Gayle King says her trip to Fort Worth for the Schieffer Symposium is one of the hottest tickets in media circles.
“I was so honored when Bob called and asked me to attend the symposium,” said King, who is a co-anchor of “CBS This Morning” and editor-at-large for O, The Oprah Magazine. “It was like when a cute boy in your class asks you to the prom out of all the other girls he could have asked.”
The 11th Annual Schieffer Symposium will be on April 8 at 6:30 p.m. in Ed Landreth Auditorium. King will join fellow panelists Holly Williams, P.J. O’Rourke and Dan Balz.
Schieffer said he bases his panel selections on people who have caught his eye during the year.
“Gayle is not afraid to ask people the questions the rest of us are thinking,” Schieffer said.
“I think that’s her secret to success,” Schieffer said. “She really does her homework and it’s very, very obvious in the questions that she asks.”
King said she likes to work with people who push her to be better.
“I’m not a girl who thinks I don’t want to work with a specific person because I feel threatened by them. I want to work with people who are just as good, if not better and stronger than I am,” King said. “It forces you to up your game and receive constant learning.”
“I don’t care who you are, you can always do better and be better. Surround yourself with people who can make you the best you can possibly be,” King said.
Her means of achieving excellence are evident by the awards she has received.
King has been awarded three Emmys, an American Women in Radio & Television Gracie Award for Outstanding Talk Show, an Individual Achievement Award for Host-Entertainment/Information and New York Women in Communications’ Matrix Award recipient.
King said success comes with a lot of time.
She was a television news anchor for 18 years at CBS affiliate WFSB-TV in Hartford, Connecticut and several other television stations such as WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Missouri; WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland and WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C.
Schieffer said that consistent practice helps to better a journalist.
“Someone once said to me, you go to law school to think like a lawyer, but you go to work in a law firm to know how to be a lawyer,” Schieffer said.
“Its the same way with journalism. To be a reporter, you just have to be a reporter and you have to do the same things over and over, the more you do it, the more you learn how to do it.”
King said she hopes viewers leave the symposium this year feeling satisfied.
“I want them to think, ‘Boy, I’m glad I went,’” King said. “I don’t want it to be a panel where you sit there looking at your watch; I guarantee you that will not happen.”
