Before meeting with Carole for the first interview session, I read several books on broadcast journalism, including Waiting for Prime Time, by Marlene Sanders and Marcia Rock, Evening Stars, by Barbara Matusow, The Imperfect Mirror, by Daniel Paisner, Hard News, Women in Broadcast Journalism, by David H. Hosley and Gayle K. Yamada, Newstalk II, by Shirley Biagi, and Women in Television News, by Judith S. Gelfman. I used Peter B. Levy's book, Let Freedom Ring, and The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader to review the chronology of the civil rights movement. When Marc Gunther's book The House that Roone Built was released in March 1994, I read it.

Before beginning and through the course of the interviews, I watched both ABC "World News Tonight" and either NBC "Evening News" or "The CBS Evening News" every day, taping the ABC news for later viewing when I could not watch it at broadcast time. I also watched the debate of the presidential candidates which Carole moderated in October 1992. I regularly read the TV Column in the Washington Post, which carries news items about the networks and local stations. At the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City I was able to see Carole on broadcasts from 1977 and 1986. Carole also provided me with a tape of a Phil Donahue talk show aired December 12, 1985 which featured Carole and six other female broadcast journalists, a tape of "Black in White America," and a tape of "The Tapes of Wrath."

After our second interview session, Carole invited me to visit the ABC studio on a Saturday when she would be anchoring the evening news broadcast so that I might see her working environment and meet some of the people she works with—from the writers to cameramen to the makeup man. It was helpful to have that close-up experience.

All of the interview sessions were conducted at the Washington headquarters of ABC News. Initially, Carole arranged to use either the conference room or a vacant executive office; the later interview sessions on Sundays were conducted in her office. Despite my concern that she might be somewhat guarded when being interviewed at ABC, Carole seemed to speak frankly in discussing all the issues I raised. Because of her special assignments and extensive speaking commitments, it was difficult to schedule the interview sessions, and changes in day or time of day were frequent, even on the day of an interview. On two consecutive Sundays, breaking stories forced cancellation of the interviews sessions.

Carole and I are nearly the same age and share roots in the Midwest. We both graduated from the University of Michigan. She graduated only a year before I did, so we were both on campus from 1960 to 1962. In addition to that intersection of experience, for several years in the mid-1960s I lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, near the University of Chicago, where Carole grew up and where she lived as a young career woman. Both Carole and I are working mothers, although in different fields, and we have daughters the same age. Despite our similarities, as a white woman, I have experienced the University of Michigan, Hyde Park, Washington, D.C., and the challenges of a career differently.

Donita M. Moorhus
May 1994