Michelle worked for DC for several years.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?302838-1/qa-michelle-fields
http://www.c-span.org/video/transcript/?id=8306
EXCERPTS
NOVEMBER 30, 2011
Q&A with Michelle Fields Video Journalist Michelle Fields talked about her reporting on various issues for the Daily Caller 24-hour news site. She discussed an early interview with actor Matt Damon and his mother, her unanticipated involvement while covering the New York City Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, her experiences covering Congress, and attending a book signing party for talk show host Chris Matthews in which she interviewed Washington Post veterans Ben Bradlee and Bob Woodward, and the rise in citizen journalism. She spoke of her childhood and her political views.
Michelle Fields was born in Los Angeles and received her degree in Political Science from Pepperdine University in 2011. She contributed video work for Reason TV and joined The Daily Caller in mid-2011. The Daily Caller, a 24-hour news and commentary website was founded by journalist Tucker Carlson, and Neil Patel, former chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.
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MICHELLE FIELDS: I am a video journalist. I would say that what we’re doing is almost like citizen journalism which is basically when an individual who doesn’t have that much training in journalism has the tools and modern technology to capture a live event but doesn’t have a background in journalism.
So what we’re doing is we’re capturing raw and real moments, which is basically what people are doing with iPhones and Blackberries. As a video journalist you’re now competing with people who have iPhones and Blackberries and uploading on You Tube and those are - that’s what going viral.
So we’re recreating that. We’re asking questions that Congressmen maybe don’t have the answer to. They don’t have talking points for or when we’re going to a protest, we’re going on the ground. We’re not doing what a typical journalist does, which is they go. They have their mic. They do their stand up, maybe they interview two or three people, get a B roll and put it together.
Instead we’re on the ground with the protestors. If they march five miles, we march five miles with them. So that we can capture those moments that people are capturing with their iPhones and uploading on You Tube.
LAMB: You did for The Daily Caller, a website.
FIELDS: Yes.
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LAMB: Born in southern California, graduated from Pepperdine University about 18 months ago?
FIELDS: Yes. In May actually.
LAMB: 2010?
FIELDS: No, no. 2011.
LAMB: 2011?
FIELDS: Yes.
LAMB: How does somebody walk out of that environment right into this town, right into something like this?
FIELDS: I’m pretty hard working. I was very active when I was in Los Angeles. I did a lot of political activism. So I think I maybe caught the eye of some people in D.C. who were interested in what I was doing. I organized a lot of liberty groups on campuses in Los Angeles area and I held a conference at my university. I held events so I think maybe that’s how I just transitioned into here. People had already seen my work that I was doing ion LA.
LAMB: What was your major?
FIELDS: Political science.
(snip)
LAMB: Here is some video that also went viral about education. The man you interviewed here is a man named Matt Damon, an actor. Before we go to that, what was the point of this? Why were you there? Why were you interviewing him?
FIELDS: It was a teachers’ union rally. I had just graduated from college and Nick Gillespie from Reason TV contacted me and said that he would be interested in me hosting a few of their videos and to try it out. And this was the first video that I did for Reason TV. Him and Jim Epstein who was the camera man, they told me oh, do not worry, it is just going to be this small protest.
People probably will not even be there and we can sort of just get you in there and see if you like it, see how it works, it will not be a big deal. So, I went and it ended up going viral.
LAMB: We are going to show it in a second but before I leave that, who was the videographer that was with you?
FIELDS: Jim Epstein.
LAMB: No, I am talking about before at Occupy Wall Street, we did not …
FIELDS: Occupy Wall Street, Direna Cousins. She is a girl who just graduated from college as well and she does my videos.
LAMB: She does all your videos?
FIELDS: Her and Grace Stafford.
LAMB: And they work for The Daily Caller?
FIELDS: Yes.
LAMB: OK but going back to this reason - you were working for Reason TV?
FIELDS: Yes, just free lance. This was my first video. Nick just wanted to see how I did.