CNN anchor and chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison Thursday to discuss his journey to covering congress for CNN, his unique TV interviews and recommendations for aspiring journalists.
During his talk at Grainger Hall, Raju recalled his time at UW-Madison 26 years ago when he was a freshman living in now torn-down Ogg East Residence Hall, calling Madison “one of my favorite places in the world.”
After accidentally stumbling into The Onion offices, Raju joined The Badger Herald and later became the sports editor for the student newspaper. Raju then touched on challenging journalistic instances he first encountered at Badgers sporting events, such as getting dismissed when asking questions. But he encouraged students in the room to “not get smacked down.”
Raju recalled breaking his first story when he worked at the paper. He was the first journalist to announce the identity of the streaker who ran across the field during the Wisconsin vs. Iowa football game at Camp Randall on Nov. 13, 1999.
Raju graduated with a major in marketing from the UW-Madison Business School, but because of his internship experiences and time at the Herald, he decided to pursue journalism. When faced with the options of staying in Madison or moving to Washington, D.C. he chose the latter, calling the decision a risk. However, he encouraged students to take risks in their careers.
Raju worked for different insider news organizations like Inside EPA. Later, as a congressional reporter at Politico, Raju quickly built up additional journalism experience. When a position opened up at CNN, he took the job and transitioned from print to broadcast journalism.
The room was filled with laughter as he played videos of memorable TV moments that have since gone viral, such as when a cicada crawled on his neck when preparing for a live shot or when the late U.S. Sen. John McCain photobombed Raju on live television. Raju also discussed challenging moments in his career, such as covering the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
After the lecture, Raju took questions from the audience ranging from how to write in a journalistic capacity to the issue of fact-checking during debate moderation.
One attendee asked Raju how he keeps his biases out of stories in today’s political climate.
“Even if there’s something that may rub me the wrong way, it’s not my job. I don’t need to inject it into a story,” Raju said.
Another asked Raju what stories he looks back on memorably. He recounted a time when he broke a story live on TV during the first Trump impeachment by reading the testimony of a witness that was, at first, told behind closed doors. Raju obtained the testimony from a source.
“It was a very exhilarating experience,” Raju said. “When you can break something live on TV, it makes some of the painful parts worth it.”
Drew Wesson is a staff writer and photographer for The Daily Cardinal. He has written stories covering public safety, protests, political events and more. You can follow him on Twitter @drewwesson1.
