TV Reports by Cronkite Students Featured on MSNBC

Students from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University now have their best TV work featured on MSNBC under a new partnership with the national news network. Cronkite students had two on-air reports last week. On Friday, MSNBC anchor Rita Cosby conducted a live interview with student-reporter Hailey Frances on her story about an Arizona ballot initiative that would make illegal immigrants attending state universities pay out-of-state tuition rates. On Monday, the network featured Betsy Gessell and her story on photo cameras used to catch speeders on the Loop 101 in Scottsdale. Both stories were first aired on Cronkite NewsWatch, the school’s award-winning newscast. “This is a tremendous opportunity for top broadcast news students such as Hailey and Betsy,” said Cronkite News Director Mark Lodato. “Not only does this help improve their live reporting skills, the MSNBC partnership is a great way to show the rest of the nation the quality work Cronkite School students produce here everyday.” “This is the kind of opportunity a 10-year veteran reporter would look forward to, so to have Cronkite School students appear live before a national audience is a fantastic endorsement of our program,” Lodato said. Gessell is a graduate student from Minneapolis. Frances is a senior from Scottsdale, Ariz. They were interviewed via satellite in the Cronkite School’s TV studio at KAET-TV, the public television station operated by ASU and adjacent to the journalism school. The Cronkite news set was recently donated by KPHO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Phoenix. The two stories also are featured on the network’s Web site, msnbc.com. MSNBC launched the “MSNBC on Campus” program two weeks ago. In addition to the two stories from the Cronkite School, the network has featured one story each from Syracuse University, the University of Colorado and the University of North Carolina.