CNN’s John King talks about election, social media fame, and discovering journalism at URI
CNN’s chief national correspondent
has spent the year following the pandemic and covering one of the most divisive
elections in U.S. history. So, he’s stockpiled vacation. It’s time he’s
spending with his 9-year-old son, Jonah, and working on overdue house projects
– “spackling, caulking, painting, plumbing, raking.”
“This was (and is) an extraordinary election cycle, but I am pretty good at mostly disconnecting when the break comes,” says King in an email interview. “So, while there’s no normal in 2020, I am better than I was years ago in getting away for a bit.”
During election week, CNN averaged
6.1 million viewers a night during primetime – tuning in to hear lead political
anchor Wolf Blitzer and King tirelessly report and analyze results from CNN’s
state-of-the-art election map, the Magic Wall. King, a graduate of URI’s
journalism program, gutted the week out on about 3 hours’ sleep a night as he
distilled outcomes from around the country – seemingly county by county.
King’s marathon performance – and that of MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki – captured the imagination of anxious viewers riveted to their TVs. They were the talk of social media and late-night talk shows. On Twitter, they were crowned “chartthrobs.” Jimmy Fallon penned an on-air thank-you to them as the “mcsteamy and mcdreamy of touch screens.” Memes celebrated them on TikTok.
King and the Magic Wall were virtual
guests on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” On “Saturday Night Live,” Alex Moffat played
King – with bloody stumps for fingers.
“They got the sore and worn digits
just about right,” says King.
King, who’s worked nine presidential
elections and won Emmy and Peabody awards for his election coverage, is used to
some celebrity as a CNN anchor. But this time, he says, the attention was more
intense.
“Some of this just could be the
evolution of social media,” he says. “There was big interest when we first
unveiled our ‘Magic Wall’ in 2008. This time, in my view, there was more, and
it ranged from more young people in the U.S. to some fascinating interest and
conversation globally. It was proof to me of the high-intensity environment
anyway, plus with Trump there is an added element because he is so polarizing.
“It is gratifying to see people
trust CNN, and me, at such an important moment. We work hard to earn that trust.”
Despite all the kudos on social
media, there were some who took exception to King tweeting that he found
election night “fun.” But, he says, he stills gets excited for election night,
and is honored by the responsibility he has as part of CNN’s coverage.
“I know it is not ‘fun’ for a
partisan on either side to endure hours – in this case days – of up and down
uncertainty,” he says. “[But] I love my job and enjoy the challenge; to me that
is fun.”
Asked how he would rank the 2020
election – with nearly 160 million people casting ballots and President Donald
Trump still contesting results a month after the election – King said 2020 will
be remembered for “Trump’s defiance in the face of facts and math.”
But he adds, “I thought after 1992
and the [Ross] Perot factor there would never be another one to match the drama
and unpredictability of that. Then along came 2000 and hanging chads and the
Supreme Court. This one deserves positive notice for the higher participation.
It will also receive considerable study – and scorn – for the president’s
constant effort to undermine truth and democratic institutions.”
King, who will appear in a virtual
conversation hosted by The New England First Amendment Coalition on Dec.
14, says that Trump’s presidency has presented that challenge daily.
“We are reminded every day of the
Trump Age that the First Amendment belongs to everyone and that the gift of
free speech comes with challenges,” he says. “Journalists should have a
constant view: Respect any and all voices and their right to be heard, but
deploy facts and fairness to calmly challenge those who distort, twist or try
to create alternative facts.”
King, a Boston native, graduated
from URI in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. After graduation, he
went right to work with the Associated Press.
But he wasn’t a born journalist, he
says. When he came to URI, he had no idea where his future led. Knowing he
liked to write, a Shakespeare professor suggested journalism. Old clips from
his Good Five Cent Cigar days, some of which he’s kept, show “a lot of long,
meandering sentences in need of focus and punctuation,” he says.
“I was blessed with an internship at
the Associated Press in Providence because of a journalism professor who said,
‘You won’t know if this is for you until you try it in the real world.’ The
real world in those days included Buddy Cianci and Claus von Bulow and the
Patriarca crime family. It was an eye-opening introduction.”
After more than a decade with AP,
King joined CNN in 1997, becoming chief national correspondent in 2005. The
stint has included serving as CNN’s senior White House correspondent, and
reporting on the Iraq War and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At AP, he
covered such major events as the Persian Gulf War, and the 1988, ’92 and ’96
presidential elections.
Asked where the 2020 election fits
among his top assignments, he says, “I was trained long ago not to pick
favorites or rank things. So, I am horrible at such questions. It is also hard
to compare elections with events like a war or a hurricane or tsunami. But a
pandemic election in the age of Trump is a remarkable event.”
Heading into a new year and a new
presidency, King, who also is anchor of CNN’s “Inside Politics,” is gearing up
for the changes.
“The Biden transition and then
governing challenge is an enormous story, all the more so because of the COVID
challenge,” he says. “Plus, Trump isn’t going anywhere and both political
parties are dealing with giant internal tensions and challenges. A ton of
policy arrows are about to change direction. Governing may not be as exciting
as elections, but we are in for some consequential and important months ahead.”