As far back as I remember, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been a part of my life.
My cousin, Eleanor Ringel, was the newspaper’s film critic and she might have sneaked me into a screening of “Hook” when I was a kid. My best friend’s dad was an editor, and my mom pored over the paper each morning and made sure I didn’t just read the sports section.
And then there was the time when I.J. Rosenberg, the Braves beat reporter, came to my fourth-grade class. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but I do remember returning home later that day and announcing I wanted to be a journalist, too. Soon, I was writing for the Woodland Elementary paper.
That’s the career path I’ve followed since, with stops at the North Springs High School Oracle, as editor-in-chief of The Red & Black in Athens, internships in Washington, and stints at The Daily Report and The Associated Press that led me to my hometown paper.
When I got to the AJC in 2012, I felt like I had arrived home, surrounded by the reporters, editors and photographers whose work I had admired all my life. Since then, I’ve had a front-row seat to the biggest stories in the state, capturing the dynamic that’s turned Georgia into a premier political battleground.
The daily grind of being a beat reporter can be exhausting. Sometimes, our fact-based journalism angers the most powerful politicians in the state. Sometimes, it leads to vicious personal attacks from people upset at our coverage.
But the 2020 election cycle that put Georgia at the center of the glaring political spotlight has only reinforced our mission to provide honest reporting on the campaign trail, at the Capitol and beyond.
The AJC has devoted more resources than any other news outlet to cover state government and politics. And it’s because of your subscriptions that we can do the type of work that holds politicians accountable and informs you about what’s going on in your community.
Thank you for making our work possible.
Please support the work of your journalists. Start a subscription today. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you. With your support, we can keep you informed with real, fact-based news. It’s worth knowing what’s really going on.
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