Journalist Lisa Ling spoke on her experiences in communications, which began at the age of fourteen, to a crowd filled with many moms and students at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium Friday night.
From her first internship at the CBS game show Joker's Wild to her current work on MSNBC's National Geographic Ultimate Explorer, Ling's career has allowed her to gain an international perspective.
She began with a discussion of her family life, saying that she was intrigued by the idea of Moms' Weekend. Ling's parents divorced when she was seven, and she lived with her father and grandmother in Sacramento, Calif.
The divorce forced Ling and her sister to grow up very young and gave them the opportunity to see L.A. For years Ling resented her mother's choice to pursue a career, but she said recently she has come to admire her mother for balancing work and family.
After begging for internships in her teens, she got the job at Joker's Wild. She was then selected at a Sacramento-area mall for Scratch
a teen magazine show. She also worked at the local affiliate that produced Scratch and said this was a great chance to learn about journalism.
Ling worked for seven years at Channel One News, a program seen in middle and high schools. Though hired to be the young cute-ish Asian reporter Ling said she used the show as a vehicle to pursue journalism.
While on a trip to Afghanistan in 1994, Ling said she saw death when looking in the eyes of armed boys. She remembered speaking with her producer asking, What's going to happen when these kids grow up? Ling said she wonders if those boys joined the Taliban.
While working at Channel One, she developed a desire to immerse herself in other cultures. She said she was able to experience these places for a short period and leave, and also make more comprehensive news stories than of other networks.
She then landed her job on The View. She said she found it to be a really
really empowering program.
Getting the job was horrifying
Ling said, as she had to take on the frightening task of making people laugh after years as a journalist. It also could be difficult to get a word in edgewise.
During her three-and-a-half years at The View
she said was proud of her efforts to say one provocative thing per day.
After Sept. 11, Ling felt a burning desire to get back into the trenches and made the decision to leave The View. She moved on to National Geographic, an organization which she said, to me
was just my father's magazine.
Though originally turned off by the stories she was offered (I'm scared of
