By Kristin Sommers (March 1, 2003)
 

Molly Henneberg, a 1991 graduate of George Mason High School, recently visited her old high school’s journalism class to give an inside look on what it is like to be a TV journalist and how she got to where she is today.  Henneberg started out working on GM’s "Lasso" newspaper staff as a reporter and editor which is where she learned "a lot about interviewing skills, writing, editing, meeting deadlines, and working long hours when the paper had to come out."  After graduating, she went on to Vanderbilt University, where she moved from newspaper to TV journalism.

Fox News reporter Molly Henneberg, who got her start  in journalism here at George Mason, came back to  advise current journalism students about a career in  journalism. (Photos by Michael Miller)

Then she sent it out to many news stations around the country. However, very few people took the time to consider her, which, according to her, is typical in news journalism, but she did get a few opportunities. The first interview Henneberg went on was a disaster. "I was given a writing test and I broke the typewriter, so I had to write it out longhand and the pen ran out of ink. The test was timed so I thought I could make it up in the interview because I knew the issues. I went into his office and he asked me, ‘Were you the homecoming queen?’ and I said ‘No, but I was on the court my junior year.’ He said, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ I ended up not getting the job."

Henneberg advised future journalists “to get your feet wet, work with your college news channel, but be busy.”

But then she went on an interview in Hagerstown, Maryland and got the job. For two years she worked as a general assignment reporter, which meant that she did not have a specific area or topic to cover. While working there, she had to carry her own gear, shoot the film and edit the story herself. About six months after she arrived, she became an anchor as well.

After she left Hagerstown, she moved to Traverse City, Michigan. While there, Henneberg was an evening anchor and a medical reporter. "I loved doing medical reporting! I felt like I was making a difference, that people at home might really need to see this." But after two years she decided to leave Michigan, stop anchoring, and stick with reporting. She took a medical reporting job in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market in Pennsylvania for two years.
 

After leaving Scranton she moved back home to Washington where she heard that the FOX News Channel was looking for people to work behind the scenes. She began by logging tapes of that day’s news. She asked about working on camera but was told "you don’t have DC experience so I can’t imagine you getting on the air here." Coincidentally Henneberg found herself on Long Island on September 10, 2001. After 9-11, during the war in Afghanistan, the opportunity opened up for overnight reporting from the DC Bureau and Henneberg got that assignment, still on a freelance basis.  Soon after, her boss informed her that there might be an opening to do overnight reporting. As one job was ending, two people left and another job opened up at FOX News and she got a full time correspondent job. Henneberg says, "Doing 24-hour news is intense.

Henneberg shows how heavy and bulky was the  equipment she used to lug around when she wrote,  edited, filmed and reported her own stories without  the aid of a camera and sound crew.

Henneberg says she knew that she wanted to be a journalist all the way back to her days at "Lasso." "I had a real interest in current events and loved doing interviews and putting Lasso out." To anyone who wants to get into journalism she recommends "getting your feet wet. Work with your college news channel or radio show, but be busy."

Footnote: Following her visit to Mason’s journalism class, Henneberg received an assignment to fly on Air Force One as part of the press pool to Crawford, Texas, to cover President Bush’s long weekend at his ranch. And just this week, Fox decided to station Henneberg at the White House on Saturdays and Sundays as a general assignment reporter. Look for her to be reporting from the White House lawn each weekend.