In this episode, Mort Crim joins host Jason Mudd to discuss his career highlights, truth in journalism, and his newest memoir, “Anchored: A Journalist’s Search for Truth.”
Tune in to learn more!
Our guest
Our episode guest is Mort Crim, a retired journalist, author, lecturer, and motivational speaker. He inspired the Anchorman character Ron Burgundy.
Watch the episode here:
Listen to the episode here:
5 things you’ll learn during the full episode:
- The inspiration behind Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy
- Mort’s journalism career highlights and pivotal moments
- Maintaining a trusted image in journalism and PR
- How the media has changed and ways to adapt
- Mort’s book, “Anchored: A Journalist’s Search for Truth”
About Mort Crim
Mort Crim is a journalist, author, lecturer, and motivational speaker. He is the main inspiration for the character Ron Burgundy, a news anchor in the Anchorman movie series. His network and local broadcast experience in radio and TV includes five years as a correspondent for ABC in New York City and two decades as a senior editor and anchor for WDIV-TV, an NBC affiliate station in Detroit. He was backup for Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” radio program for five years. He is the author of eight books, including his most recent memoir, “Anchored: A Journalist's Search for Truth.”
Quotables
- “I have a philosophy that if you run fast enough, old age can’t catch you.” — @Mort Crim
- “Never have an ego or have arrogance about yourself because you never know when you're going to need help or the support of others in your community.” — @JasonMudd9
- “It's all about the story. History is made up of stories. We call journalists the people who write the first draft of history. But that hasn't changed — for all of the technological change, for all the proliferation of media — it's still about content.” — @Mort Crim
- “Become a good writer, and if you're a good writer, I can teach you how to stand in front of a camera. I can teach you how to hold the microphone. I can teach you how to be a broadcaster. But I can't teach you how to think, and I can't teach you how to write.” — @Mort Crim
- “Journalism is a profession that requires, first of all, a commitment to honesty and truth. But secondly, you need training. You need to have some understanding and experience in how to recognize a story, how to organize a story, how to tell a story in a way that is meaningful to the audience.” — @Mort Crim
- “PR needs to be all about the audience of the news outlet when you're pitching media.” — @JasonMudd9
Resources
- Visit Mort Crim’s website for more information.
- Mort Crim’s “The Survivor” at Carnegie Hall
- “Anchored: A Journalist’s Search for Truth”: Use code HOLIDAY for $10 off!
- Connect and learn more about Mort Crim on LinkedIn.
Additional Episode Resources from Axia Public Relations:
- Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR podcast.
- Find out more about Axia Public Relations.
Disclosure: One or more of the links we shared here might be affiliate links that offer us a referral reward when you buy from them.
Episode highlights
- [02:01] The inspiration behind Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy
- [11:05] Mort’s journalism career highlights and pivotal moments
- [15:16] Maintaining a trusted public image
- [21:51] How the media has changed and ways to adapt
- [31:10] Mort’s book, “Anchored: A Journalist’s Search for Truth”
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Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;09;29
Announcer
Welcome to On Top of PR with Jason Mudd, presented by ReviewMaxer.
00;00;09;29 - 00;00;27;27
Jason
Hello, and welcome to On Top of PR. I’m your host, Jason Mudd with Axia Public Relations. And today we have special guest Mort Crim joining us. Mort is a journalist, author, lecturer and motivational speaker. He is the main inspiration for TV news anchor character Ron Burgundy in the anchorman movie series.
00;00;27;29 - 00;00;54;13
Jason
His network and local broadcast experience in both radio and television include five years as a correspondent with ABC news in New York, and two decades as a senior editor and anchor for live TV NBC Detroit. For five years he was backup for Paul Harvey. He is the author of eight books. His most recent, a memoir entitled Anchored: A Journalist's Search for Truth.
00;00;54;16 - 00;00;56;09
Jason
Mort, welcome to the show.
00;00;56;12 - 00;01;07;07
Mort
Thank you. Jason, nice to be here. And I should point out that I'm nothing like Ron Burgundy. I enjoyed the parody, but it was just that it was satire.
00;01;07;09 - 00;01;15;19
Jason
So tell me, how did you get connected in that, in that role to be kind of what of, consultant and advisor for that movie?
00;01;15;22 - 00;01;29;09
Mort
Well, I wasn't actually a consultant, but Will Ferrell had seen me being interviewed, on, I believe it was the lifetime channel and a documentary about the late Jessica Savage, with whom I had co-anchored in Philadelphia.
00;01;29;12 - 00;01;30;12
Jason
Okay.
00;01;30;14 - 00;02;01;17
Mort
Will's co-writer and co-producer, Adam Mackey had grown up in Philadelphia, I guess had watched me on TV. And so when Will mentioned that he had seen me doing this, this interview regarding Jessica Savage, and he later told rolling Stone magazine that it was from that interview that he got the idea that parodying or centering a, satirizing a local anchor team could be great fun.
00;02;01;17 - 00;02;37;12
Mort
And that's exactly what they did. So Veronica Corning Stone was actually patterned after Jessica Savage, and Ron Burgundy was patterned after my career. And when I met Wil at the after party, he invited my wife and me to, the premiere of anchorman two in New York, met him at the after party, and he had seen several of my interviews because once he revealed in rolling Stone magazine that I was the, the person behind the satire, then I started getting requests for interviews from Fox and Friends, the Today Show, Good Morning America.
00;02;37;15 - 00;03;00;21
Mort
CNN. And he had seen several of these interviews where people were asking me, how does it feel to be the subject of that kind of parody? And he thanked me for taking it with good humor. And I said, well, frankly, if you had billed those movies as documentaries, I would be thoroughly pissed. But I said this year I thought they were good fun.
00;03;00;23 - 00;03;08;03
Mort
And you have to laugh at yourself. You have to laugh at your profession. You have to keep a light touch as you go through life.
00;03;08;06 - 00;03;30;07
Jason
Well, I'm not sure of the exact timelines, but I'm pretty confident you and I met before those movies came out. And, or possibly around the same time. And so, you know, I've never really viewed you as being a Ron Burgundy, but I also didn't really know you and your younger years, and, you know, at the end of the day, it is a comedy.
00;03;30;10 - 00;03;49;12
Jason
I've had the good fortune of of doing a little bit of stand up comedy myself and being around stand up comedians, and as we both know, I mean, they're just up there telling stories and 90% of what they tell you, they've just fabricated or exaggerated, whether they borrowed them from observation, from something that happened himself or a story a friend told them.
00;03;49;15 - 00;04;09;20
Jason
And, you know, it's kind of like what they say, you know, never meet your heroes. And, you know, never see the sausage being made kind of thing. And so sometimes as you get to know people and you think a story they told really happened to them and it's so funny. And then when you realize that it's just completely made up by their imagination, at least to me, it's not nearly as funny anymore.
00;04;09;23 - 00;04;13;10
Jason
So it's almost better to not know those kind of inside inside stories.
00;04;13;17 - 00;04;39;12
Mort
Well, I reminded Will Ferrell that, he wasn't the first one to parody, local TV anchorman. If you remember Ted Knight from the old Mary Tyler Moore Show playing the role of Ted Baxter, who was this air headed, air, you know, buffoon of an anchorman. And I had the pleasure of having Ted Knight on my newscast one evening, in which he did his shtick.
00;04;39;14 - 00;04;45;27
Mort
And it was really pretty funny. We didn't tell the audience we came out of a commercial. Then he was sitting there beside me.
00;04;45;29 - 00;05;05;08
Jason
Nice. Well, and, so I'm glad you're here today on our show because, I bet you've got a ton of stories. I know we've got a few lined up we want to talk about. And as we were talking before you hit record, you know, I recently kind of, you know, saw you do a cameo in a in a, TV series, called The Detroiters.
00;05;05;08 - 00;05;35;21
Jason
It's about, you know, two guys who are, basically trying to turn around, one of their fathers, advertising agency, and I guess the, kind of the, the foolish exploits and and mistakes they make along the way, trying to be, successful. And I think it's a really good kind of buddy comedy. And I liked it of course, because one, it's about, you know, the advertising, industry of which I'm adjacent to with a PR firm, but also because I have family, as we talked about earlier, in the Detroit area.
00;05;35;21 - 00;05;45;27
Jason
So it was really fun to see you on those, on those, shows and kind of, maybe explain to our audience who hasn't seen that show. What what, what your role was on it.
00;05;46;00 - 00;06;10;29
Mort
Well, the Detroiters was a sitcom. I had never been in a sitcom. Never expected to be in a sitcom. But when the, one of the talent agents who was responsible for booking, the actors and performers for the show called me, and she said, we need a newscaster. And one of the producers of the show said, we need a more primetime.
00;06;11;02 - 00;06;32;16
Mort
She said, well, it's retired. Why don't you just get more credit? So they called and, said they would like me to do a cameo, about a 30 or 40 second appearance in each of the shows. During the ran for two seasons. And the bit was that I had this thing called the chump of the week.
00;06;32;18 - 00;06;33;28
Jason
Yeah, that's what was doing.
00;06;33;29 - 00;07;01;03
Mort
They would show my picture on a television screen, usually in a bar in Detroit. And I was announcing the Trump of the week, and they wrote the script for me, and I recorded the, recorded the clips here in Jacksonville. And then, sent them up to Detroit. Well, then in the second season, I got a call from the producer who said, we want to feature you in one episode, which we're going to entitle Mort, very original title.
00;07;01;05 - 00;07;14;24
Mort
And, so I had the pleasure of growing up and, shooting an entire episode where I wasn't just doing a cameo, but the whole episode was built around, around me playing myself. But it was fun. It was fun.
00;07;14;27 - 00;07;31;07
Jason
Yeah, I would I would describe it as a fun show and, I turned my cousins up in Detroit on to it, and they all seem to like it. So, you know, especially because it had so much local flavor, featuring local brands like, Domino's and Little Caesars and.
00;07;31;10 - 00;07;33;08
Mort
Was all shot in Detroit, was all shot at.
00;07;33;09 - 00;07;42;14
Jason
Right? Yeah, yeah. And of course, the auto makers and all that stuff. So I thought it was a lot of fun. I believe it was on, Comedy Central, but I could be.
00;07;42;14 - 00;07;48;17
Mort
That's correct. In fact, it was produced by Lorne Michaels, who produces Saturday Night Live creator nihilo.
00;07;48;24 - 00;08;14;00
Jason
Yeah, I didn't I didn't know that. You've you've definitely had your own. It's very interesting to me. You've had your own career, and then you retired and now you've had, like, this, additional career of comedy, in comedy adjacent. Right. And and also writing books. So I don't know if you fully understood what retirement means, but I think you've had a pretty good retirement.
00;08;14;02 - 00;08;19;20
Mort
Well, you know, I, I have a philosophy that if you run fast enough, old age, can't catch you.
00;08;19;23 - 00;08;20;11
Jason
There you go.
00;08;20;13 - 00;08;39;23
Mort
And I still play tennis three days a week. I played this morning, with a bunch of guys and, and in my age category, senior men's tennis at Queens Harbor. And I played with the same group for about 20 years. And of course, at various times, guys have to drop out because of illness or injury. And we've lost a few to death.
00;08;39;25 - 00;08;40;29
Mort
But,
00;08;41;01 - 00;08;42;13
Jason
I travel a lot.
00;08;42;15 - 00;09;10;24
Mort
I, I continue to write. I continue to stay actively involved. One of the most recent things that I did professionally was, to voice over the trailers for, a hot young star named Olivia Rodrigo. And, I didn't know, frankly, who Olivia Rodrigo was, but my grandkids certainly did. And it turns out she is, probably the hottest young female singer going these days.
00;09;10;27 - 00;09;40;15
Mort
And so I've done some trailers for her. Yeah, I stay, I stay active, and, I just, I think even though I'm retired and it does give me a chance to travel. I just got back from Vietnam and Cambodia, and I'm putting together. I'm putting together a documentary based on on that trip, which I'm about 10% through, but I try not to, not to be sedentary, either mentally or physically.
00;09;40;18 - 00;10;11;25
Mort
I think the the the I'm blessed with good genes. You know, I'm going to be 90 years old next July. Oh my God. Yes. To be able to be as active as I am and ride my bicycle three days a week, play tennis three days a week, and then travel all over the world. I certainly am, and blessed with good genetics, but I think also, and you can't control your genetics, but I think the things I can control are taking care of myself and staying active and keeping a positive attitude.
00;10;11;25 - 00;10;13;21
Mort
Those are the things that are within our control.
00;10;13;29 - 00;10;28;24
Jason
Absolutely. Love that, love that. Totally agree with that. Yeah. So, and you know, I got imagine if you really were living life like an anchorman, you probably would not be, able to live, into your late 80s. Right? With the highly.
00;10;28;24 - 00;10;35;21
Mort
Unlikely, I think likely. I think I think guys who live like that burnout, rather rather quickly.
00;10;35;23 - 00;10;39;26
Jason
Right, right. And then some of them don't. Some just live forever, you know, because they've got.
00;10;39;28 - 00;10;45;15
Mort
Like Gene and again, again, you know, you can't predict what the genetics will do for you, right? Right.
00;10;45;17 - 00;11;05;08
Jason
So, you know, I'd love to just kind of talk about, a few of your journalistic, career highlights. I know that you were part of the space program launches, Carnegie Hall. We talked a little bit on anchorman and even travel with President Johnson. Tell us some, you know, give us kind of some of your favorite stories there.
00;11;05;11 - 00;11;28;07
Mort
Well, I guess the most exciting news assignment that I ever had was covering space. I was with ABC, based in New York, and partly because, I am a licensed, airline transport rated pilot. I've always taken flying very seriously. Flew until I was 85. And then I just voluntarily gave it up because I thought, you know, I've had.
00;11;28;09 - 00;11;54;14
Mort
I started flying at 15, and I should. I've had 70 years of accident free flying. Right. Maybe, you know, you got to know when it's time to hang it up. And I just had the feeling that that was the time to do it. But I, with that background and having been in the Air Force, and I was a journalist for the Air Force, and I covered the space program out at Vandenberg when they were first organizing that as a missile base and the missile test base.
00;11;54;16 - 00;12;23;09
Mort
So when I went to ABC in New York with my background, both in the Air Force and as a civilian pilot, they assigned me to the space program, along with a, very well known former NBC anchor named Merrill Muller, who, Merrill is deceased now. He was, he was not a young man at the time, but Merrill and I co-hosted the, space shots from Gemini three through Apollo 12.
00;12;23;11 - 00;12;40;01
Mort
So, that was when I, when I left ABC in New York and went into television anchoring, first in Louisville, Kentucky, and then Philadelphia, then Chicago. And finally the bulk of my career was spent anchoring for the NBC station in Detroit.
00;12;40;04 - 00;12;52;12
Jason
What a great time to be alive and a great time to be, reporting for sure. That's, that's pretty incredible. I've got a note here about Carnegie Hall. What what's your what is your relationship with Carnegie Hall?
00;12;52;14 - 00;13;16;16
Mort
Well, I got off the telephone. I got a call from a producer friend of mine and got off the phone, and I told my wife, I said, guess what? I am going to be on stage live at Carnegie Hall. Well, she knew immediately it wasn't my piano playing because I play piano, but not at the Carnegie Hall level by any means.
00;13;16;18 - 00;13;42;20
Mort
What happened was I had a syndicated, commentary series called Second Thoughts that was on about 1300 radio stations. Yeah, I remember that. And after 911, I just got inspired to write, a commentary, a metaphor about Uncle Sam and how he had survived and how America, would survive this attack and that we would be strong again.
00;13;42;22 - 00;14;11;00
Mort
And I wrote this up and put it on my commentary series, and this producer friend of mine heard it, and he said, we are putting on a musical tribute at Carnegie Hall, bringing in, some very well-known singers and bands and groups, to pay to pay homage to the first responders, to the members of the police and fire department, Salvation Army, all the people who had been in there helping after that, tragedy of the Twin Towers.
00;14;11;02 - 00;14;32;06
Mort
He said, I've heard your commentary, and I would love to have you come to Carnegie Hall and read it, and we'll put some patriotic music behind it. And we think that would be a good addition to our program. So it was recorded. You got a standing ovation. I was very proud of that night, and it's available to anybody that wants to see it.
00;14;32;06 - 00;14;45;24
Mort
You just put it in my name, Mort Crim, on, Google search and then add the survivor, because that was the name of the piece, Mort Crim, the survivor. Okay. And it'll it'll bring up, that presentation.
00;14;45;27 - 00;15;16;00
Jason
Perfect. We'll be sure to put a link to it in our episode notes to help our audience find it real quickly. We always try to do that, provide, you know, the resources that we talk about during the episode, in the actual episode notes. And our audience can find those it on top of pr.com. So, well, Mort, before we take a break, here, kind of midway through our, episode, I want to just cover another topic we want to explore today, which is your strategies for maintaining a respected public image throughout your career.
00;15;16;02 - 00;15;41;11
Jason
You know, you've seemed to be well-liked and, seem to have a great reputation. So maybe that's part of, what you're going to share with us. But, we'd love to hear your strategies for maintaining a respected public image throughout your career and how that might apply to the other PR practitioners that are listening to this episode and helping them with the, executives and the companies and organizations they're leading?
00;15;41;13 - 00;16;06;04
Mort
I think if I were to boil it down to a single word, it would be authenticity. I think, an image needs to grow out of what you really are. I got amused when Will Ferrell, in his interview with rolling Stone, he he said I was watching this guy, Mort Crim. And he still had this.
00;16;06;06 - 00;16;14;14
Mort
He carried his anchor voice with him. And I thought, well, there's this, this will think that I have one voice for
00;16;14;14 - 00;16;19;28
Mort
anchoring the news and another voice for ordering a ham sandwich or reading a bedtime story to my grandkids.
00;16;19;28 - 00;16;42;01
Mort
I have one voice, and I think, I think you need to be, an integrated single person. I think television is pretty revealing, and one of my heroes and I had the pleasure of knowing him and actually working with him down at, Cape Kennedy during the Cape Canaveral, which later was Cape Kennedy.
00;16;42;03 - 00;17;08;08
Mort
Walter Cronkite. And the thing that gave Walters such, he was voted the most trusted man in America. I don't know how many times. The reason he was trusted is because Walter was the same off camera, on camera. He. What you saw was what you got. He didn't put on an act. Right. And so I think, image starts with who are you really.
00;17;08;10 - 00;17;31;14
Mort
And hopefully you, you are the kind of person that you don't have to put up a, fake facade. You can just let who you are come through. And I think the, the, genuine this an authenticity. I, I had a friend, a fellow anchor, and he said it as a joke, but he said, you know, he said authenticity is the most important value for an anchor man.
00;17;31;14 - 00;17;35;06
Mort
And once you learn to fake that, the rest is easy.
00;17;35;08 - 00;17;36;04
Jason
Very true.
00;17;36;06 - 00;17;43;09
Mort
You can't fake authenticity. It, you know, whether you're a politician or an anchor man. I think eventually
00;17;43;09 - 00;17;44;29
Mort
what you are will come through.
00;17;44;29 - 00;18;06;14
Jason
You know, Mort, we've all been in this business long enough. We've seen people have quick rises and quick falls or rise to the top. And what they're when they're at the top, you really see how they behave and how they act. And then when they're at the, you know, when they run into an event in their career, where maybe they find themselves in need of employment or something like that, you know, you kind of always remember how they treated you.
00;18;06;16 - 00;18;21;04
Jason
And, you know, my lesson learned from that is just be kind to others. And never have an ego or have arrogance about yourself because you never know when you're going to need, help or, the support of others in your community.
00;18;21;04 - 00;18;23;27
Mort
You know, Jason, kindness doesn't cost anything.
00;18;24;00 - 00;18;24;22
Jason
Exactly.
00;18;24;29 - 00;19;00;02
Mort
Being respectful of your fellow human beings. Yep. Aside from any good that it might do you. As you say, you go to the top of the ladder. You're going to meet those same people when you're coming down. But how how much more rewarding life is when we're nice to people. Yeah. How much happier we are when we're just decent human beings and I've, I've always felt sorry for people who felt that they had to put themselves above others and in the process, put others down.
00;19;00;04 - 00;19;23;03
Mort
Yeah. I think one of the things that and I just saw the movie Reagan, which, by the way, if you have seen it, it's it's an excellent movie. I like biopics, particularly when they follow history. And because I covered so much of the national news during the time that Reagan was president, I had the chance to meet him and to have lunch with him one day at the white House, sit right next to him.
00;19;23;05 - 00;19;50;19
Mort
But one of the things that gave Reagan his, popularity, even among people who disagreed with him and you see in the movie how he and tip O'Neill, who was the Democratic leader, in the House, and the speaker. But Reagan had a charm that was based on the fact that he genuinely liked people. And whether you agreed with his policy or, you know, it didn't matter whether you were a Democrat or Republican.
00;19;50;21 - 00;20;19;23
Mort
He was an authentic person. And he was likable. Yep. And I just think there is so much you use the word kindness. Well, if there's anything we need in our country these days, it is more kindness. Yes. Out there, you know, there are people in local communities and, and various situations who are being kind, but so much of the other stuff makes it into the news and into our political discourse.
00;20;19;25 - 00;20;25;17
Mort
And why why can't we just be nice to each other.
00;20;25;20 - 00;20;35;18
Jason
Right. Exactly, I totally agree. Well, for our audience, I hope they'll be nice and stay with us as we take a quick break and come back on the other side more with more crime.
00;20;35;21 - 00;20;38;01
Mort
I'll stay here.
00;20;38;01 - 00;21;02;21
Announcer
You're listening to on top of PR with your host, Jason Mudd. Jason is a trusted advisor to some of America's most admired and fastest growing brands. He is the managing partner at Axia Public Relations, a PR agency that guides news, social and web strategies for national companies. And now, back to the show.
00;21;02;21 - 00;21;23;00
Jason
Welcome back to On Top of PR, I’m your host, Jason Mudd with Axia Public Relations, joined by Mort Krim. Who is, you know, allegedly into the inspiration for the TV news anchor character Ron Burgundy in the anchorman movie series, but professionally, denies, being, anchorman and or Ron Burgundy in real life, which, is great.
00;21;23;00 - 00;21;43;12
Jason
So, what we want to talk about on the second half is, how the media has changed since your career, your time being active in the career and how you adapted, your newest book and underlying themes and then advice for the next generation of communication professionals. So we've got a lot to cover in the second half year, and I'm excited about that more.
00;21;43;14 - 00;21;51;15
Jason
So let's talk about, how the media has changed, since your time and how, you've adapted.
00;21;51;17 - 00;22;17;06
Mort
There wasn't, a lot of change during the time that I was in media. I think the the lightning changes have all occurred, really, since I retired. We went from black and white to color TV. There were technological advances. We went from film to videotape. We went from, doing everything either on film or tape to doing a lot of live shots.
00;22;17;06 - 00;22;48;27
Mort
So, we went from a paper teleprompter to, a computer sized teleprompter. So there were technological changes that took place. But my goodness, the things that have changed since I left the business have been at, astronomical speed. And the biggest thing has been the introduction of the internet and the cell phone, the internet, because it has, absolutely proliferated the sources from which people can obtain information, not all of it.
00;22;48;27 - 00;23;11;28
Mort
Good information as we know. Some of it is conspiratorial, some of it is just patently false. Some of it is put out there with an agenda, and it becomes more and more difficult for all of us as citizens to sort through and figure out what's real, what's true, what's false. So the internet has played a huge role in the diversification of media.
00;23;12;01 - 00;23;42;20
Mort
And then, of course, the advent of cable TV. At almost the same time, these were developing side by side. And whereas when I was an anchor man in any major market you went to, there were basically three sources for news. There was the ABC, NBC and CBS stations. There would be a PBS station if it was a large enough market and maybe one independent station or two, but your your news sources were pretty much channeled through those television stations.
00;23;42;20 - 00;24;11;24
Mort
Well, now you turn on your TV and your and your cable box or your, internet streaming and you have hundreds, 304 hundred, 500 choices. So just the very proliferation of choices has meant huge changes, and it has required all of us to become our own editors in trying to sift and sort and figure out where can we get good, solid, honest information.
00;24;11;26 - 00;24;17;22
Mort
I think the advent of the cell phone has made everybody a reporter.
00;24;17;24 - 00;24;18;01
Jason
Sure.
00;24;18;03 - 00;24;48;02
Mort
Now that's good and it's bad. It's good because, well, let's take the, the, the example of police, inappropriate behavior and brutality and in some cases where police have actually killed somebody, the bodycams or the ability of, bystanders to take pictures of that have actually played a major role in justice being meted out in some of these situations.
00;24;48;04 - 00;25;13;23
Mort
The cell phone has also given our legitimate reporters, that is, the people who are trained, that professional reporters, the ability to report from anywhere in the world, they have a satellite telephone. When I covered President Johnson and traveled to, through Asia and Australia and New Zealand and those places with him, the challenges we had in getting, film everything that was on film.
00;25;13;23 - 00;25;37;04
Mort
We didn't have videotape in those days, so sometimes they would rush the film from, maybe Tokyo back to New York, and then they would have literally have a motorcycle carrier that worked for the network who would grab the can of film, run it into the network, put it in a processor. It might be 24 hours before the film of what had taken place.
00;25;37;04 - 00;26;00;09
Mort
And this was true during the Vietnam War, too. Before you would get you would get verbal reports from the reporters because you could send them over, underground cable. But we didn't have satellites in those early days. And so by the time you saw the actual pictures of what was being talked about, it might be 24 hours.
00;26;00;09 - 00;26;23;09
Mort
Well, now, a reporter anywhere in the world, anywhere in the world with a satellite phone can send a picture, report back to the states. So the technology is phenomenal and the technology is wonderful, right. But it also opens up. You know, I always say that a person with a camera is no more a photographer than a person with a stethoscope is a doctor.
00;26;23;11 - 00;26;23;25
Jason
Sure.
00;26;23;25 - 00;26;48;16
Mort
Let's go. I mean, journalism is, is a profession that requires, first of all, a commitment to honesty and truth. But secondly, you need training. You need to have some, understanding and experience in how to recognize a story, how to organize a story, how to tell a story in a way that is meaningful to the audience.
00;26;48;18 - 00;27;14;16
Jason
You know, and I'm glad you mentioned that, because we talk about that a lot here on this program and in my other, you know, speaking and other outreach, which is basically, PR needs to be all about the audience of the news outlet when you're pitching media and so it doesn't make a lot of sense for me to go pitch a, journalist, a story that's all about the company that I'm representing.
00;27;14;19 - 00;27;27;18
Jason
It really needs to pivot its focus from what's interesting to the audience of the reporter you're pitching to. And, otherwise they're nobody's going to tune in if if it's kind of like, an advertisement or something like that.
00;27;27;21 - 00;27;52;05
Mort
It's all about the story. It really is. And, history is made up of stories we call journalists, the, the people who write the first draft of history. But that hasn't changed for all of the technological change, for all the proliferation of media, it's still about content. And I tell young people when they come to me for advice.
00;27;52;05 - 00;28;10;04
Mort
And back in the day, they there was a lot of that. I don't think they can find me now. You know, hiding out here in a retirement community in Florida. But when I was advising young people and they would come into my office and they'd say, what? What should I do? I want to be a television journalist or I want to be a broadcast journalist.
00;28;10;06 - 00;28;37;10
Mort
And my advice to them was, well, forget about television and radio right now. Think about getting the best education you can, and learn about life generally. There isn't any amount of learning in any subject field that isn't going to come in handy to you some day somewhere. You know, in your reporting. And, I found that true in my own life, things that I thought when I was going through school.
00;28;37;10 - 00;29;05;12
Mort
I'll never use this. But, boy, as a reporter, sooner or later, that little bit of knowledge came off the front of the brain, and you said. Yeah, that that it's good thing that I learned that. So I tell I tell the kids get the broadest, broadest, deepest education you can, learn to write, learn to speak, learn to think, learn as much history, as much political science, as much about the world as you can.
00;29;05;14 - 00;29;13;14
Mort
And then fundamental to everything, even broadcast journalism is writing.
00;29;13;16 - 00;29;13;29
Jason
Absolutely.
00;29;13;29 - 00;29;32;23
Mort
Because the word starts with the written word, even if you're speaking it, even if you don't write it down, you have to organize it in your brain as though you're writing it. So become a good writer, and if you're a good writer, I can teach you how to stand in front of a camera. I can teach you how to hold the microphone.
00;29;32;23 - 00;29;56;17
Mort
I can teach you how to be a broadcaster. But I can't teach you how to think, and I can't teach you how to write. Well, I could if I gave a writing course. Those are the things that you really need to focus on and don't worry so much about. You know, some of these kids go through these broadcast schools and they think they're going to come out after six months or a year of broadcast school being broadcasters.
00;29;56;17 - 00;30;13;13
Mort
Well, what they're basically learning is the technical side of it. And that's easy to learn. And that's that's the secondary part. You want to be a good broadcaster, learn to think, learn to write, learn to tell stories, learn to organize.
00;30;13;15 - 00;30;29;10
Jason
I like that a lot more. And I've been telling people for years that just because I have Photoshop on my computer doesn't make me an artist, right? Just because I have the software or the tools, you know, just because I have a chainsaw doesn't mean that I should be climbing up a tree and tearing down limbs. Right?
00;30;29;12 - 00;30;48;15
Jason
You got it. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. So, you know, there was a stage and and and and the, the rollout of technology where, you know, parents were literally buying their kids, Photoshop because they could become a graphic artist. And I'm like, well, they can they can become a technician and know how to click and move things around.
00;30;48;15 - 00;31;10;06
Jason
But that doesn't make them an artist. And I think you made a very good point there. And, you know, anybody can learn how to operate software. That doesn't mean that you're a professional, at, at whatever that software is designed for. So. Correct. So as we're wrapping up, we want to talk, about, your new book, and its theme.
00;31;10;08 - 00;31;19;14
Jason
And I also understand that, you know, you'll we'll, we'll put a link to your website in our episode notes where you might have some sort of special offer for our audience.
00;31;19;17 - 00;31;47;01
Mort
This is a book. It's called Anchored: A Journalist's Search for Truth. God that has a picture. Will Ferrell, Ron Burgundy on the front. I want to tell you something about this book, because it started out to be, a chronology of my experiences in life as a reporter. I've covered some really interesting stories. I mentioned the space program, I traveled around the world with President Lyndon Johnson.
00;31;47;01 - 00;32;00;03
Mort
I covered three of his summit conferences. I covered the Reagan Gorbachev's Summit conference in Washington. I've had an incredibly interesting life as a journalist, and that's what I started out to tell.
00;32;01;01 - 00;32;22;13
Mort
And it took me three years to write the story. I had to do a lot of research. I had to go back and check dates and, and go through my day planners, which fortunately I had saved over the years and make sure that I was accurate in what I was telling. I sent it to my, to my, agent in New York, and she took about two weeks to read it.
00;32;22;13 - 00;32;46;14
Mort
And she called me and she said, Mort, really like your book. It's well-written. I would have expected it to be well-written. And your stories are fascinating. But she said, you know, I'm Jewish. And I said, well, of course, Susanna Einstein. I knew you weren't Irish. Yeah. She said, well, I never thought I would say this to somebody, but your book needs more.
00;32;46;14 - 00;33;22;24
Mort
Jesus. Now, I knew what she was talking about. She did not literally mean that I needed more religion in the book. I needed more Jesus. What she was telling me was that my personal spiritual struggle and my desire to answer life's big questions. Is there a God? Is there any purpose to the universe? The big cosmic issues I grew up in in a conservative minister's home, so I was given the truth.
00;33;22;26 - 00;33;44;07
Mort
As many people are, you can be raised Catholic. You can be raised in a Conservative or Orthodox Jewish community. You can be raised a muslim. But we're all raised in these communities where our group has the truth. And I started to question things at a very early age. At about 15, I started asking myself, how do I know this is true?
00;33;44;07 - 00;34;08;03
Mort
How do I know that's true? Well, those questions and that journey that that search for truth kept popping up in my book, but it was just kind of a subtle undercurrent. What Susanna was telling me was that is your story. There are a lot of us, there are a lot of journalists who've who've probably had more exciting careers than you had covered, bigger stories than you've covered.
00;34;08;06 - 00;34;37;03
Mort
But as interesting as all that is, your story is your search for truth. And I went back and took two more years to rewrite the book, not losing, not losing the story or the narrative about the career that I've had, but allowing that personal story, that personal search, that desire to know the answers to the big questions in life, let it come through and be a dominant part of the book.
00;34;37;03 - 00;34;49;11
Mort
And I sent it back to her and she said, now you've got it, now you've got it. And so the publisher added the title, the book was just going to be called anchored, right? And the publisher added the title A Journalist's Search for Truth.
00;34;50;06 - 00;35;21;08
Mort
I think anybody who has been raised in a cocoon of certainty, that's what I call it when we're when we're raised to believe that our tribe, our group, our religion is the truth. Don't question it. Don't look for answers beyond that. It's a bubble. It's a bubble. And I think anybody who was raised in any kind of a bubble, but who began to question and wanted to know answers for themselves, will benefit from this book, because that's my story.
00;35;21;08 - 00;35;33;02
Mort
That's my search for truth. And I'm going to offer this book at a $10 discount. It sells for $24.95. Okay. If they go to my website, Mort Krim speaks dot.
00;35;33;02 - 00;35;35;10
Jason
Com.
00;35;35;12 - 00;35;53;07
Mort
And put in the code word holiday. Okay. Will get you a $10 discount and, the book and I'll sign the book. I love to graph the book. You can get it from Amazon or the bookstores or anyplace else. You can go to my website. You get the $10 discount and I will sign it to Howard. Autographed.
00;35;53;09 - 00;36;14;10
Jason
Very nice, very nice. We appreciate you offering that. And, we'll be sure to put a link to that, in the episode notes as well, to make it convenient for our audience. So, Mort, this has been a real pleasure talking to you. And as always, you know, you've got great stories and, you're very likable, person, of course, and very popular in your career.
00;36;14;12 - 00;36;21;28
Jason
So I just want to thank you for taking the time to, have this conversation with us and sharing with our audience. And, really appreciate you more.
00;36;22;04 - 00;36;25;11
Mort
It's been my pleasure. And you did a great interview, Jason. Good.
00;36;25;11 - 00;36;45;29
Jason
Oh, thank you, I appreciate it. Good job. That means a lot coming from you. So I appreciate that. So thank you. All right. Excellent. So with that, this has been another episode of On Top of PR. I hope you enjoyed it. A little bit different than our typical episode. Having a, special guest like Mort be here, but we were glad to have him and thankful for him sharing, his insights during his career.
00;36;46;02 - 00;36;55;25
Jason
If you value this episode and want to share it with a colleague or friend, please do just that. I'm sure they will really appreciate that you did that for them. And if you ever have a question or a topic you'd like to see us feature, please reach out to us as well. And with that, this is Jason Mudd signing off from On Top of PR. Be well.
00;36;55;25 - 00;37;51;17
Announcer
This has been on top of PR with Jason Mud presented by Review Mixer. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode and check out Paso's ad on top of pr.com.
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About your host Jason Mudd
On Top of PR host, Jason Mudd, is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands and fastest-growing companies. Since 1994, he’s worked with American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon. He founded Axia Public Relations in July 2002. Forbes named Axia as one of America’s Best PR Agencies.
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