ESPN personality and Medill alum speaks to cherubs

By Eric Mayo

“He’s here.”

The audience came to a collective hush. The big wooden doors in the back of the auditorium swung open.

“It was like having a life coach talk to you,” Dallas Wright, a cherub from Chicago, Ill. said afterward. Alex Katz, a cherub from Newton, Mass. called it one of the best experiences of the summer. Both were referring to Washington Post columnist and ESPN personality Michael Wilbon, who spoke to the cherub program on July 5.

Wilbon went to work for the Post immediately after graduating from Medill in 1980. Ten years later, after covering various collegiate and professional sports, he became a full time columnist for the Post.

In 2001, Wilbon and fellow Post columnist Tony Kornheiser became co-hosts for Pardon the Interruption, a daily sports talk show on ESPN where the pair debates the day’s sports topics.

Wilbon stressed the importance of proficiency in multiple media. Good journalists should know how to write, said Wilbon, but they should be able to blog and podcast as well. Wilbon talked about how he has to do a video for The Washington Post in addition to a weekly podcast for Pardon the Interruption.

Wherever journalism is going, Wilbon said that there are certain things that will always be important in journalism. Whatever type of media you eventually get into, good reporting will transcend all forms of journalism. Good writing as well, Wilbon said, is a valuable tool no matter where the media is going.

Good storytelling will always be in style. “It doesn’t matter what form of journalism it is, it’s still storytelling,” he said. Wilbon reiterated this point weeks later in an interview with The Big Lead, a sports blog, in which he mentioned the cherubs. When asked what he would tell prospective journalism students, he said “good writing, detailed reporting and in general great storytelling are never going to go out of style.”

Wilbon gave advice for life as well. Wilbon said that no matter what you do, know the history behind what you do. He said that you can’t know Barry Bonds without knowing Hank Aaron, and you can’t know Hank Aaron without knowing Ty Cobb.

 “Wilbon taught me that if I stick to the basics of reporting and getting the facts straight,” said Jeff Scholl, a cherub from Bethesda, Md. “I can still be successful in an everchanging world.”

“It was the longest lecture we had,” said Wright, “but it didn’t seem like it.”

Aisha Hasan talks to Mike Wilbon after he signs an autograph for her brother.