NBC’s Hallie Jackson Receives Broadcaster of the Year Award

As the Allen B. DuMont Broadcaster of the Year, Hallie Jackson, chief White House correspondent for NBC News and “MSNBC Live” host, shared with Montclair State media majors the advice she received in college as an aspiring journalist.

“Just learn how to ask questions,” Jackson says in an interview for Carpe Diem, a weekly magazine show produced by students. “Be smart and be hungry. That’s all you need. You will learn all the rest of it on the job, wherever you are.”

That advice, she says, came from the pioneering journalist, the late Cokie Roberts, a role model for women shaping today’s media landscape.

“For me it was enough to set me on this path to think, yes, that’s all you really need,” Jackson tells Marc Rosenweig, retired television and digital media professor, who hosts the episode. “You just have to be a well-rounded person and be curious about the world. Just be curious. That’s what it comes down to.”

Jackson was on campus on November 21 to receive the prestigious DuMont award, which is given annually to leading journalists and reporters in recognition of Allen B. DuMont, an early television inventor and programmer.

Jackson earned her reputation as a tireless and versatile reporter with her coverage during the 2016 Republican primary. “It was the journey of a lifetime,” she says in the Carpe Diem interview. “Talk about being on the front row to history.”