By Marion Filler
Katy Tur is used to working on the fly, literally and figuratively.
As an anchor at MSNBC, she is an element of the 24-hour news cycle that never sleeps. As a toddler, she accompanied her helicopter parents on aerial reporting assignments.
Neither gig has been easy.
“The news is a rough draft of history in real time,” Tur said, “but our lives are rough drafts of our finished selves.”
In her memoir, Rough Draft, she gives a taste of each. Tur, 38, spoke Saturday before an enormous crowd in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on the ninth Morristown Festival of Books.
Her tenacity and refusal to back down from President Trump, who belittled her as “Little Katy,” made her a star.
“I spent 510 days out of a suitcase on the campaign trail,” said Tur, who worked her way up from Los Angeles and Latest York local stations and the Weather Channel.
Trump tweeted that she ought to be fired, calling her “incompetent” and “dishonest” and a “third grade reporter.” Tur received death threats and was booed at rallies, but never lost her cool.
Concerned concerning the November midterms and election deniers who may come to power, she now thinks the media could have done a greater job raising alarms.
Tur said the extreme-Right playbook was in place even before the 2016 election. The notion of “it’s rigged if we lose but not if we win” was gaining ground, and violence was seen as a suitable technique of winning.
“It was coming for years, but we didn’t prepare people for it,” she said.
‘I GREW UP IN A HELICOPTER’
Tur credits her parents, Bob Tur and Marika Gerrard, with starting the trend of airborne journalism 25 years ago by filming breaking news from a helicopter. Bob was on the controls, Marika handled a camera, and Katy all the time got here along.
“I grew up in a helicopter,” she said, describing feeling like an angel as she hovered above the swimming pools that dotted the California landscape.
At age five, she was so comfortable within the air that she opened the chopper door to lean out, as she’d seen her mother do to get a greater shot.
The Turs photographed the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase and the beating of Reginald Denny, the truck driver assaulted by a mob in the beginning of the L.A. riots in 1992.
They even swooped over Madonna’s private wedding to Sean Penn. The bride famously flipped them the bird as they flew overhead.
“Live time voyeurism modified the news business,” not necessarily for the higher, Tur said, in conversation with moderator Courtney Zoffness, creator of Spilt Milk and a school member at Drew University.
“Because we’re set as much as go, go, go, now, now, now, you possibly can do a disservice to the story,” Tur explained.
She cited then-Attorney General Bill Barr and his 2019 “release” of the Mueller Report. It was a highly anticipated event that Tur, who was 10 months pregnant on the time, didn’t need to miss.
She asked for a spot on the weekend desk, and when the story got here through on a Sunday afternoon, the large report had been redacted to simply 4 pages.
It was a “nothing-burger,” Tur said, and a no-win situation.
If given enough time, she said, MSNBC could have researched the story and reported it because the coverup it was.
But stalling for time only would have driven viewers elsewhere for breaking news, she said.
So how can anyone trust the accuracy of the media? Tur advised staying as informed as possible from a wide range of sources. Find journalists you possibly can trust, who vet their sources and come clean with their mistakes.
Echoing her remarks from Friday’s keynote, which she moderated for former Latest York Times columnist Frank Bruni (The Fantastic thing about Dusk), Tur also urged people to get off social media.
She shut down her Twitter account before publishing her 2017 best-seller Unbelievable, My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History.
‘LIFE BEYOND YOUR JOB’
Acknowledging sexism within the news industry, Tur recalled how female journalists of the previous generation were told to decorate a certain way, style their hair as they were told, and conform to other requirements in the event that they desired to keep their jobs.
Most particularly, when she checked out her older peers, none had children. That appears to be changing.
“Everyone in my generation has kids,” said Tur, a mother of two young children. “It sends a message that it’s okay to have a life beyond your job.”
Because of her parents, reporting is in her blood, and the on a regular basis chaos of helicopter living made Tur unflappable.
Unfortunately, physical and verbal violence also were routine parts of the family’s life. Her father was abusive, and the day she graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, her parents announced they were divorcing.
Sadly, Tur actually was surprised by that news. She had normalized the abuse and suppressed her anger, which might rise afterward. Along the best way, her father transitioned from a person to a lady. She has no contact with Tur.
The rough draft of Tur’s life awaits its next chapter.
COVERAGE OF THE 2022 MORRISTOWN FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
By Marion Filler
Katy Tur is used to working on the fly, literally and figuratively.
As an anchor at MSNBC, she is an element of the 24-hour news cycle that never sleeps. As a toddler, she accompanied her helicopter parents on aerial reporting assignments.
Neither gig has been easy.
“The news is a rough draft of history in real time,” Tur said, “but our lives are rough drafts of our finished selves.”
In her memoir, Rough Draft, she gives a taste of each. Tur, 38, spoke Saturday before an enormous crowd in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on the ninth Morristown Festival of Books.
Her tenacity and refusal to back down from President Trump, who belittled her as “Little Katy,” made her a star.
“I spent 510 days out of a suitcase on the campaign trail,” said Tur, who worked her way up from Los Angeles and Latest York local stations and the Weather Channel.
Trump tweeted that she ought to be fired, calling her “incompetent” and “dishonest” and a “third grade reporter.” Tur received death threats and was booed at rallies, but never lost her cool.
Concerned concerning the November midterms and election deniers who may come to power, she now thinks the media could have done a greater job raising alarms.
Tur said the extreme-Right playbook was in place even before the 2016 election. The notion of “it’s rigged if we lose but not if we win” was gaining ground, and violence was seen as a suitable technique of winning.
“It was coming for years, but we didn’t prepare people for it,” she said.
‘I GREW UP IN A HELICOPTER’
Tur credits her parents, Bob Tur and Marika Gerrard, with starting the trend of airborne journalism 25 years ago by filming breaking news from a helicopter. Bob was on the controls, Marika handled a camera, and Katy all the time got here along.
“I grew up in a helicopter,” she said, describing feeling like an angel as she hovered above the swimming pools that dotted the California landscape.
At age five, she was so comfortable within the air that she opened the chopper door to lean out, as she’d seen her mother do to get a greater shot.
The Turs photographed the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase and the beating of Reginald Denny, the truck driver assaulted by a mob in the beginning of the L.A. riots in 1992.
They even swooped over Madonna’s private wedding to Sean Penn. The bride famously flipped them the bird as they flew overhead.
“Live time voyeurism modified the news business,” not necessarily for the higher, Tur said, in conversation with moderator Courtney Zoffness, creator of Spilt Milk and a school member at Drew University.
“Because we’re set as much as go, go, go, now, now, now, you possibly can do a disservice to the story,” Tur explained.
She cited then-Attorney General Bill Barr and his 2019 “release” of the Mueller Report. It was a highly anticipated event that Tur, who was 10 months pregnant on the time, didn’t need to miss.
She asked for a spot on the weekend desk, and when the story got here through on a Sunday afternoon, the large report had been redacted to simply 4 pages.
It was a “nothing-burger,” Tur said, and a no-win situation.
If given enough time, she said, MSNBC could have researched the story and reported it because the coverup it was.
But stalling for time only would have driven viewers elsewhere for breaking news, she said.
So how can anyone trust the accuracy of the media? Tur advised staying as informed as possible from a wide range of sources. Find journalists you possibly can trust, who vet their sources and come clean with their mistakes.
Echoing her remarks from Friday’s keynote, which she moderated for former Latest York Times columnist Frank Bruni (The Fantastic thing about Dusk), Tur also urged people to get off social media.
She shut down her Twitter account before publishing her 2017 best-seller Unbelievable, My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History.
‘LIFE BEYOND YOUR JOB’
Acknowledging sexism within the news industry, Tur recalled how female journalists of the previous generation were told to decorate a certain way, style their hair as they were told, and conform to other requirements in the event that they desired to keep their jobs.
Most particularly, when she checked out her older peers, none had children. That appears to be changing.
“Everyone in my generation has kids,” said Tur, a mother of two young children. “It sends a message that it’s okay to have a life beyond your job.”
Because of her parents, reporting is in her blood, and the on a regular basis chaos of helicopter living made Tur unflappable.
Unfortunately, physical and verbal violence also were routine parts of the family’s life. Her father was abusive, and the day she graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, her parents announced they were divorcing.
Sadly, Tur actually was surprised by that news. She had normalized the abuse and suppressed her anger, which might rise afterward. Along the best way, her father transitioned from a person to a lady. She has no contact with Tur.
The rough draft of Tur’s life awaits its next chapter.
COVERAGE OF THE 2022 MORRISTOWN FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
