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Lester Holt bringing NBC Nightly News to Tampa next week

 
JOSE LUIS VILLEGAS   |   Sacramento Bee via AP (2015) Lester Holt said Red Tide would be the biggest Tampa story on the broadcast.
JOSE LUIS VILLEGAS | Sacramento Bee via AP (2015) Lester Holt said Red Tide would be the biggest Tampa story on the broadcast.
Published Oct. 5, 2018

Lester Holt is coming to Tampa on Wednesday, Oct.10 as part of NBC Nightly News' Across America series, which sends the anchor to five cities in five days to report on issues that "impact Americans in their hometowns."

"It started in 2016 as a way of checking the political pulse," Holt said by phone from New York. "But we wanted a chance to focus on local stories that may resonate around the country. … In Tampa, the environmental issues are huge, the Red Tide issue is huge, but it also speaks to larger environmental issues we can drill down on."

Holt said Red Tide would be the biggest Tampa story on the broadcast, but there would be others, including a feature on four Tampa Bay girls all being treated for the same type of brain cancer.

The show will be broadcasting live from Tampa on Wednesday. Holt wasn't sure yet of the exact location, but said he wanted it to be somewhere that shows off the city, but also somewhere public where people could watch the broadcast live and "stop by to say hi."

Other cities Holt will visit this week include Houston, Texas; Montgomery, Ala.; Kansas City, Mo.; and San Diego, Calif.

We asked Holt, who will return to Tampa Bay in December to be honored at the Poynter Institute's 2018 Bowtie Ball, a few questions before he hit the road.

You're visiting hometowns, so what can you tell me about yours?

I was an Air Force kid; my father was a career airman, so we moved around. I was born in California, and we spent four years in Alaska, but I claim Sacramento as my hometown, because that's where we settled at 13. When I go home — I was there a few weeks ago — people take a lot of pride in what I've accomplished, and there's something wonderful about being back in a place you know, but it's important to get out there and see what other people's priorities are.

Nightly News starts at 6:30 p.m., but when do you get into the office?

Most days I try to get in by 9:30, sometimes earlier. I'll go out and shoot stories. I've kind of taken the lead on our closer stories, Inspiring America, Those Who Serve — they break down stories of individuals, amazing people, and then we do the Spotlight once a week or so, to do a dive on a pop culture subject. Recently I sat with John Legend to talk about music and justice reform. … I notice more people lately stop me and say, "I love those stories at the end, they make me cry, or smile." We need that.

There's a friendly rivalry between TV and print reporters. Settle it now, what's the better way to get your news?

We used to say print reporters are smarter because they have to know how to spell things. (Laughs) I start every morning by reading newspapers online, as many as I can. I'm slow to the game on this, but I'm embracing podcasts on my commute to work. Then I'll try to watch our broadcast in the morning. I try to consume a lot, anywhere I can get it. In a way, our worlds, newspapers and TV, are merging now. When I started, I did TV news, but now I might see it in the back of a taxi, on an iPhone, there's any number of places.

What are the news sites and podcasts you like?

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I normally check out the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times and Politico online first thing. As far as podcasts, I listen to the New York Times' The Daily and FiveThirtyEight's podcast as well.

After you interviewed Donald Trump in 2017 about James Comey's firing, he tweeted, "Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia." How do you find out the president is accusing you of "fudging" an interview?

I was on vacation. I slept in, then checked Twitter, and it was, "Hey Carol" — that's my wife — "the president is tweeting about me!" It's one of those surreal things. Beyond that, as you pointed out, that interview was well over a year ago, and I just don't really dignify it with a response.

What do you make of the cries of "fake news," not only from the president, but from regular people?

I don't like to hear it aimed at my colleagues, but it's kind of just white noise now. It has never affected what we do. I'm pretty sure I'm anchoring a broadcast that's 70 years old. You can't tweet away that many years of integrity and trust. ... Sometimes we read news that doesn't make us happy, but to write it off as fake isn't healthy. Of course, people should read every piece of news with a mind toward critical thinking, but we have a deep reservoir of trust.