Senior executive producer of “Meet the Press,” Betsy Fischer Martin, was the keynote speaker at Creighton’s Alpha Sigma Nu Lecture on Tuesday in the Harper Center Hixson Lied Auditorium.
Her presentation, entitled “Meeting the Press: Headlines and history from the longest running television program,” was part of the annual Rev. William F. Kelley, S.J. Lecture Series. Started in 1958, this annual tradition has become an important event for Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit Honor Society on Creighton’s campus that aims to highlight students in Jesuit institutions who demonstrate the ideals of Jesuit higher education including scholarship, loyalty and service according to the Rev. Greg Carlson S.J., faculty adviser to the Student Chapter of Alpha Sigma Nu.
Meet the Press is the longest running television program in the world and has featured headline-making interviews with world leaders and U.S. news makers. Fischer Martin has been executive producer of Meet the Press since 2002, but began working for Meet the Press in 1992 as a political researcher. Fisher Martin completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies in broadcast journalism at American University in Washington, D.C.
The lecture was free and open to the public and was opened by a formal welcome given by the Rev. Thomas Shanahan S.J., the Board Moderator for Alpha Sigma Nu who jokingly said that his Sunday revolved around his 9 a.m. viewing of meet the press as opposed to Mass. Remarks were then given by the Rev. Timothy Lannon S.J., Creighton University’s president and an Alumnus member of Alpha Sigma Nu who referred to Meet the Press as the, “Jewel of NBC News” and heralded Fisher Martin as a “star, leader and advocate for women.”
In her lecture Fisher Martin focused on the revolutionary nature of Meet the Press in that the program had world leaders come on to the show and speak directly to the press, something that had never been done before. She referenced how having a once-weekly broadcast can be difficult because of the fast-paced nature of news but said that the aim of Meet the Press is to see how a story will develop and to deliver balanced news to the public.
The common thread throughout her lecture was references to former anchor Tim Russert, who was the moderator on meet the press from 1991 to 2008. Fisher Martin points to Russert as the source for for her interest in journalism.
“Little did I know I got bit by the journalism bug from Tim whose enthusiasm really drew me and I realized that while I loved politics, I was not a very political person,” Fisher Martin said. “I loved the debate about politics and so it ended up being the perfect fit for me so that I could use my love of politics in a constructive way.”
Fisher Martin said in her lecture that Russert often said that politics did not have to be over complicated. She went on to say that Meet the Press is the real window on the world and that the goal of the show is to create a dialogue around politics that can engage a universal audience.