On this episode of Inside the Media Minds, Christine Blake and Madison Farabaugh sat down with award-winning freelance journalist Shaun Waterman. With nearly 30 years of experience covering cybersecurity and defense at outlets like BBC, United Press International (UPI) and POLITICO, Shaun is now a freelance writer, seen in publications like Air & Space Forces Magazine, Via Satellite and ISMG’s OT.Today, focusing on some of today’s most complex and high-stakes technology issues.
Like many of our guests, Shaun didn’t set out to become a cybersecurity reporter, it came to him. After covering mostly national security and the war on terror at UPI, Shaun began gravitating toward cyber coverage at the Washington Times as a way to focus on less ideologically-charged stories. “I wrote a lot about cyber so that I didn’t have to write so many stories about Benghazi or about the Chechen terrorists flooding across the southern border,” he shared.
Adapting Coverage Across Highly Specialized Audiences
According to Shaun, being a freelancer and writing for multiple publications isn’t just about changing tone, it’s about knowing your audiences and what they care about. This translates into intentional messaging and story angles for different readers.
At OT.Today, his focus is clear: they need “news you can use.” An audience of primarily security practitioners needs actionable insights they can apply directly to their day-to-day work. That means cutting through theory and getting straight to practical implications.
By contrast, Air & Space Forces Magazine serves a deeply loyal, long-standing audience with personal connections to the publication. “People talk about how their dad used to read the magazine, or their uncle. People have a lifelong relationship with it.”
For Via Satellite, Shaun shared his appreciation for the publication’s legacy as the “OG publication in the space market.” Because of this, his work there is less about reactive pitching and more about fitting into an already established editorial calendar and industry storytelling.
A Skeptical View of the AI Boom
Shaun shared that he has a nuanced view of the current “AI wave.” While much of the industry is leaning into hype and encouraging, at times almost forcing, the use of AI, Shaun is focused on what’s happening beneath the surface. His recent reporting dives into restricted-access frontier AI models from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, particularly how they’re being selectively shared with cybersecurity vendors.
The reason: these AI models are becoming dangerously capable.
“These models are so good at finding flaws and bugs in software code. And not only that, they then can write exploits to take over edge devices or take over servers,” he shared. “You can’t afford to have this capability out there in the wild because it would basically make hackers unstoppable.”
This then creates a paradox. The same tools that can strengthen cybersecurity defenses could also supercharge attackers if widely released. As a result, Shaun continues to monitor how organizations are reacting internally to their AI investments, and questioning whether adoption is being forced rather than earned as companies continue pushing AI use on their employees.
The (Un)Scary Truths about Cybersecurity in Space
Another area Shaun is watching closely is the intersection of space and cybersecurity, a rapidly evolving sector with both promising progress and real vulnerabilities.
On the encouraging side, he pointed to the growing maturity of collaboration across the industry, particularly through organizations like the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC). Compared to other critical infrastructure sectors, the space industry is beginning to take information sharing and communication more seriously, making early detection and prevention more feasible.
“On the downside, you know, I think the most cyber-vulnerable segment of the space industry is here on the ground.” While much of the attention goes toward launch and orbit, the ground infrastructure, the terminals, networks and supporting systems, remains an easier target, Shaun explained. As these systems become increasingly software-driven and cloud-based, new risks emerge, from misconfigurations to expanded attack surfaces.
The result is a complicated reality where the industry makes meaningful strides in collaboration and awareness while racing to keep up with the risks created by its own rapid innovation.
To hear more from Shaun, listen to the full episode of Inside the Media Minds or read the complete transcript.
Timestamps
0:21 – Guest Introduction and Overview
2:31 – Shaun’s Career Journey to Washington, D.C.
6:28 – Making the Shift to Freelance
11:56 – The Art of Tailoring to Different Audiences
14:11 – The AI Boom and Other Hot Topics
20:56 – Space & Cybersecurity: Encouraging vs. Discouraging
25:51 – Public to Private Sector Collaboration on Security
30:24 – Shaun’s Favorite Story
33:42 – Pitching Advice: Know Thy Journalist
Transcript
Inside The Media Mind of Shaun Waterman
Christine Blake (CB): Welcome to Inside the Media Minds. We are your co host, Christine Blake
Madison Farabaugh (MF): and Madison Farribaugh.
CB: This show features in depth interviews with tech reporters who share everything from their biggest pet peeves to their favorite stories.
MF: From our studio here at W2 Communications let’s go inside the media minds.
CB: Hello everyone, and welcome to Inside the Media Minds. Today, Madison and I are welcoming Shaun Waterman, who is an award winning journalist and content strategist based in Washington, DC. He specializes in cybersecurity, space and federal contracting. He’s worked for the BBC, The United Press International Newsweek, Politico, and also helped launch CyberScoop. He’s currently freelancing. So on this episode, we hear a lot from him about that. I particularly loved how he spoke about how he separates his coverage areas and how he kind of tailors his content for each of the audience that he freelances for. That was kind of an interesting perspective. Madison, what did you find the most interesting?
MF: Yeah, I thought Shaun had lots of great insights to share on the whole Anthropic and Mythos news cycle. He’s been paying very close attention to this, especially the organizations who have kick started the whole initiative, and even where that might be headed in terms of who else will be included in the project, who else will be sharing their insights and or incorporating this technology into what they’re working on internally at their organizations? So I think our audience will really enjoy those insights. He also had a lot of great things to share, just in terms of encouraging or concerning aspects about the satellite security industry. So feel like we covered a lot of different topics on this episode. I’m very excited for listeners to hear it.
CB: Yeah, we sure did, and there’s some fun little tidbits in there that he shared as well that I think everyone will enjoy. So yeah, enjoy the episode. Hello, everyone. We are very excited for today’s guest. We have Shaun Waterman on the podcast today. He is currently a freelancing and writes regularly for Air and Space Forces Magazine, Via Satellite Magazine and OT Today, the operational technology vertical of Information Security Media Group. So welcome Sean. We’re excited to have you on the podcast today.
Shaun Waterman (SW): Thanks for inviting me.
CB: Of course, we’d love to start just with a quick overview of your background and your journey as a freelancer and how you ended up here today.
SW: Well, yeah, so I came to Washington with the BBC originally in May 1999 for what was supposed to be a six month posting as the radio news producer in the bureau here. And it was a very prestigious assignment, but also very, sort of, internal, small-p political. So I had to scheme for a couple of years to get it. And although it was only a six month posting, in theory, everyone always got extended at least once. And my predecessor had been there a couple of years, I think, all the way through the Lewinsky, you know, scandal in the Clinton impeachment. So, but after the program I worked on, you know, after six months, they decided they couldn’t do without me, and they told me to come back to London now. And by that time I’d, I’d fallen in love with a young lady, which unfortunately didn’t last, but I’d also fallen in love with the city, you know, which turned out to be a lifelong affair. And so, I quit the BBC, and I got a job at UPI, where I spent almost a decade covering, you know, GHS and the War on Terror, mainly. I won an award for my coverage of the post 9/11 Intelligence Reform bill. And, you know, in my heart, I’ll always be a Uni-Presser. I have incredible fond memories of of UPI. It was, you know, one of my colleagues described us as the one legged man in the ass kicking contest, yet we still managed to kick ass occasionally. And, you know, just, just incredible, you know, lifelong friends, and it really was the kind of organization, I mean, you know, it was, it was, it was not in a good place, sort of as a business, but the journalism, you know, the the reporters, the other people I worked with there, they were just, they were wonderful. And we, we kept doing it every day. And then I got later, got laid off from there in 2009, first of three layoffs, eventually went to work for the Washington Times where I was, I was writing about national security. It was a very ideological newsroom, and it wasn’t a very good fit. But one of the ways that I sort of address that or tried to get round it was I wrote a lot about this cyber stuff, you know, because that way I didn’t have to write so many stories about Benghazi or about the Chechen terrorists flooding across the southern border. So, I got laid off by the Times, got recruited by Politico in 2014 to launch their pro cybersecurity news service. Got head hunted from there by ScoopNews to launch CyberScoop. And after I did that, I sort of, you know, I took a step back. I had two, you know, baby boys. They were sort of one and one and a half or, sorry, six months and one, one and a half years. And my wife was trying to get her salad dressing business off the ground, which she succeeded. It’s now available in area Whole Foods.
CB: What is it called?
SW: Mondiel. Okay, they have two, they have two flavors, you know, Provence and Istanbul. Provence is like a vinaigrette, lemon vinaigrette. And the Istanbul is a sort of more Asian, flavored with, like sesame, ground sesame seeds and stuff. Delicious, really delicious. Anyway, so she was doing that and and we had the babies, and I just, you know, I have an older child, and when he was that age, I I sort of, you know, it’s when I was filing, you know, multiple stories a day for UPI so, so I felt like I’d missed some of that. So, you know, I stepped back from full-time employment, and for a couple of years, as I thought, and just as I was getting ready to, just as I was getting ready to, you know, get back into the labor market full time. You know, that was March 2020, when, as you may recall, the world sort of ended so, so freelancing, which I’d been doing for a year or so, really, just to keep my hand in and to and to, sort of, you know, earn a little bit of money, but it became a full time thing. And I’ve, you know, I’ve grown to love it. Really, I’ve been, you know, news is a team sport, and I missed the hell out of a newsroom-the camaraderie. You know, miss that very badly, but you know, the autonomy is extremely valuable to me, especially, you know, as a parent, and you know, on the other hand, you have to admit that being a freelance doesn’t really mean you don’t have a boss. It means that you have multiple bosses. But I’ve been very, very fortunate in the multiple bosses, you know, that I’ve had Via Satellite and especially Air and Space Forces Magazine and now ISMG. I mean just, you know, real solid professionals. And, you know, Tobias and the team at Air and Space Forces Magazine have been incredibly supportive to me over the years as well. So, you know, just been very lucky. So that’s, you know, here we are.
MF: That’s awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing just that background. It’s great to hear and just cool to see, I guess, that transition into freelancing and hear a little bit about that experience, and even to dive into that a bit deeper, could you give us kind of a view of your day to day right now, between, you know, crafting stories, speaking with experts, coordinating new writing opportunities. How do you divide up your time, usually, throughout a given week?
SW: Yeah, I mean, it’s so I try and spend as much time as possible attending real life events, because I think, you know, you can attend stuff online, and it’s nice not to have to have to put on pants, but it’s, it’s, you know, when you’re out there and you mix with the crowd, and you, you know, it’s a chance to meet new people. I’m always looking for new sources, new people who can educate me about about new stuff. And so I try and attend as many events as possible. And, I mean, honestly, like, the biggest problem I have with time is social media. You know, I really wrestle with it. It’s such a time suck and and yet, you know, you’ve got to keep in touch with what people are thinking, especially, you know, people in your network. I mean, you know, I spend way too much time on LinkedIn and Twitter, and I do, you know, I try to be intentional about it. I try to be discriminating and use my time wisely and avoid going down big rabbit holes. But, I mean, I often, I don’t succeed in that as often as I as I need to. But yeah, so that’s, you know, and then, and then, and also, I try and, you know, touch base with people over the phone or in real life. You know, even if I don’t have a story that I’m working on, just to catch up with them, see what they’re doing, see what they’re thinking about stuff. You know, it’s try and keep myself educated that way.
MF: Of course. Yeah, that that makes total sense, especially you know, given you are writing for multiple different publications, I’m sure that’s helpful hearing what the experts have to say in these different industries that you write about. And then, as well as keeping, keeping on top of what your audiences might be interested in or what they most want to learn about at any given point in time. Could you perhaps give us a little bit more detail about the different audiences that you currently write for, whether that’s Air and Space Forces Magazine, Via Satellite, or even OT Today for ISMG, how do you kind of tailor your messaging across these different outlets?
SW: Well, so OT Today is a very practitioner, you know that’s the audience, is practitioners, security, professionals. So, you know you’re, I always think of that as “News You Can Use.” You know that they, they need, they need the answers to the questions that they’re, you know, confronting in their, in their professional lives every day. I mean, Air and Space Forces Magazine is very different. I mean, honestly, it is great to work for an organization, for a publication, I should say that is so beloved of its of its readers. I mean, people love that magazine. And, you know, not very different experience one gets, you know, from when I used to work at Politico, when I think, you know, people might have been afraid of you a little bit, but they they weren’t necessarily loving your output. Whereas, you know, people talk about, oh, they their dad used to read the magazine, you know, or their uncle or and, you know, how they, I mean, people have a lifelong relationship with it. So it’s a, it’s a really, you know, that’s very special, that’s very special. And Via Satellite, magazine is the sort of, you know, it’s the sort of OG publication in the space market, really, you know, lovely people there that run it, and, and, you know, very comprehensive so that, I mean, my one regret there is that they, they only commission. You can’t pitch them, you know? They just, and they have a sort of editorial calendar, and, and they know when they, when they need freelance input, and, and it’s always fun to write. I mean, I love writing about space. It’s, you know, what’s not to love?
CB: Yeah, it’s always something interesting happening. No understanding you have some of these different focused areas, what are some of the hottest topics that you’re currently interested that you’re currently covering maybe the next three to six months or so?
SW: Oh, well, what I’m working on right now, in fact, I just filed the story before getting on with you, was, this is my, my latest piece of reporting about Anthropic project Glasswing, although, you know, it’s actually also about OpenAI, trusted access for cyber program, because both of these big frontier labs have this, a mechanism for cybersecurity vendors and big infrastructure providers, you know, the hyper scalers and other and others to, to get access to these extremely capable latest generation of gen-AI models that they haven’t released to the public because they’re, frankly, they’re worried that that it would create risks and dangers, because these models are so good at finding flaws and bugs in software code, and not only that, they then can write exploits that that use them to, you know, to take over edge devices or or take over servers. So, so really quite, you know, there’s a, I mean, you know, we haven’t, we’ve seen some independent testing of these models, and it’s clear that they are increasingly capable. They’re getting better and better. And you know, so they restrict the access for perfectly understandable reasons, but both of them have completely excluded operational technology from those, you know, from those access parts and and that’s really a big problem, firstly, because OT is like, you know, that’s what our critical infrastructure relies on, the water and wastewater facilities, the power generation plants, you know, the factories, they’re even, even healthcare, you know, with the medical devices, so, so, so it’s absolutely critical for critical infrastructure, and it’s very different In terms of, you know, how you prioritize vulnerabilities, how you manage them, how you mitigate them, you know, how you sort of, you know, it’s just a very different world where vulnerabilities are concerned, because of the, you know, these refresh, these things are meant to last decades often, this stuff, you know, this operational technology. So, so anyway, so I’ve been writing about the exclusion of OT from from Project Glasswing and from OpenAI’s trusted access for cyber program. And I think that, you know, increasingly, sort of access to these models is going to be a resource which is sort of limited, not just financially, but also, you know, in this way they’re going to mean, doesn’t matter how much money you gave them, they wouldn’t just let anyone in, because, you know, the point is, you can’t afford to have this capability out there in the wild, because it would basically would make, you know, make hackers unstoppable, is the thinking.
MF: Yeah, that’s super interesting, and thank you for diving into that a little bit more, especially with with consideration of where the industry is headed and how different organizations can be using “Frontier LLMs,” I think in these new AI models, I think that’s definitely important to keep in mind for how, you know, on the flip side, how they can be used by cyber criminals and how they can be used offensively. Are there any other trends that stand out to you when, when you’re evaluating how different industries are adopting AI or other emerging technologies. Is there anything else that, in your opinion, is flying under the radar?
SW: Well, I think you know one thing that’s going to crop up increasingly now is, you know, big companies, large enterprises, have trying to sort of retroactively justify these huge investments that they’ve made. I mean, you know, I’ve seen, I’ve heard a little bit of chatter about staff in some of these large companies being sort of graded or rated on how much they use AI and, and that seems to me to be a bit the wrong way round. Like, you know, people should want to use it if it was, if it was useful, and if it was helpful, and if it, you know, was this sort of super tool, people use it without being sort of, you wouldn’t have to, you know, that’s basically a sort of a mechanism to incentivize its use. But, I mean, shouldn’t it? Shouldn’t how good it is be incentivizing its use, if, if it’s as good as, you know, we’re all expected to. So I think, you know, I think there is, there are elements of bubble in all of this, and there are elements of a hype cycle. And, you know, I mean, obviously, it is an incredible, you know, generative AI is an extraordinary capability in these frontier models, like I say, they’re improving very rapidly, but, but also, you know, the the economics of it are, are, look a bit wonky to me. I mean, I’m not an expert, but it just, you know, something doesn’t quite add up, it seems to me. So, you know, I mean, we’ll see how it all shakes out. But I do, yeah, I’m a little bit of a skeptic, actually, on the AI thing, but, but we’ll see. We’ll see how it all works out.
CB: Yeah, we sure will. We know another big focus area for you is security in the space and satellite industry. We saw one of your recent articles, I think, early April and Via Satellite, about how cybersecurity in space is really hard and kind of what some of the strategies defenders are trying to do to handle that. From your perspective, what is either encouraging or concerning about that landscape currently, and what are some of your focus areas here?
SW: Well, so let’s start the encouraging stuff. You know, the space ISAC, the space Information Sharing and Analysis Center in Colorado Springs, is, you know, one of the most mature cyber threat information sharing organizations in any of the 16 sectors of critical infrastructure and space. Isn’t even a designated, formally designated as critical infrastructure, but, but, you know, the honestly they’ve got, you know, they’ve got a, it’s not quite 24/7 yet, but, but they’ve got a watch center, they have, like, daily briefings and conference calls and things and and, you know, it’s just really there. I would say they’re up there with the banks in terms of the maturity of their information sharing apparatus, which is great, you know, because, you know, the great thing about cyber is, you know, if, if if I, if I’m attacked, I can warn everyone else in the sector. You know, I can provide IOCs, Indicators of Compromise. You know, I can provide other clues that will help defenders in other organizations spot these attacks before they can get a foothold. So, you know, that sort of information sharing that’s very encouraging. And, you know, I mean, not everyone’s a member of space ISAC, it is quite expensive to join, but, but they are, meaning, in my view, that that’s a that’s a boom to the to the industry.
CB: That is very encouraging, yeah,
SW: On the downside, you know, I think the most cyber vulnerable segment of space industry is here on the ground. You know, it’s the ground segment. If you look at, you know, what the Russians did on just as they were invading Ukraine, and they tried to shut down Viasat. They attacked the terminals. You know, they got into the network of the ground of the ground station in Italy, and they attacked the terminals. They used the terminals, so and, you know, in general, the ground is the most vulnerable part cyber, vulnerable part of space, and you know, it’s also the one that’s now undergoing this process of like commoditization, you know, and virtualization, all of these incredibly complicated, hard piece of hardware, the switches and the modems, and the signal amplifiers, and all of that, not all of it, but a lot of it is going away and being and being virtualized and being replaced by software and that, you know, that does make it vulnerable because, you know, it’s in the cloud. Misconfigurations can happen. Security problems can happen, and, you know, so that, so that’s an issue. I would say that’s the thing that is most worrying. I would think, because the, you know, also, the ground isn’t getting the big investments necessarily that, you know, people are spending money on launch. They’re spending money on getting stuff into orbit. They’re not necessarily spending money on the ground. And you know, so there’s a legacy technology issue there, as well as the flip side of that, which is, when you modernize, you go virtual, you go software based, and, and, you know, possibly expand, expand your tax surface, like that. So, yeah, it is. It’s very, but it’s fascinating watching this, this relatively new, or, I mean, parts of it are very new industry, you know, sort of wrestle with these, wrestle with these problems. Especially, you know, when you’ve got all these startups and small companies that probably aren’t necessarily thinking about security in the way that they might be, and are more focused on, you know, getting their product to market.
MF: Yeah. And based on, based on what you just described, how have, how are we seeing, perhaps the private sector and the public sector collaborate right now to kind of improve national security, especially as you mentioned, you know, there are threats from other countries coming into our networks. How are you seeing collaboration there perhaps improve? Or are there any areas where you’re noticing there might be gaps?
SW: I mean, I think there’s always gaps. Always seams anyway. And I mean, I, you know, we’re seeing quite a lot of regulatory activity, you know, new sort of new NIST guidance for the space sector, you know, executive orders out of the White House. This one and the previous one. New standards for national security satellite systems. And I think all that kind of policy and regulatory activity is, I mean, it’s certainly good, certainly good for us journalists, because, you know, we have lots to cover, lots to write about. But also I think it’s good for industry because it does set a baseline. It makes it an issue. It, you know, makes it a priority, puts it on, you know, on everyone’s to do list. So I think that’s, yeah, I mean, there is more of a, you know, the latest executive order called, I’m sorry, the the recent National Cyber Security Strategy did call for a more more use of the private sector, even in offensive cyber operations, which you know, and there’s a couple of bills floating around in Congress suggesting that the President should issue letters of marque and reprisal. You know, this very 18th century where you would basically charter people to be sort of Buccaneers. And, I mean, it’s completely bonkers, in my view. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s the existence of these bills is, unfortunately, proof that being a really stupid idea isn’t disqualifying in the Washington policy conversation. So, I mean, there are, there are much more sensible, sort of grown up ways you can think about doing this, like, you know, the Merchant Marine that used to organize all these convoys across the Atlantic in World War 2, or indeed the the Civil Reserve air fleet, which is basically, you know, a sort of standing arrangement by which the military can can reach in and lease civil, civil aircraft to provide lift during a war, when they might need to move large numbers of men and material across the country and indeed across the world. So, you know, there is a, it is an incredible resource that private sector in, you know, for the U.S., for U.S., national power. But I think that the idea that you would charter some, you know, over ambitious startup to go wandering around attacking Russian system. I mean, it’s just, it’s just bonkers, you know. I mean, cyber operations are extremely complicated things. They’ve got to be coordinated. They’ve got to be de-conflicted. You know, if you’re launching a DDOS or some kind of low level attack against one, some adversary target, you know, and they suddenly start to pay attention to their security they might notice, you know, look, there’s this NSA implant in there that’s been in there for five years, waiting for the moment when it needs to be used, and now you’ve just blown that capability. So, you know, got to be really careful with this stuff, and, but I but it’s an interesting conversation, and, you know, and it’s one I think that will go forward, because there are, you know, there are people on Capitol Hill, there are people you know, in Silicon Valley who, you know, want to make sure that resource doesn’t go unused as an element of now.
CB: Yeah, definitely an interesting conversation. I think we’ll continue seeing play out a bit. As you said. Before we wrap up, Shaun wanted to ask a couple of our listener questions that we have for you. First one, what has been your favorite story or most compelling interview that you’ve written recently? Or not recently, it could be any time in your career really.
SW: Well, yeah. I mean, I was thinking about this is over the last year, yeah, and it’s sort of cheating, because it was actually March last year, but I wrote this big story about big changes at the Air Force’s iconic software factory, Kessel Run. And, you know, Kessel Run is one of those institutions where a lot of people have passed through it. A lot of people, you know, care about it. Know about it. You know, know something of its inner workings. Have a view. Have views quite strong, in some cases, views about how it should be organized, and so forth. And when you I mean, that’s a delight to to report, because, you know, there’s so many people out there who care about it and know about it and will talk to you about it. It’s slightly alarming to sort of write about, because, you know, if you get anything wrong, you’re liable to be strung up from a lamppost, sort of internet style, anyway. And, you know, when you, when you get into those debates, you know, often these are people who’ve been who’ve been talking to each other for years about these issues. So, you know, it’s just, it’s you have to tread carefully, but it was, but it is, again, it’s always great to engage with things that people care about. And you know, it’s a real, it’s a real pleasure to get all that, mostly, it’s a real pleasure to get all that feedback and, and, you know, I mean, to have people like the commander of Kessel Run sort of complaining about one story on a panel. You know, I’m sorry, wasn’t fond of it, but, I mean, I think this good story, and it certainly gave him a fair crack of the whip. But yeah, so that was, that was fun, just because of the community, you know, because community of people that’s involved and and the sort of chance to try and report out some of those issues and disputes. You know, it’s a really important question: How can the Air Force and the U.S. Military writ large, you know, take advantage of the power of software to, you know, to advance war fighting capabilities? And you know, Kessel Run’s tried to answer that question in a number of different ways over the years, and you know, it’s going to continue to evolve.
CB: Yeah, that is fascinating, and that’s a great pick as one of the most compelling stories of the last year.
SW: Thank you.
MF: Yeah, and you mentioned just how in writing, in writing that story and kind of the feedback that you would get on it, that kind of touches on what our final listener question is, which is, what makes a cybersecurity story or textbook story in general worth covering to you, and what do PR professionals get wrong when trying to pitch you stories?
SW: Well, I’ll answer that second piece first. You know, I don’t do product stories, so, so that’s generally a waste of time. I do sometimes write about trends. And you know, if you can, if you so, you know, if you think you you’ve got a trend then, then I’ll read about that. I think. I mean, one thing I that’s always useful, I think, is, you know, interesting takes on the news of the day, but it actually has to be the news of the day, right? You know, no one cares what your client thinks about last week’s news, and unless it’s, you know, unless it’s an ongoing story, like, you know, like the war in Iran, for example. But you know, I might want to meet your client for reasons that have got very little to do with you know what the pitch is, right? I mean, you know, I’m always interested in meeting people with interesting backgrounds, especially those you know worked at three letter agencies or or in the national securityn apparatus, and, you know. So, I guess one mistake that people make is thinking that, you know, because I want to meet their person, that they’re, you know, the person they pitch to me. It’s to, I mean, I try and be transparent and say, you know, I’m actually not interested in this story, but I am interested in this person, and, you know, possibly having a relationship with them and using them as an expert source or whatever. But, yeah, that’s that. Yeah, I think that’s all I’ve got to say on that,
MF: No definitely valuable feedback, for sure, and something our listeners can take away and apply, especially those of our listeners who are PR Professionals and always want to be working with the media in the most effective way. So thank you so much, Shaun for your time today and sharing all these great insights and your background, we’ve really appreciated your time and just getting to chat with you a little bit more and getting to know your coverage areas. So really appreciate it. Thank you for your time.
CB: Yeah, thanks, Shaun,
SW: Thank you for inviting me. It was a real pleasure. It was fun to you know witter on about this job that I you know, I mean, it’s my life, you know, it’s, I’ve been doing it all my professional life. So, it’s always good to, good to chat about it.
CB: Yeah, we love following your coverage, and now we know a little bit more. So very valuable insight. So thank you, and we appreciate your time today.
MF: And thank you to all of our listeners.
CB: Thank you for listening to today’s episode of Inside the Media Minds to learn more about our podcast and to hear from some of our past guests, please visit us at w2comm calm.com
MF: You can also subscribe anywhere podcasts are found.