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Gintautas Dumcius
Five Minutes
For four months in 2005, I was an intern reporter for the Wall Street Journal as part
of the Washington Center for Politics and Journalism program.
And for five minutes on CNN (and on every subsequent replay that night on the
networks), I took a star turn as an angel hovering over slugger Mark McGwire’s right
shoulder as he gave testimony to a House panel looking into steroid allegations.
“Gin’s famous face is on CNN, guys,” wrote one intern on the e-mail list we had. “I
wonder if Gin knows he’s right in CNN’s shot.”
I didn’t. Hence the perturbed look from me in McGwire's direction as the former St.
Louis Cardinals hitter started to sob.
The day before, I had written an article, eventually edited down by the New York
bureau, with the paper’s regular sportswriter, Stephan Fatsis, a contributor to NPR
and author of “Word Freak.”
As I put it to my friends back home in an e-mail with the article and the photo above:
“I’m attaching these ‘cause it might actually be one of the few articles I write this
semester that you all may be compelled to read. Rest assured, it’s one of the few
articles that I’ve written in which I’ve actually understood what I was talking about.”
The article had my byline first, though my co-writer did the heavy lifting, including
coming up with the sharp lede. Bear that in mind as you read it.
So just for fun, I’m also including a video from CBS News of the testimony, as well
as a picture that ran on the Wall Street Journal’s website alongside the story.
(On the CBS page, it’s the third video down, labeled "McGwire Won’t Name
Names.")
of the Washington Center for Politics and Journalism program.
And for five minutes on CNN (and on every subsequent replay that night on the
networks), I took a star turn as an angel hovering over slugger Mark McGwire’s right
shoulder as he gave testimony to a House panel looking into steroid allegations.
“Gin’s famous face is on CNN, guys,” wrote one intern on the e-mail list we had. “I
wonder if Gin knows he’s right in CNN’s shot.”
I didn’t. Hence the perturbed look from me in McGwire's direction as the former St.
Louis Cardinals hitter started to sob.
The day before, I had written an article, eventually edited down by the New York
bureau, with the paper’s regular sportswriter, Stephan Fatsis, a contributor to NPR
and author of “Word Freak.”
As I put it to my friends back home in an e-mail with the article and the photo above:
“I’m attaching these ‘cause it might actually be one of the few articles I write this
semester that you all may be compelled to read. Rest assured, it’s one of the few
articles that I’ve written in which I’ve actually understood what I was talking about.”
The article had my byline first, though my co-writer did the heavy lifting, including
coming up with the sharp lede. Bear that in mind as you read it.
So just for fun, I’m also including a video from CBS News of the testimony, as well
as a picture that ran on the Wall Street Journal’s website alongside the story.
(On the CBS page, it’s the third video down, labeled "McGwire Won’t Name
Names.")
- The article ("Now Batting: Congress v. Steroids," WSJ, March 17, 2005)
- The video (CBS News)