THIS TO YOUNG PEOPLE, BECAUSE IT’S NOT TRUE. SOME DAYS, THIS JOB IS ACTUALLY *HARD*… THE HOURS ARE CRAP, IT DOESN’T PAY AND FAIRLY OFTEN YOU GOTTA WORK FOR JERKS.
BUT NOTHING ABOUT THAT, IF I’M HONEST, IS AS HARD AS WHAT EMERGING JOURNALISTS FACE TODAY: THE SKEPTICISM, THE HARSH CRITICISM, BOTH IN SOCIAL MEDIA *AND* IN REAL LIFE, THE PUBLIC’S DOUBT ABOUT YOUR WORK. THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN BACK IN THE DAY.
WE DIDN’T HAVE TO TREAD CAUTIOUSLY AROUND HOT-BUTTON ISSUES, BE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THINGS WE DON’T EVEN *KNOW* ARE HOT-BUTTONS, WORDS THAT CAN BE WEAPONS AND BE WEAPONIZED.
NONE OF US HAVE THE POWER TO PROTECT THEM FROM THESE HARDSHIPS.
We didn’t have to tread cautiously around hot-button issues, be on the right side of things we don’t even *know* are hot-buttons, words that can be weapons and be weaponized. — Joie Chen
WHAT WE CAN OFFER IS THE VILLAGE OF SUPPORT AND CONCERN THAT GIVES THEM SOME STRENGTH TO PURSUE THE HARD WORK OF BEING JOURNALISTS.
SO THIS EVENING I WANT TO THANK THOSE WHO’VE GIVEN *ME* STRENGTH. THOSE WHO HAVE SUPPORTED MY WORK … REPRESENTED BY THOSE WHO ARE HERE WITH ME TONIGHT.
MORE THAN ANYTHING, MY HUSBAND AND OUR SON, WHO HAVE STOOD BY ME THROUGH EVERY UP AND DOWN OF MY CAREER.
MY TEACHERS — PROFESSORS — WHO LAUNCHED ME WITH THE BELIEF THAT I COULD DO THIS…
MY PRODUCERS… AND THE PRODUCTION CREWS AND EDITORS WHO HAVE KEPT ME OUT OF TROUBLE OVER AND OVER AGAIN…
MY AAPI AND ASIAN AMERICAN JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION FAMILY WHO HELPED ME NAVIGATE A CAREER AS A PERSON OF COLOR —
OUR AUDIENCES FOR HEARING OUR STORIES…
AND SPJ FOR RECOGNIZING OUR WORK … AND GIVING US THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO GET UP TOMORROW AND DO IT AGAIN.
I THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS HONOR.
Clarence Page, introducer for Hall of Fame inductee Joie Chen, center, shares a laugh with her and Denise Dunbar, president of the Society of Professional Journalists Washington, D.C., Professional Chapter for 2023-2024, before the chapter’s annual Dateline Awards and Hall of Fame dinner gets underway on June 11, 2024, in the Ballroom of the National Press Club. Photo by Randy Showstack