Last month was a watershed moment for Atlanta native and CNN afternoon anchor Brooke Baldwin: She was parodied on “Saturday Night Live” by comedian Cecily Strong.
“She had the same purple dress I had worn the Wednesday before. She had her hair curled. She was me. I couldn’t believe it!” Baldwin said. “Even though it wasn’t entirely kind to CNN, the fact they parodied you is kind of a big deal. It means you made it.”
Indeed. Her star is rising at CNN, where she anchors the news from 2 to 4 p.m. sandwiched between Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper. CNN President Jeff Zucker moved her to New York from CNN Center last summer, and her ratings have improved. She even beat powerhouse No. 1 Fox News in the 25-54 demographic over an entire month earlier this year, a rare feat in this day and age.
“She’s a terrific talent,” said Michael Bass, CNN’s executive vice president for programming in New York. “She’s curious and interested in a lot of things. She can do hard news and cover pop culture. She can handle breaking news at the desk and in the field.”
Baldwin said she cultivated that curiosity and a sense of integrity at Westminster Schools, where she is returning Saturday as commencement speaker 18 years after she graduated. “The fire in my belly, a sense of real drive was instilled there,” she said. “I was president of the senior class. I actually spoke at my graduation in 1997. This is like a weird full circle moment to be back.”
Scoot Dimon, who taught civil rights to Baldwin during her senior year and is now assistant headmaster at Westminster, called her an idealist. “She wasn’t just taking the course to learn about civil rights. She felt it in her heart. She was someone who really wanted to make the world a better place.”
One day, he heard Rosa Parks was going to be signing her book “Dear Mrs. Parks” at Barnes & Noble in Buckhead on a Saturday. He recommended his 15 students go and meet a truly historical figure.
Baldwin was the only one who went. She waited 90 minutes. For her, it was a no-brainer. “Scoot Dimon’s class really smacked me,” she said. “The discrimination, the injustices and the courage of so many. I wanted to shake her hand. That’s really it.”
One of her closest friends in high school, Aki Kameyama Martin, said Baldwin was caring and approachable by her very nature but also purposeful.
“I will never forget graduation day,” Martin said. “We were partying at a friend’s house wondering what we were going to do next. She had a plan. She knew she wanted to go into broadcasting, specifically CNN.”
Baldwin doesn’t quite recall it the same way. She said she was also interested in film and screenwriting as a teen. “I remember it being on my radar. I remember admiring Jane Pauley.” She said her desire to work at CNN only came once she attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and switched from being an English major to journalism.
She said she applied for an internship at CNN and was turned down at first. “I remember calling the guy up and talking him into taking me!” she said. She liked the fast pace and the brand: “I was among my kind of people. I wanted in on journalism after that summer. I knew it in my bones.”
After college, she moved up the broadcast ranks in West Virginia and D.C., then took a leap of faith in 2008 and moved back to Atlanta with only a freelancing option at CNN. The recession hit and her workload dropped to two days a week.
“I was wondering, ‘What have I done? I left a sure thing for Atlanta and now I’m barely working!’” she said.
Over two and a half years, she remained a freelancer — until Fox News called. With Fox knocking, CNN hired her as a full-time correspondent. Within a few months, as the daytime lineup was shuffled, management gave her a coveted afternoon anchoring job. She was just 31.
CNN has also placed her in the field, including President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, the Sandy Hook shootings, the Boston marathon bombing and the recent Baltimore unrest after the death of a man in police custody. But she is not infallible. While in Baltimore, she committed a verbal snafu, saying she had heard local residents tell her some military veterans return from war and “they don’t know their communities and they’re ready to do battle.”
After a backlash online, she went on air and offered this emotional apology: “I wholeheartedly retract what I said and I’ve thought tremendously about this and to our nation’s veterans — this is just who I want to speak to this morning. I have the utmost respect for our men and women in uniform and I wanted you to know that this morning. To all of you, I owe you a tremendous apology. I am truly sorry.”
Bass, her boss, said she handled it well: “She owned up to it quickly. I was very impressed with how she went on the air the next day on ‘New Day’ and on her own show and took ownership and expressed regret.”
So far, Baldwin is enjoying life in Manhattan. From a work perspective, she can now more easily sub in for shows based in New York like the morning “New Day” or evening “CNN Tonight” at 10 p.m. She can also do more face-to-face interviews with guests, who are more readily available in New York than Atlanta.
“I love Atlanta. Atlanta will always be home to me in a unique way no other CNN anchor can say,” Baldwin said. “But moving up here has been wonderful with the access and events, the people I brush shoulders with.”
That includes seeing “Saturday Night Live” in person a couple of weeks ago: “I spent the evening talking with ‘SNL’ writers, (musical guest) Wiz Khalifa and (creator) Lorne (Michaels). Totally meant to meet Cecily but I didn’t!”
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