Recap: Michael Schmidt


On March 21st, SPJ had the honor of hosting New York Times journalist Michael Schmidt. Schmidt has been working with the Washington Bureau of the New York Times for the past five years. He has covered stories from the Pentagon to the FBI to Hillary Clinton’s emails.
            Schmidt started out as a clerk answering the phone after he graduated from Lafayette College and then eventually was able to start free lance writing for the Times. He started out writing about issues within the sports community concerning issues such as doping scandals, legal issues, and concussions. Eventually Schmidt transferred over to covering the Government and Politics, which is what he is still doing today.
            Schmidt gave advice to those in attendance and provided some personal stories. He went on to discuss how he wants to be completely neutral and to avoid bias in his reporting. He also advised everyone not to report on something that may be wrong.
            All in all, SPJ had a wonderful turn out for the meeting.

“The facts will always support you if you have the facts and if they are the right facts.” – Michael Schmidt


Signing off, 
GMU SPJ

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