NBC‘s Nightly News anchor Lester Holt was the headline guest speaker for Tuesday’s general session of the 37th Annual NAMIC, National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications, conference, as part of Diversity Week taking place in New York.
During the session, Holt reflected on the importance of diversity within the newsroom, access for aspiring journalists, and why he believes being a reporter is a “high calling.”
The session was moderated by Holt’s NBC News colleague and NBC News Daily anchor Morgan Radford.
Holt on diversity within the newsroom: “It’s so vitally important to have people in the newsroom who have different experiences in life.”
He added, “Certainly within the organization, as well and the industry as a whole, I think there is a recognition that people want to turn on the TV and see people that kind of look like them or maybe have had experiences kind of like them. I think from a storytelling purpose, which is what we do every night – we’re storytellers – it’s so vitally important to have people in the newsroom who have different experiences in life.”
Holt also reflected on why he feels being a reporter is a “high calling.”
“One of the other pieces of advice I got from a mentor years ago, who has now passed on, but he said being a reporter is the highest calling of our business, and I get a lot of attention being the anchor of NBC Nightly News,” he said. “To me, the joy in this job is being out and covering stories. Sitting at that wonderful plexiglass desk every night with all the monitors and stuff, it’s prestigious. It’s an important job. But I always look back, I think, the most thrilling, interesting, fascinating moments of my career have not been in the studio. They’ve been outside the studio. Being a reporter is the highest calling, not being the anchor, but being a reporter. And so I take that to heart every day, and that’s kind of the principle I think most of us stand on.”
This year’s theme for the NAMIC conference is “Our Legacy, A Mosaic of Possibilities,” which underscores NAMIC’s legacy of empowering diversity, equity, access, and inclusion in the media, entertainment, and technology industries.
Diversity Week 2023 comprises a series of conferences and events focused on advancing diversity business practices in the TV, internet, and media industries. It is taking place from Sept. 18 through Sept. 20.
