For some journalists, a live interview with a felon is a career pinnacle.
Just think of all the on-camera interviews about criminal behavior on daytime shows (Lance Armstrong on “Oprah”), produced as documentary film (Richard Nixon with British Journalist David Frost) and on evening news talk (Ted Haggard on “Larry King Live”). Audiences flock to them.
It’s not for this journalist. It’s just another day on the job.
Financial adviser Nadia Cavner’s guilty plea this month to interstate stalking felony charges marked May 21 as the date when I would interview a felon before a live audience.
I’ve never worked a crime beat, though I have reported on cases of white-collar crime and business lawsuits. No matter the topic, the purpose holds: Seek truth and report it. It’s the No. 1 tenet in the Society of Professional Journalist’s code of ethics.
And so it remains with this twist in the tale of a nationally recognized Springfield financial adviser’s career. Springfield Business Journal’s editors certainly didn’t expect this news would be part of the live interview portion of our 12 People You Need To Know editorial series. We selected Cavner based on a number of factors – as we do each of the 12 in the series – most notably the $490 million in client assets she manages and the 1,100 households she represents. She has national prominence in financial circles – she’s Franklin Templeton Investments top-ranked adviser in the banking division for 11 years running – and political circles – she’s a Democratic fundraiser and talks about President Barack Obama and the first family as if they’re her family. Her ancestry is unique and little known.
These are the topics of conversation that make the 12 People live interviews interesting. The felony plea sure makes this interview a little more interesting.
It certainly has created a lot of buzz around our office. Most often, readers have asked if we’re still honoring Cavner during the breakfast, and I’ve been surprised by this question.
It’s billed as a “live interview series” because that’s just what it is. The 12 People series is an editorial project in which our three editors spend the better half of an afternoon handpicking the dozen from literally pages and pages of “newsmakers” in our community. The sources agree to be interviewed first for the annual booklet and then in a live format during an agreed upon month the following year. There is no SBJ trophy.
It started as a seed of an idea for a special print product to supplement our year-end double issue, and it quickly grew with some watering from the management team into a monthly event with a unique vehicle for telling the news. The live interview event forum lets attendees connect with the monthly guests, and opening it up to audience questions allows discussion for topics beyond the confines of our tabloid-size newspaper. Each event takes on its own personality.
When Cavner and I talked at the April breakfast – four days after her guilty plea – she confirmed she would stick with her interview date.
Of the 63 live interviews I’ve conducted (I was sick once) in the last six years of our 12 People monthly editorial series, only one didn’t show up. That was James Cofer, and that was because he resigned as president of Missouri State University a few months before the interview and less than a year into the job. It was news when he accepted the position, and it was news when the school’s general counsel, Clif Smart, stepped up in the interim. Smart then stepped in and handled the 12 People interview in September 2011 and about a year later was named the school’s permanent president.
We’ve had others who have had job changes between the time we selected them and published the 12 People booklets in the last issue of the year. There is a certain element of unpredictability in this series, but the news always wins out. We don’t pick the news.
As our publisher, Jennifer Jackson, is fond of saying, the breakfast events bring to life the pages of the news in SBJ.
The news beat goes on. For this next one, there are so many questions, starting with BancorpSouth’s association with Cavner. Just before press time, I learned the Nadia Cavner Group at BancorpSouth signage had been removed from the East Sunshine Street building, and she was not present in the office. Other burning questions: How many clients will jump ship? Who do the clients actually belong to? Will Cavner be banned from selling securities for the standard 10-year period?
When we spoke this month, Cavner also reminded me there are two sides to every story. It’s true. I can’t wait to hear the other side (as much as her attorneys will permit).
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.
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