Clark University - Clark News winter 2005
Running with the Wolf Pack
(winter 2005)
By Angela Bazydlo
Read an interview with David Fialkov '06
A student's view of election night from CNN's "war room"
David Fialkov '06, who worked on Senator John Kerry's primary campaign, didn't need to channel surf on election night to find the latest news. He was in the thick of it, working on the election coverage team at CNN.
Fialkov, an American government major and son of Claire '77 and Jay '77 Fialkov, spent the fall 2004 semester interning at CNN in Washington, D.C., for Wolf Blitzer, host of CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports. Up until election night, Fialkov was part of the "Wolf Pack," planning shows, researching and booking guests, brainstorming questions for guests and updating Blitzer's Web site on CNN.com. He wrote, edited and assisted with Web columns for "big-time political analysts" prior to their appearances on television. He watched the wire for breaking news stories and even worked in the studio with Blitzer, helping produce the show.
"I was given very challenging and rewarding assignments," Fialkov says.
Watching the courts
But election night was a bit different for Fialkov, for a variety of reasons. Typically, he says, he would have been home, channel-hopping like every interested American with a working television set. However, Fialkov was unable to closely follow a lot of the races that interested him because his main assignment that night was legal research.
"Prior to the election there was widespread anticipation of lawsuits being filed and court rulings and voter problems," he explains. "So, CNN prepared a whole war room, led by CNN Legal Analyst Jeffery Toobin, to cover such developments throughout the country."
That night, Fialkov helped the CNN team by monitoring the news wires and reading and summarizing articles and any court opinions that developed.
"Toobin obviously could not explain to the American people on TV an entire complex legal opinion, nor did he have the time to read them all himself, so he counted on the legal team to do the reading for him and summarize them," he says. "I also followed a lot of other things that had the potential to develop into lawsuits throughout the country."
Fialkov, who has worked in law offices and read such opinions before, was able to comprehend the complexity of the cases. He wrote his high-school thesis on the legal drama of the 2000 election, so he was familiar with some of the issues that might arise.
"Fortunately, there were no major legal dramas on election night. But, if there were, we would have been ready," he says.
Life in the newsroom
Fialkov's duties on election night were drastically different from his other day-to-day assignments. And the hours were slightly modified.
"Since my boss was the host of CNN's election coverage, I had to stay at work for as long as he was on the air, which was until 4 a.m.—quite a long day considering I arrived at work at 7 a.m. that morning, and returned at 7 a.m. the following morning," he says. "It didn't feel like work though."
Fialkov, who says he was a fan of John Kerry from the very beginning and worked on his campaign from October 2003 through the Democratic National Convention, was devastated when it became evident his candidate had lost the election.
"Having worked for Senator Kerry since the early days when he was losing to Howard Dean, it was an especially bitter pill to swallow. I had to continue legal research when all I wanted to do was go into a corner and cry. I did it though, and to be able to leave your emotions at the door and work hard is an important skill to have, no matter what business you're in," he says.
Fialkov is strongly considering a career in journalism because of his internship experience.
"I have always wanted to be a political writer or commentator, or other kind of analyst, and to really get a sense of the day-to-day lives that these people live is very helpful."
The place to be
Fialkov had an opportunity to continue working with Senator Kerry this fall, but instead chose the internship at CNN.
"I try not to think about whether or not I could have made the difference working for the Kerry campaign, because I don't think I would have. But I do think I could have been a good asset to the campaign, and working on the campaign would certainly have been a valuable experience for me," he says.
Fialkov is certain about one thing, however.
"If there was any place in the world I could have chosen to be on election night, it would have been CNN's control room and war room. And that's where I spent it."
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