The local NBC affiliate featured Rich Landesberg, associate professor of communications, who recounted how as a college student he was assigned to interview the late Arizona senator.
An Aug. 27 segment on the late Arizona Sen. John McCain by NBC affiliate WXII featured Rich Landesberg, associate professor of communications.
The report centered around Landesberg’s memories of how he was selected to interview McCain in the 1970s. At the time, Landesberg was in his senior year of college and McCain, a pilot with the U.S. Navy, had recently returned from being imprisoned in Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
“I remember after he left, thinking, ‘This is a smart guy, who is really engaged and I could see him being president some day,” Landesberg told WXII reporter Bill O’Neil.
Landesberg uses his experience interviewing McCain in his journalism classes, saying it’s important for students to understand that “anyone you interview is important, and some of them become very important, and you just never know.”
Watch the full segment here.