Special Events Reviews

May 5, 2006 - In Reno, CBS News reporter Lesley Stahl exemplifies why she's still on top

By Jack Neal

Lesley Stahl, looking and sounding decades younger than her 64 years, exemplified what it takes to be a star in the news business. She'd be the first to say I'm not a star, I'm a reporter. And so she is, and one of the very best in the business.

Appearing as one of the lecturers on Reno s premiere season for its "Smart Talk" women's lecture series Wednesday evening (5/3/06) at Reno's Pioneer Center, the forthright, intelligent Ms. Stahl encouraged and challenged listeners to read, read, and read some more to get to the truth of the matter on a myriad of subjects central to what makes the contemporary world go around.

Stahl came well-prepared. Her remarks had substance and wit. She reacted to her audience with an immediacy that said volumes about her ability to interview, get the basics of a story, then adorn those basics with the kind of human interest that holds listeners in rapt attention.

With listenership and viewership of the main network evening news programs down about half over the past two decades (from 60 million to about 34 million), Stahl attributes the fracturing of the relative unity of thought in the United States to the explosion of technology. There are so many sources, Stahl explained, for getting today's news on the internet, that getting information from central unifying sources is no longer the way it's done.

The self-proclaimed debate in her lecture as to whether leadership or technology has had the most influence on national and world events, Stahl feels leadership is central to moving major issues and events. But the internet has brought enormous amounts more exposure to people such as international terrorists. That makes once obscure people players on the contemporary world scene, something, she implied, that did not happen nearly as much before cyberspace.

Her advice to young people starting out in the business? Once again read, then practice writing. Start with a small organization so that one is forced to practice all aspects of one s craft. Then do it quickly, on time and well.

Stahl's comments about being a women in news at the beginning of equal opportunity employment - men could smile on TV but not women, men could talk about substantive issues, but not women - sounds silly today, and that was her point. But for any of us around during that time, listening and watching, it is the way it was. And, according to Stahl, it is the way it was by command of network television's upper brass.

Revelations about working on "60 Minutes" were direct and to the point. "Women", she was warned at the outset of her career, "could not work past the age of forty". Men could, but not women. "Sixty Minutes" Mike Wallace is just retiring - at 87, and he's the same age as Andy Rooney who isn't retiring. "And here I am in my sixties", Stahl said with a note of triumph, "and I'm still here." And the news business is the better for it. And so are we.

The only jarring note at these "Smart Talk" events are the running ads from the lectern before each lecture by representatives of "Smart Talk's" principal sponsor, the Reno Gazette-Journal. With tickets priced from $45 to $70, patrons should not be subjected to extended promotion. Brief sponsorship recognition, if at all beyond the program, is sufficient. "Smart Talk", a splendid series, is not enhanced by intrusive pre-lecture advertising.

Erin Brockovich speaks May 23. Candace Bushnell of "Sex and the City" fame ends "Smart Talk's" current season May 31, 2006. "Smart Talk" is presented at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 South Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada. For tickets online go to tickets.pioneercenter.com. For tickets by phone call 1-877-840-0457.