March/April 2002
FSU graduate called the shots at CNN
during the 2000 presidential election
By Jack McCarthy
The 2000 presidential election turned topsy turvy when Sid Bedingfield, an FSU alumnus now running the news operation at CNN, decided to move the state of Florida from the Al Gore "win" column to "undecided."
CNN was the first to do so, and the rest of the major media soon followed. Because he was the first, however, Bedingfields' name has taken on a historical weight in books on the now infamous 2000 election.
Bedingfield, executive vice president and general manager for CNN/US, attended FSU from 1975-80 and departed with a bachelor's degree in English literature.
"I came to Florida State with no idea of what I wanted to do," he said recently. "I loved my freshman year and did reasonably well in school, especially my English and political science classes, but I had no real focus or career goal in mind."
He said his passion for journalism began when he was a writer and editor at the now defunct independent student newspaper, the Florida Flambeau.
"It is not too dramatic to say that it
changed my life," he said.
"I remember the first day I walked into that cramped, dingy,
poster-lined Flambeau office, full of typewriters and gluepots
and balled-up copy paper everywhere, and I just fell in love
with the place."
Bedingfield credits his older brother, David, also an FSU graduate and former Flambeau editor, and currently a barrister in London, England, for "nudging" him into the Flambeau.
"That is where I made my closest friends,
met my wife, wrote some truly awful stories and columns-but over
time learned a thing or two about reporting, wriiting and newspapering."
David Bedingfield said his brother Sid "was a fabulous writer.
"He had a terrific eye for detail, for what might be interesting
within the context of the overall story. I would bet this served
him pretty well at CNN.
Why was it when he was at the Flambeau everyone there worked like demons and produced award winning newspapers, while when I was at the Flambeau everyone smoked drugs relentlesly and sometimes forgot to put out the paper at all? Think it had to do with the editors?"
After the Flambeau, Sid Bedingfield got a reporting job on the Post Herald in Birmingham, Ala.
In 1986, he went to CNN as a writer.
He enjoys the corporate media world.
"We come in every day and try to whip the other guy,"
he said. "It's never boring"
|
BackCharlie BarnesNews NotesCompressionIn MemoriamFavorite Prof |
