Interview by Cheyenne Lizardi, 13, New York
Scholastic Student Reporter
 Gideon Yago and Scholastic Student Reporter Cheyenne Lizardi. (Photo: Suzanne Freeman) |
Yago was chosen from a group of Columbia University students trying out for MTV's "Choose or Lose" campaign in 2000. "Choose or Lose" educates and registers young voters during presidential election years. Yago became one of six college students around the country reporting on the election. He was so popular, MTV kept him on to cover other stories, sending him to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.
Teen People magazine named Yago one of the "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" in 2002.
Scholastic News Online recently visited Gideon at the MTV studios in New York City's Times Square.
SN: What was your life like growing up in Queens, New York?
Gideon: I had an older brother and a dog, so that pretty much occupied most of my time. I rode my bike and hung out. My brother is two years older than me so he was my best friend and my worst enemy. He was always whom I was playing with.
SN: What were some of your favorite children's books?
Gideon: I remember reading Catcher in the Rye when I was 13. That was probably the most definitive book that I read in junior high. I read a lot of sci-fi. I read a lot of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and stuff like that. Once I read Catcher in the Rye everything kind of changed. My approach toward books changed. My approach toward life changed. It's a great book.
SN: Why do you think reading is important?
Gideon: Oh, wow. I have in some cases an overactive imagination. I like movies; movies are fun. I like records; records are fun. But, it's always someone telling you what to see or what to hear. When you read a book, you get to come up with it on your own. I would just get lost in books. I always have.
SN: What do you do for fun in your free time?
Gideon: I like to go skateboarding. I like to play basketball in the park right by my building. I like to watch movies. I also play the piano.
SN: What kinds of music are you into? Who are some of your favorite artists?
Gideon: I listen to Johnny Cash, which is kind of ironic. He's great. I guess it's because he passed away last year and all this new material is coming out. I like Radiohead. I like the Beastie Boys. I like the Beatles.
SN: How is MTV different from other news networks?
Gideon: MTV is different from other news networks in that we walk a very particular beat which is: How do you make stories about young people? How do you make news and headlines important to a teenage and college-aged audience? So, we really aggressively go out and try to find a peg for any major news story that has to do with somebody usually around high school or college age.
SN: Do you try to emulate other reporters, or are you just being you?
Gideon: I think this makes me sound like a total nerd, but I love Ted Koppel. I think that guy—he is just amazing! He is just so good at what he does. I never had any experience as a journalist before I started working at MTV, so I have to learn as I go along. I spent a lot of time watching interviews that I've done just to see how I can do it better. How do people react to things that you say . . . how you move your body . . . how can you get the best answers out of people. And that guy (Koppel) is just such a pro and such a natural at getting people to open up and really cuts to the heart of any issue. I am just constantly wowed by him. It's funny because Nightline (Koppel's late-night news program on ABC) comes on back-to-back against some other programming that my girlfriend likes to watch, so sometimes I have to flip back during commercials.
SN: What was it like when you interviewed President Bush?
Gideon: The first time we interviewed him was in a blizzard in New Hampshire in 2000. The second time was right before Election Day. He's very interesting. He's a very congenial guy. He tries to instantly establish a rapport with you. You can't really get to know someone in a 20 to 30 minute time span when you're just standing there to do an interview. He was very relaxed and he was very loose.
SN: When you went to Kuwait, were you scared?
Gideon: I was more scared because I didn't know what to expect. I'd never been in an environment like that before. The fear of the unknown is so much greater than the fear of what is real. Does that make sense? You watch the news and you read the papers. Like I said, my imagination ran a little wild.
When I got to Baghdad it was both better and worse than I had ever expected. I was scared. I remember we drove on this road for 13 hours from Jordan to Baghdad. You have to drive at about 130 miles per hour because you don't want anyone to pull you over or you don't want to be in any one place long enough for them to blow up a roadside bomb. I just remember the whole ride being very, very tense.
When we got to Baghdad that night, there was shelling and gunfire outside of our hotel and they had just hit one of the main hotels for journalists with a bunch of rockets. I sat up on the roof and I was with a bunch of guys who had been there for months and months—and you just kind of adapt to it. It doesn't become—when all you have to deal with is the fear—it becomes overwhelming. But, when you're in an environment where you have to do your job and you have all these other things going on around you, the fear takes the backseat. Then you become a lot less scared. Once I got there I was a lot more at ease than I was in anticipation of going there.
SN: What was your reaction when you saw Saddam Hussein captured?
Gideon: I thought it was a great day for Iraqis. I really thought it was just fabulous because he really was reviled over there. He really was a dictator and he put fear into people's lives. That affected everything that they did. By the same token, the war is not just about Saddam. The war is about the Iraqi people.
SN: What issues do you think young people should be most concerned about today?
Gideon: War is a big one because I think all of us are going to inherit a future. . . . It's what sets the stage for whatever happens next. And whatever happens next is the future that you and me and everyone else after us are going to inherit. I think that is most worth watching.
SN: "Choose or Lose." Tell me about it.
Gideon: Every year we have a pro-social campaign here at MTV. "Choose or Lose" is the oldest and the one I have done the most. The goal this year is to get 20 million voters between 18 and 30—20 Million Loud—to the polls on Election Day because we want to do away with the perception that young people don't vote. When you move a number that big, it's hard to argue that young people don't vote.
SN: You said you got into journalism when you were 21. Was there a moment that said, "That's what I want to do?"
Gideon: Yeah, it was election night 2000. I was up at 4 a.m. doing a live hit, and the press riser outside of the governor's mansion in Texas was eight stories tall and there were over 150 people on it. You had journalists from across the world there, all looking at this little patch of ground where—if Gore won everyone was going to be really bummed and if Bush won everyone was going to be really excited. What happened was that we didn't know who the President was. What happened was at 4 a.m., I was about five stories off the ground doing a live hit. It was this yearlong thing I had covered and I didn't have an ending for it. That's when I realized this is possibly the best job ever. I was standing in a moment that everyone will talk about for years and years to come. I was right in the thick of it and I think that's the reason I really love my job.
SN: For a young journalist like me, what advice do you have?
Gideon: Check and double check and triple check your facts all the time. All it takes is one slip-up—just once—and your critics, your bosses, and the people you do the stories on will never let you hear the end of it. You are only as good as your fact-checking. At the end of the day, as much as this business is about telling stories, it's about telling the facts.
