 Fame
& Fortune: Jeff Greenfield
Greenfield bored by chasing 'the green'
|
In
the tumultuous, almost surreal weeks after Sept. 11, the media was
agog with prognosticators theorizing the next doom-filled scenario.
Almost all of it was guesswork, much of it panicked, some of it
just plain ill-informed. It was during this time that the value
of a poised, rational, experienced newsman like CNN's Jeff Greenfield
became apparent.
Greenfield appeared on Comedy Central's "The
Daily Show with Jon Stewart" just days after Stewart made his
own teary, impassioned return to the air. At the time of Greenfield's
appearance, Stewart was still noticeably shaken by recent events.
And after several alarmist guests pontificating on all of our new
societal dangers, Greenfield was a refreshing voice of calm.
Greenfield spoke about how for those in Generation
X and younger, this was our first real world crisis, so it was easy
to accelerate the perception of apocalypse.
While others were extolling the virtues of Cipro and
gas masks and talking about how to prepare for disaster, Greenfield
was reminding us that our chances of dying from a terrorist act,
even after Sept. 11 and the anthrax attacks, was still considerably
smaller than dying from a heart attack or a car accident. By conversations'
end, Stewart was more relaxed than he had been since his return
to air -- and so, probably, were many of his viewers.
Greenfield's measured approach to reporting has made
him a consistent and reassuring presence on the airwaves for more
than two decades. A graduate of Yale Law School, Greenfield spent
the late '60s as a speechwriter for Sen. Robert Kennedy and New
York City Mayor John Lindsay.
He migrated to the media side as an analyst for William
Buckley's "Firing Line" and "We Interrupt This Week"
on PBS, then served as a media critic for CBS during the 1980 election
season. He soon moved to ABC, where he served for 14 years as their
political and media analyst, appearing regularly on "Nightline"
and "World News Sunday." He joined CNN in 1998, serving
as political analyst and host on several of the network's shows.
Along the way, Greenfield has won three Emmy Awards,
authored or co-authored nine books, and contributed to publications
such as TIME, Esquire and The New York Times Magazine.
Bankrate spoke to Greenfield about whether his firm
grasp of international and political events extended to financial
matters.
Bankrate: Are you a fervent investor?
Jeff Greenfield: No. Quite the reverse. I'm
cautious. I'm in a retirement savings plan that Time Warner has
... I'm sure I've lost tons of money, at least until recently, by
not being one. But it just doesn't interest me.
Bankrate: So what do you do with your money?
Jeff Greenfield: Some of it's in a bank, some
of it's in a retirement plan. That's about it.
Bankrate: You didn't indulge in any tech investing?
Jeff Greenfield: No. I had a lot of obligations
in my life, so it's not as if I had tons of cash to throw around.
I did no tech investing at all.
Bankrate: Do you regret that?
Jeff Greenfield: Look, what do I regret? Thirty
years ago I regret not buying Xerox at 3. I regret not buying Global
Crossing in 1996 and selling it two years later. To me, that's almost
like worrying about terrorism. You can pull your fingernails about
it and go, 'Oh, if only I'd been smart enough to do 'X.' This whole
area bores me.
I've been lucky enough to live well for a long time.
I've been well compensated for what I do. I don't live large. My
needs are not extravagant, but I enjoy life. That's what it's meant
for me.
I'm sure that had I paid attention, I could have ridden
the market up, and maybe been smart enough to get out of the tech
industry when the tech bubble seemed to be bursting. Or maybe not.
Maybe I would have lost two-thirds of it by staying in Nasdaq, who
knows?
When I hear about people who spend their lives in
investment banking and stuff, and I realize that their entire life
revolves around money, I remember a line that a public interest
lawyer said toward the end of his life, a guy who was active in
the first days of civil rights and labor unions and the New Deal
days. They had a dinner for him when he was in his 80s, and he said,
'Let me tell you about my friends who went into corporate law. They
made all the money, and I had all the fun.' That's how I've always
looked at it.
I don't have any investment strategy, but I've never
been leveraged. I've always felt that there may be a time when the
news business says, 'You know, we've had enough of you, Greenfield.
Move on,' and I never wanted to be in a position to say, 'Oh my
god. I've got all these debts that I have to handle.' So I've done
this pretty cautiously. I've landed on my feet in that sense.
|
