I had a hard time today trying to be an unbiased journalist.

A legislation that would require public retirement funds to divest from Iran passed in a House Retirement committee today. I was assigned to interview the senator who sponsored the bill.

His secretary yelled at me, told me today was not a good day for him. After stressing, begging, and groveling, the press secretary squeezed me into the senator’s schedule. He began:

“A friend of mine has the last name Hosseini….he’s Iranian, too.”

Me: “Oh, cool!”

(awkward silence)

“He is the manager of a waffle house.”
(apparently he owns a waffle house or something to that extent so it wasnt meant to be offensive, but it was awkward)

Me: “Okay….”

“Where you or anyone in your family born in Iran?”

Me: “Yes, my parents and sister were.”

During the interview, despite his repeating that Iranians are terrorists, I began to feel bad for him. His son is a soldier abroad, etc., so to me he became another worrying father. Until the camera turned off. Then he looked at me and said,

“Now tell me what your parents think of that!” and walked into his office and slammed the door.

Yes, he meant it to be offensive, and yes it worked. So much for unbiased journalism. If you’d like to see my interview with him, watch Lawmakers tonight between 7 and 7:30pm on GPB channel 8.