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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Luke Broadwater ‘98 and Keiffer Mitchell, the Acting Chief of Staff to Governor Larry Hogan, devoted an hour of their valuable time on Tuesday, September 22 to participate in a panel discussion with the Middle School during a virtual assembly. The gathering coincided with the Middle School study of the presidential election.

Broadwater, who recently left The Baltimore Sun to cover Congress for The New York Times, joined the Zoom webinar from a phone booth (a quiet area) above the floor of the Senate in Washington, D.C., while Mitchell joined from his office in the State House in Annapolis. The discussion was moderated by Middle School Librarian Stasha Gibbs.

After briefly speaking about their backgrounds–Broadwater wanted to be a sports reporter and Mitchell is a member of a political family who himself served on the Baltimore City Council and in the Maryland House of Delegates– the two answered student questions.

When asked, “What do you like best about your job?” Broadwater replied, “I am constantly learning new things as a reporter. It’s fun because every day is different. The times I feel the best is when I have made a real impact and have done something good, like when I can expose corruption or a policy that is not working as intended.” He added, “At the end of the day, journalists and politicians are on the same side of things...wanting to improve the world.”

Similarly, Mitchell answered, “When I was in political office, I liked being able to make change and affect people’s lives.”

Broadwater and Mitchell both blame social media and the 24-hour news cycle for the state of politics today. On the subject of bias, Broadwater says he has an “old school mentality” and stresses fairness and accuracy in his reporting. On the other hand, Mitchell admits, “By nature, politicians are biased.” “But,” he adds, “As an elected official or civil servant, you do what you feel is right. If you do what is right, you won’t be accused of being biased. Sometimes that goes against your party, but you vote your conscience.”

After Broadwater left the Zoom assembly to attend a press conference, Mitchell fielded the remainder of the questions. He spoke about his job as Acting Chief of Staff and shared that in his role he sometimes has to tell the Governor things he doesn’t want to hear. But, he says, it’s his job to present the facts and the different points of view.

Speaking of different points of view, Mitchell was asked how he, a Democrat, can work for the Republican Governor. He replied that throughout his career, he learned to work with all sides. He explained that when Governor Hogan was elected, he was tapped to be part of the transition team comprised of Democrats and Republicans. And ever since, he has remained non-partisan.

He concluded by saying, “It is important that we recognize that this world is a very diverse place with all types of diverse communities that we need to embrace. The key is communication. We need to talk to each other, not at each other.”