THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

A native of Rock Island, Ill., Meincke is well known for his smooth presentation, tall commanding presence and his uncompromisingly professional, in-depth knowledge of both his subject and his craft. Though Meincke has the experience, persona and credentials to anchor, he prefers the pursuit of the "on the street" stories and is an expert at delivering the details in his concise, thoughtful and impassioned style.

Paul Meincke

The long and fruitful broadcasting career of Meincke began back in 1972 at station WHBF-TV AM/FM where he was a radio reporter for news and high school sports. A 1972 graduate of Augustine College with a degree in speech, Meincke made the switch from radio to television in 1976, when he was hired as a news anchor in his home town of Rock Island by station WHBF, where he anchored the 10 p.m. news from 1976-'78. In 1978 Paul began anchoring the 6 p.m. news at WHBF.

In 1981 Meincke was called to Cleveland, Ohio, by WEWS-TV, the ABC affiliate. Meincke was hired as a general assignment reporter and also acted as a substitute anchor on both weeknights and weekends. During his tenure with WEWS-TV, Meincke produced four news documentaries including an hour-long Emmy award-winning piece on "Disintegration in the Cleveland Public School System." Meincke recently headed the ABC 7 newsteam that followed Boeing's selection of Chicago as its new headquarters.

Meincke has also been honored with three Twyla Conway Awards. The Twyla Conway Award is a local radio/television council award for outstanding reporting. He has a brother three years his junior and a sister who lives in Wisconsin and is 13 years younger. Meincke and his wife, who by the way was his former co-anchor in Rock Island, have four sons. A thoroughly thoughtful and gracious man, Paul was happy to visit with me in April to discuss his career with Chicago's top-rated ABC 7 newsteam and a variety of other thought-provoking topics.

DAVID GUARINO: As a frequent watcher of the news, and ABC 7 news broadcasts in particular, you and many of the other members of ABC 7 newsteam feel like members of the family. And I know I speak for many thousands of other viewers when I say that.

PM: And we have a tremendous obligation to you and all the other viewers, as members of our extended television family to know our subject, do our homework and present things as fairly and concisely as we can. Because people know when you're slacking. But you need to go beyond what are just obvious mistakes and look at the bigger editorial picture, like story selection. Why are they doing this particular story? And why are they placing it where it's winding up on the air? And the rap against us, and I think it's justified, is that we are too preoccupied with stories that happened; we end up doing the real predictable "gimmes." We do the crime story, we do the sexual pervert, we do the story that's close, and it's in the city. We don't get out to the suburbs as much as we can and largely that's a function of ability to get there in a timely fashion. But there are a lot of stories that are done merely because they're in the paper. Somebody else has done the legwork and we take those stories and then go out and redo them. And sometimes they're stories that are really suited for newspaper; they don't lend themselves to good television. And I think we have to understand sometimes when it's perhaps unwise to pursue something that's better suited to be a print story.

DG: Paul, you were a substitute anchor at WEWS in Cleveland where you worked until coming to WLS in 1985. Do you prefer working in the field to anchoring?

PM: Oh, absolutely. Well, I've never really been afforded the opportunity; if someone were to come to me and say, "We'd like you to be an anchor," I'd surely consider it. But not having been offered that, from the anchoring that I have done ( in my hometown station I anchored there for several years ) and I was kind of a backup anchor in Cleveland, I think you learn and you grow when you're in the field. There's just so many interesting stories out there, and to have been able to be a part of them and be part of history as opposed to be reading it from the set. ( Paul laughs ) I guess all reporters would say that, and then there are a lot of reporters who are hungry to climb the ladder and become an anchor. I have no great aspiration to do that.

DG: You like going out and being in the community; being with the people and actually reporting the story as it happens.

PM: Definitely. I mean, sometimes there's a tremendous rush when you're on a breaking story and you've got to get there and you've got to get it on fast. I did a story once, I think I had been here ( at ABC 7 ) for maybe a year and back when communication was much different ( now we have our cell phones and we talk to each other all the time ) , then it was a two-way radio. And I came in in the afternoon. I walked in, the assignment editor said, "You've got to go to Wheaton right away; take the courier, the truck is on its way. We think that the body of Milt Pappas' wife has been found in a retention pond."

So we drove out there and we talked via two way to the extent that we could. He didn't want the competition to hear, everybody listened to each other, so he gave me only basic information before I left and some on the way. So we rolled up there and the truck was already up on signal and so forth and we got there, they gave me the two way and they said, "You're on in 30 seconds." I couldn't believe it. ( We both laugh ) I got out of the car strapped in to my waist, saw the chief of police, walked over to him, grabbed the mike, and got my cue, fortunately. I went over to the police chief, introduced myself, said "We understand that maybe this is the body of Mrs. Pappas." He said, "We believe it is." Fortunately, he was able to talk to me and bail me out but that experience was a real rush. I was just talking off the top of my head, I had nothing prepared. You try to organize your thoughts and facts in a means by which you can back up the headline with what you know. You get in and get out fast; if you keep repeating over and over you're letting people know that you don't know very much and you're just killing time and you don't want to do that. It was a rush in part because competitively, we were there before everybody else, and this was obviously a big story.

DG: Paul, I understand that you won an Emmy for a story you did on bussing in the Cleveland Public School System.

PM: The story was on integration in the public school system in Cleveland. This was a major issue there at the time, and it led to some degree of violence before I arrived in Cleveland. But what we tried to do was a piece several years in. About five years into the program ( of bussing ) we attempted to see whether or not it ( integration of the public schools ) was working. This was in 1981. And a lot of this had happened before I got to Cleveland but that city tried hard not to become another Boston. So they studied Boston; they had community meetings. But still this was such an emotionally explosive issue, terribly fractious, that there was some violence. And there were four little kids on busses going to school that were called all kinds of awful names. So, anyway, we took a look. We tried to build our story around a white family and a Black family. And they both traveled in opposite directions. Cleveland was not as bad as Boston, but it was still pretty rough.

DG: It has been said that television news shows are fighting for viewers in this market more so than ever before. In essence, this is the most competitive era the media has ever seen. Also, the first 10 minutes of most newscasts are filled with some pretty ugly stories that are hard to take. Do you agree, Paul?

PM: I think we have lost a great portion of our audience because of that, David. Broadcasting companies will make the point that competition is now extreme. We've got cable; we've got just all kinds of other options out there, movies and so forth. And that's why we've lost our market share. And a lot of that is true. But I also think that we're not really serving our audience. If we go on the air night after night with a fire, a rape, a sexual pervert, a couple of murders and it's stacked in that order—if I'm watching at home with my family, most of that has no application to my life at all and I'm gone.

DG: As I have watched you do live shots, I have always felt that you bring a sense of calm to almost every story you do, no matter how unpleasant or controversial the story you're covering.

PM: You know we just do a day's worth of history at a time. In the overall scheme of things reporters are often characterized as being all wired and jumpy, and they supposedly exaggerate. Well, there's a certain component to getting there ( to the scene of a story ) . You know you're riding in a car to get to a scene maybe on a breaking news story; there is an adrenaline rush. So what I try to do is consciously control that. So as not to let that overtake my presentation.

DG: Tell me this, Paul. In your position as a broadcast journalist I know you've traveled to and spent time in a number of foreign countries. What locale was the most difficult to stay in and present a story from and why?

PM: Well I had two overseas assignments that would come to mind. The first was The Gulf War. I was in Dhahran for five weeks. And I think the difficulty there was that it was an exercise in sleep depravation. I didn't feel like we were in harm's way even though the worst night of the war was the night that the scuds hit the mess hall about five miles down the road and 21 Americans were killed. That was the greatest loss of life and that was just down the road. We would hear the sirens go off; and when I first got there we would put on all of our chemical warfare gear and after a while nothing would hit so you didn't pay much attention to it. But on this night, the sirens never stopped going off. We got into Kuwait City at the very end which was a very interesting experience because after having covered the war in a hotel, basically watching CNN and getting pooled dispatch reports from the newspaper people in the field and watching video feeds, it was, like, you're a rewrite guy. And you're thousands of miles from home. And you have to be on the air constantly with the exception of four or five hours when you go to sleep. It was an education, but not tremendously rewarding.

The other time was Belgrade. I went over with ( Jesse ) Jackson when they freed the POW's. That was an amazing experience too. We got in to the Hyatt in Belgrade and Jackson, who had been discouraged from going, had this religious delegation. He had high hopes that he'd be able to secure a release for the three men ( taken hostage ) . The first night that we were there was the heaviest bombing night of the war. I could look out my window and see the bombs hitting the interior ministry and a couple of other buildings across the river. You could feel the windows shake. And I did what were essentially radio reports; we had no means by which we could get pictures out. So I was basically on the phone with whatever we could smuggle out. I finally went to bed to catch a couple hours' sleep and I woke up about 6 a.m. and the whole building was moving. It turned out it was an earthquake. A minor one, but it was the first one I'd ever been associated with. That was truly one of those "pinch me" experiences, David.

DG: Can you give an example of a story you refused to cover?

PM: The only thing I can think of that comes close is: we had a day when our 5 o'clock lead had fallen through, and it was my assignment. The story had no legs; it didn't work. And I had a notion it wasn't going to. And so the executive producer, late in the afternoon, said "Well what else can we do? We've got to have something." I said, "Well what do you want me to do, call my wife, see if she can burn a building down or something?" ( We are both laughing ) And she came back later with a news release from the police department. About a junior high school girl who had had her backpack stolen on the way home from school. An event that had happened four days previous. Somebody came up to her, manhandled her a little bit; took her backpack. And I said, "This is not a story, not even in Rock Island." So we didn't do it.

DG: What has been one of your most embarrassing moments doing a live shot?

PM: Well I haven't forgotten my name, but I've always been fearful of that happening. I did forget where I was once. I was doing a live shot, and it was a brief tease to be put on at 9 o'clock on a Saturday night. There was an explosion at the corner of Clark and Grand in the building where The Corner Bakery is. Boom! Glass all over, big explosion. We go down there and they say we want you to do a little drop in, and so I was a little shaken by that. How am I going to make this ten seconds long? I was fairly new here ( at WLS ) . So I get on and I say, "I'm Paul Meincke, coming up tonight at 10—there's been an explosion in a building here at Clark and uh, uh, downtown."

DG: In your opinion, Paul, is stricter gun control a possible solution to the escalating violence in our nation's schools? Or is the problem far more insidious than this?

PM: I think the latter. If you'd asked me that a few years ago, I'd have said stricter gun control is the answer. I don't know that that's true anymore. I think there are many laws on the books that can be worked around.

You can always find a way to beat the system. But I think that there are plenty of laws on the books. And I don't know that we want to be a society so crippled in our ability to get around because we're going through metal detectors everywhere. I have no scientific evidence to back this up but I happen to think that TV and the media are partly to blame. Because we've created a culture of violence. I don't know how you solve that, David, I was thinking about that this morning. People are angry and they go on rampages. So that's a tough one. I suppose there are ways that you can tighten the law, eliminate loopholes, but the short answer to your question is that I feel violence is a far more insidious problem than many realize. I don't know how you correct the cultural changes that have taken place.

DG: There have now been four gay marriages performed in Denmark. The country of Belgium is now giving serious consideration to the legalization of same-sex marriages. That's according to their health minister, Magda Alvoet. Our paper recently reported that 61% of German heterosexual men and 72% of German heterosexual women are in favor of recognizing and legalizing same-sex marriages. Canada and Germany are both due to bring the matter up for serious consideration with the populace of those countries. Could you share your feelings in this regard and in your opinion, how close is the U.S. from doing the same bearing in mind that one-third of Americans have no objection?

PM: I don't know that I've reached a conclusion and I don't know that a lot of the public has yet. I don't know what the certificate is for. Is it necessary to acknowledge the union between gay/lesbian partners, does it achieve for them benefits, and recognition they would not ordinarily have? I guess at first blush on the surface I wouldn't have any problem with that. Is it necessary in the overall scheme of things for gay/lesbian unions to be acknowledged with a certificate of marriage in order to make the wider public more accepting of that lifestyle? I don't know that that's necessary, but I haven't reached a conclusion. I mean, I certainly feel like, can't we all just get along, and I think we're really starting to see that happening, and that's great.

DG: What dreams regarding your career path have you yet to fulfill?

PM: I guess I long to do meaningful stories, and they don't come along that often. You have to carve out your own niche. Meaningful stories that have some place in history that people react to, get emotional about, teach you something. I like to break away from the crime stories and do something memorable whenever I can.

DG: If one of your four sons told you he would be seeking a career in broadcast journalism, would you be happy? Whether or not, what would be the single most important piece of advice you could give him?

PM: To be fair. A couple of things. First of all, I would not try to dissuade him. I would want to make sure he's not doing it just because I've done it. It's got to be his decision. And then if he wants it, go for it. I would help him in every way possible. I would not be inclined to clear career paths for him, if I had that in my power. He would have to earn it on his own.

By the way, Paul told me that he is doing one of the AIDS Rides at the end of July running through the beginning of August. He and his neighbor plan on making the junket, which covers 575 miles in six days. Three cutting-edge AIDS research centers will benefit. The route starts in Missoula, Mont., goes across the Continental Divide, goes through Lincoln, Mon., and ends up in Billings. Quite a ride, and quite a guy, this seasoned reporter from Rock Island with many a wonderful story to tell. On camera or off, the smart money is on Paul Meincke.

E-mail: DavdRonald@aol.com