5 Questions with… NBC5's Carol Marin

Wednesday, June 2, 2010
By Jeff Nuich
CSN Chicago Senior Director of CommunicationsCSNChicago.com Contributor

Want to know more about your favorite Chicago media celebrities? CSNChicago.com has your fix as we put the citys most popular personalities on the spot with everyones favorite weekly local celeb feature entitled 5 Questions with...

Every Wednesday, exclusively on CSNChicago.com, its our turn to grill the local media and other local VIPs with five random sports and non-sports related questions that will definitely be of interest to old and new fans alike.

This weeks guest... shes been the gold standard of Chicago journalism for over three decades... her dedicated focus over the years has earned her two prestigious Peabody Awards and countless local Emmy Awards... to this day, she remains one of the busiest news journalists around with her expert work as political editor for NBC5 in Chicago, a political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and an interviewcontributor for WTTWs Chicago Tonight... shes a true Chicago original... here are 5 Questions withCAROL MARIN!

BIO: Veteran Chicago news journalist Carol Marin was named NBC5's Political Editor in 2006, covering state, local and national political stories. An award-winning reporter, Carol has won journalism's highest honors including two George Foster Peabody awards, two DuPont-Columbia awards and two national Emmys. The awards cover a wide range of work that includes investigative reporting on political corruption and organized crime and a 20-year documentary project on the challenge of the facially disfigured.

Carol's career began in Knoxville, Tenn., at WBIR-TV and continued at WSM-TV in Nashville where she both anchored and reported. In 1978, she returned home to Chicago and NBC5 News where she worked as a reporter and anchored the 6 & 10 p.m. newscasts until May 1997. From 1997-2002, Carol was a correspondent for CBS News, working for both 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II.

In June2002, Marin and producer Don Moseley formed Marin Corp Productions, an independent documentary company that has produced hour-long programs for CNN Presents and New York TimesDiscovery.

Carol, in addition to her duties at NBC5, is a political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and an interviewer on WTTW's Chicago Tonight.

1) CSNChicago.com: Carol, lets get right into local politics. Current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel made no bones about it by recently stating he would like to be the next Mayor of Chicago when Richard M. Daley decides to eventually hang it up. If Emanuel does run for mayor one day and wins, do you think his much-reported brash style of politics will rub the overall Chicago political landscape the wrong way or is he just what this city needs following Daleys tenure?

Marin: Here's a story I just never bought. I'm told that Rahm Emanuel has talked for years about running for mayor. But something in my brain still can't quite compute seeing him on a Saturday in January in the middle of a Chicago blizzard standing in front of microphones at Snow Command press conference in a windbreaker and a ball cap talking about plowing the side streets. Hey, that's just me.

I've been wrong before and I figure I must be wrong about this, but I don't see Rahm running for mayor. Or being mayor. Then again, he came up through the Daley administration, became a prodigious fundraiser and fearsome political operative. It could happen. But it could also happen that if Mayor Daley is out of the picture for whatever reason, that Rahm Emanuel isn't the slam dunk successor people assume. And truthfully? A defeat would be a good educational experience for him.

2) CSNChicago.com: In his year-and-a-half stint as President of the United States, what would you say is Barack Obamas single biggest success and single biggest failure so far in office?

Marin: Biggest success so far: passing a health care reform bill. Biggest failure so far: not living up to promises of transparency. That includes precious few news conferences.

3) CSNChicago.com: Carol, how about those Blackhawks! Did you ever think that this storied franchise would captivate the city the way it has and how closely have you been following this amazing team this season?

Marin: Full disclosure: I am a sports ignoramus. Not proud of that, but it's true. However, I am a Chicago booster and very proud of the Hawks for doing what naysayers believed couldn't be done. Equally unforgivable, in the eye of my sports loyal friends, is that I root for the Sox and the Cubs. And go to couple of their games... on the North Side AND on the South Side. Back to the Hawks, I watched their Saturday and Monday nights victories and will be glued to the tube until they pick up the Stanley Cup.

4) CSNChicago.com: What is the best Hollywood film about politics you have ever seen?

Marin: Don't know if it's the BEST Hollywood political film, but it is one of my all-time favorites. It is "Charlie Wilson's War. I love it for a load of reasons. Among them, I love Afghanistan, a place I traveled working for 60 Minutes II in the wake of 9-11. And Charlie Wilson proved that American foreign policy is driven, sometimes, by the knowledge of the few against the ignorance of the many. It's a phenomenal story, written originally by my late CBS colleague, George Crile, who was always generous with his help and advice.

5) CSNChicago.com: With summertime upon us and the fact that were blessed to live in arguably the greatest summer city in the world, what are some of your personal favorite annual summertime activities in and around Chicago?

Marin: Favorite activities include swimming in the lake. In fact, I've been taking lessons at the pool at the DePaul Athletic Center to tune up my swimming. And my other favorite activity is riding horses. I do it at a stable just over the Indiana-Michigan border. One of my fondest memories about horses is riding with the Chicago Mounted Police unit along the lakefront where I was once allowed to gallop the lakefront on one of Chicago's Finest's horses. It was amazing!

BONUS QUESTION... CSNChicago.com: Carol, anything you want to promote (stories youre working on, upcoming appearancesTV specials, charities youre involved with, etc.)? Tell us... CSNChicago.com readers want to hear about it.

Marin: My producer, Don Moseley, and I are working hard on a whole raft of stories. They include the continued violence of Chicago's streets; the Chicago Outfit and their relationship to politics here; and this year's races for Governor and US Senate. This is the city that keeps on giving when it comes to powerful, important political stories. We are endlessly grateful to live here and to work here.

Marin LINKS:

Chicago Sun-TimesCarol Marins columns

Chicago Sun-TimesCarol Marins blog

NBC 5 ChicagoCarol Marin page

WTTW 11Chicago Tonight home page

Carol Marin on Facebook

Carol Marin on Twitter