Interview with Jane Velez-Mitchell

Jane Velez-Mitchell hosts HLN’s “Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell,” a topical event-driven show with a wide range of viewpoints.

A veteran television news journalist, Velez-Mitchell reported for the nationally syndicated Warner Brothers/Telepictures show “Celebrity Justice” and regularly served as guest host for “Nancy Grace,” another HLN program.

As a commentator on high-profile cases, Velez-Mitchell has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and other national cable television programs. During the Michael Jackson molestation trial, she appeared daily on “Nancy Grace” and was featured on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on several occasions, including the evening of the verdict.

Her nonfiction book, Secrets Can Be Murder: What America’s Most Sensational Crimes Tell Us About Ourselves, was published by Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster. The paperback version appeared in bookstores in June 2008.

Velez-Mitchell previously spent more than a decade anchoring and reporting for KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. She also served as a reporter/anchor for eight years at WCBS-TV in New York City.

Velez-Mitchell is the recipient of a Los Angeles Emmy Award and a New York Emmy Award. The KCAL-TV newscasts she co-anchored won three Southern California Golden Mike Awards and an Emmy. She also wrote, directed and produced Dancing Through Life, an award-winning documentary. While working on Celebrity Justice, Velez-Mitchell’s reporting earned the show two Genesis Awards from the Humane Society of the United States.

HCI books published Velez-Mitchell’s second book, iWant, this fall (release date: September 1, 2009).

– Biography from cnn.com

Cultivating a Circle of Compassion:
Why Jane Velez-Mitchell is Important
by Lauren Neal

Since its inception in October of 2008, “Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell” has shattered ratings records for the HLN network. Jane Velez-Mitchell blazes through the world’s most pressing issues each night of the week, her passion for current affairs and heated debate smoldering under the lights of prime time’s relentless gaze. Many of the faces that regularly grace our flat-screen televisions are just that: depthless façades; but Velez-Mitchell consistently embraces the body and breadth of her life experience, her efforts sculpting a multidimensional journalist and fortitudinous role model.

The fiery pundit is quick to note that the tendrils of her multifaceted identity extend into

Puerto Rico, Ireland, animal advocacy, the LGBTQ community, and sobriety, pocketing the labels “person of color,” “vegan,” “gay,” and “recovering alcoholic.” Given her myriad identities, Jane Velez-Mitchell is wary of being compartmentalized. The journalist proudly represents a variety of groups, communities, and values, but refuses to subscribe to any ideology that ignores the tenets of compassion. Frustrated by the inefficient, slug-like pace of procedural, partisan politics, she encourages her viewers to examine and address issues — from crime to popular culture to health care — at the level of their most elementary human concerns.

Still, in spite of her commitment to each of these identifications and to the flurry of debates that often surround them, Velez-Mitchell does not feel the slightest ounce of responsibility or obligation to speak on their behalf.

Nope.

Uh uh.

Not even a little bit.

For Jane Velez-Mitchell, being asked to use her voice is never an obligation. For Jane Velez-Mitchell, it is a privilege.

And indeed, it ought to be a privilege to test the power of an individual voice, whether being broadcast before an audience of millions or breathlessly denouncing a bully. It is a privilege to identify as LGBTQ, to belong to a community that has produced some of the most brilliant minds, talents, and inspirational stories of endurance and persistence in history. It is a privilege to speak on behalf of who it is that we truly are and whom we might like to be, a privilege to speak on behalf of our passions and personal truths.

For her commitment to compassion, and staunch desire to make visible the issues affecting marginalized and/or underrepresented communities, one might flood Velez-Mitchell with gratitude. Her response would likely extend no further than a “thanks” in return, for affording her the opportunity to do so.

I spent just thirty minutes speaking with Jane Velez-Mitchell; as a result I feel honored to hold this pen in my hand. I have been blessed with a voice, and with it I feel privileged to say that I am a member of the LGBTQ community, a person of color, a writer, a proponent of arts education, a college student, an advocate of disability rights…

Who are you?

For more on Jane Velez-Mitchell, please read her book, iWant, published by HCI. Release date: September 1, 2009.

MatthewsPlace.com interviews
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
July 23, 2009

JVM: Hey there.

MP: Hey how are you?

JVM: Fine thank you. How you doing?
MP: I’m great. Thanks so much for agreeing to interview with the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

JVM: Well thanks for asking me.
MP:Of course.

JVM: I feel very honored and privileged.
MP:Basically, as an intern this summer, what I wanted to do was put together a series of interviews with a lot of self-identified LGBT professionals. I think it’s important for youth to have role models that they can look to, people who are successful. I would love to hear you talk about what your professional dreams and aspirations were as an adolescent, and how and why these changed over time, and if coming to terms with your sexuality influenced or impacted your professional goals.

JVM: First of all, I want to let you know that I’ve written a book about all of those questions and it comes out in September. So hopefully you get a chance to look at it. That provides the in-depth explanation. The fact is that I was in denial about my sexual orientation for many, many years. Now that I look back on it, well you never say “shoulda coulda woulda,” right? I think it’s really great that young people today, I feel, have more opportunities to really celebrate who they are. Things are changing very rapidly. Somebody in high school who feels that they are attracted to the same sex doesn’t have to go into denial, or shut down, or create phony crushes, or any of those things that I did.
MP: Definitely.

JVM: I think the world’s changing. It’s very, very different from when I was born. I’m 53. Not to say that there aren’t 53-year-olds who came out when they were 12. I’m sure that there are. But I also know a lot of people who struggled just like I did. And if you talk to a lot of people who are in their fifties who are LGBT, you’ll find out that they’ve been married, they have kids, you know, they really struggled with this whole issue. They had kids with their spouses, their opposite-sex spouses. So I think people have this concept of what it means to be gay and it’s not always this perfect story of realizing it when you’re very young and celebrating it. Ideally, we can move toward that, but for a lot of people my age it’s been a struggle. Luckily, I got through that and came to terms with my real sexual orientation as a result of a couple of main things: one, getting sober. I think as long as I was able to… I’ve been sober about fourteen and a half years, and as long as I was able to drink I could remain in denial about my true feelings about a lot of things. And also therapy. Those were the two key things that helped me come to terms with who I really was. And the third thing was falling in love with somebody, who happened to be the same sex as me. So those three things together did the trick. I think that now, being a gay woman and a professional woman, I have not experienced anything negative about it whatsoever. In other words, there’s been no negative repercussion. It’s been all positive. If anything, I’ve been totally embraced by other gay professionals. Here at Turner, they have something called Turn Out New York, and I just had dinner last night with a large group of gay professionals here at Turner. There have been events that I’ve emceed; since I’ve arrived here in October, I’ve been involved in, I’d say, going on a half a dozen events.
MP:That’s great.

JVM: Either here or being asked to emcee events, or being asked to accept an award. It’s been great, really. It’s fun. It’s actually introduced me to a whole bunch of people that I would not have otherwise met here. And so, it’s been a blast. I can say that, it’s not only not been negative but it’s a positive. One hundred percent.
MP:In regard to that, journalism as an industry, how do you think it has been affected or impacted by identity politics? Especially, I think, as more and more television journalists find themselves being expected to speak on behalf of their various communities.

JVM: Ask that again? Sorry.
MP: Oh no problem.

JVM: I was pouring a cup of tea and I can’t do two things at once obviously.
MP:I was just curious to see what you think about how the industry of journalism has been impacted by identity politics. I see a lot of television journalists especially expected to speak on behalf of their various communities or identities. I was wondering if you ever feel pressure to speak on behalf of the LGBT community or if that is just second nature, something you would want to do anyway.

JVM: I wouldn’t feel pressured; I would feel honored that somebody would ask me to represent the LGBT community. I have a lot of groups that I fall into.
MP: Right.

JVM: I’m Puerto Rican and Irish. I’m gay. I’m a vegan. I’m an animal rights advocate. And I’m a sober person. I have all these different things that I’m always being asked to speak about. I think it’s great. I feel very lucky. I just went to LA to accept an award, for the reporting I’ve done on animal rights, from the Animal Rights 2009 convention. Right before that I accepted an award on behalf of CNN — it wasn’t for me, I was just picking it up essentially — from The Trevor Project. These aren’t obligations. These are really great things that I’m privileged to be a part of and asked to do. Just this morning I was asked to do something next weekend. Sometimes I have to say no, because I simply cannot push myself to a point where I’m going to collapse. That’s a high-class problem; that I’m asked to do so many of these things that I literally get exhausted sometimes. But in a good way. It’s really great to be able to be there and be who you are 100% without feeling that you have to explain or have to be defensive.
MP: I think that’s really a great shift, especially as somebody who is young and looking to the future and careers and things like that. To know that it becomes a privilege to talk about things that mean a lot to you.

JVM: Right.
MP: As opposed to an obligation or something that might be a hindrance.

JVM: I think, in my experience, a lot of the fear about coming out: first, I had to struggle with myself. Am I gay? Am I not gay? Then, after years of working on that and finally accepting my real sexual orientation, I had to struggle with, whom do I tell? How do I come out? And I was actually inspired by two people. Suze Orman. Who I saw on CNN, on Larry King Live one night. I was just flipping channels and she was talking about how she lived with a woman. She was talking about being gay and I was like, “Wow.” Then, there was this actual Log Cabin Republican, who is a gay conservative: Al Rantel, who is a KABC radio host. I was doing a show with him on Senator Larry Craig and his toe-tapping incident. We were talking and talking, and he was out. We were talking about Senator Larry Craig’s hypocrisy and I just decided, “I can’t keep talking about this, without saying that I live with a woman,” and I did. You know, nothing happened. All the fear was self-generated. The sky didn’t fall down; nothing happened. I realized that the only thing you have to fear is fear itself, as someone a lot smarter than me once said.
MP: Definitely. I think that it’s important for youth who identify with any marginalized identity to see their communities’ stories represented in the media and to know that these various identities are a fluid part of the way the nation works. I know that, like with Sonia Sotomayor right now, I have a lot of friends who are just happy to see a face that they can identify with on a TV show.

JVM: Sure.
MP: Another question, especially given that you are a trusted and respected [relater] of news and issues, do you think that telling your story in such detail will have an impact? I’m sure you hope for that, that you will be inspiring to a lot of people.

JVM: Totally. I think it will have an impact. I think it’s already having an impact. Not just, vis-a-vis, the fact that I’m gay. My editor, when she was working on the book, she and her husband went vegetarian because of what I describe in the book. I think there’s — I call it a chain reaction of compassion. I think all of these issues are somewhat interrelated. My message to the gay community is: we are a compassionate community, so let’s show compassion. Let’s show compassion to other marginalized groups and helpless species, even. Let’s be kind to animals. Let’s unite in a circle of compassion. It’s not just about one thing. It’s about having a prism through which you view all your choices, and that is kindness and compassion.
MP: Definitely. That is why I was so interested in speaking with you because you identify in a lot of different ways. You know, it’s really important to understand a person’s intersectionality. I’m not just gay, but I’m a person of color, or however else someone might happen to identify. And understanding that things get complicated.

JVM: It’s not really even that complicated. Just be kind and be who you are. I think those are the two most important things.
MP: Absolutely. Do you ever think that this seemingly ever-present divide between conservative and liberal media sources is destructive? Or do you think it’s constructive? I just feel like every time I turn on the TV, I can turn on a station or a news report and have a predetermined notion of what spin or edge of a story they’re going to be giving. Do you have an opinion on that and how that is impacting how we consume media at all?

JVM: I personally look at it from a totally different perspective. Again, mine is not conservative or liberal or Republican or Democrat. I really think more of a nonpolitical, almost spiritual, prism through which you need to look at all of these decisions and that is, once again, compassion. For example, what I’m trying to do today as far as the health care debate: okay, everybody’s yelling and screaming about health care. Well, what about health? While we’re talking about health care.
MP: Exactly.

JVM: What about prevention? What about the US government encouraging people to live healthier lives? We’re going to spend billions of dollars on healthcare but yet, the Agriculture Department and other aspects of government are actually subsidizing our unhealthy eating habits. So, there’s a totally nonpolitical way of looking at it, which I would call a “green” perspective.
MP: Brilliant, I think that’s absolutely brilliant. I think it [moves us away from] procedures we have to go through, how things are institutionalized; or jumping through hoops, and talking about nothing, basically, when the real issue is completely different.

JVM: Right.
MP: If you had to re-live your career-finding experience, are there different steps that you think you would have taken? You might talk about this in your book, I’m sure you do; but is there any knowledge to which you wish you would have had access? Now, looking back?

JVM: I have always called for therapy in the public schools … I think children need therapy. Most of our traumas occur in childhood and we’re not given the tools in our society to deal with those traumas and process them so that they don’t impact our lives. If you look at most crime, most problems in our society it’s because of dysfunctional people who are coming up with self-destructive and destructive solutions to their demons, really. Most crime doesn’t make sense, because it’s irrational. People get caught; people destroy their own lives, they destroy other lives. Why are they doing all this? They weren’t given the tools to resolve their personal issues in a healthy way. They’re acting out. I did get into therapy in my early 20’s, mid-20’s. I wish I had done it when I was 16. I don’t say “shoulda coulda woulda” — everything happens in its own time — but I do feel that they could have group therapy in public schools. They could have 12-step in public schools. They could give children access to therapeutic tools, so that they can deal with their feelings, they can deal with their anger. They can learn how not to act out on their anger, how to come up with peaceful conflict resolution. All of these things should be taught in schools and they’re not. I think a lot of the violence we see is people who have issues that they haven’t resolved. And they’re acting them out.
MP: Right, and people who don’t know how to take care of themselves either. Because they’ve never had resources or the education to figure out just how to take care of themselves.

JVM: Right, and this goes all the way even into hate crimes. Hate crimes are probably committed, in most cases, by people who have severe personality disorders that need to be taken care of. And they should have been getting treatment in childhood, or in their very early teenage years.
MP: Absolutely, or people who don’t know how to deal with things that are outside of themselves, or things that are unfamiliar to them, and that sort of thing as well.

JVM: Or who don’t know how to deal with their own feelings that they don’t want to acknowledge inside of themselves, so they lash out at someone else.
MP: True.

JVM: Because it brings up something inside of them that they don’t have the tools to deal with. And I’m not excusing the behavior at all. But I’m just saying society needs to come up with better solutions than just locking people up. We need to start looking at helping people who are flying blind because they don’t understand what’s going on inside them.
MP: What you said about compassion earlier was moving to me. That’s right in the Matthew Shepard Foundation motto: Replacing Hate with Understanding, Compassion, and Acceptance. I think those three things, together, are exactly what you’re talking about right now: understanding yourself, understanding other people, and then, accepting those things, and finally, having compassion as well to look at issues beyond the political aspects or whatever people get caught up in.

JVM: Right.
MP: My last question for you today, before I let you go, is what do you think makes you such an animated and passionate journalist?

JVM: I feel very lucky to be in this position where I get to give my opinion every so often about issues that I’m passionately interested in. I feel so lucky to be able to do that because then I can, hopefully, spread the word about things that I think are really important for other people to know about and bring something new to the conversation. As a person of color, as a gay person, as an animal advocate, as a recovering alcoholic, I bring a unique perspective that other people might not have. And that’s the whole point of journalism, is to get people with different perspectives in, so that we can all decide what’s news and what’s not news. As long as you only have one group of people deciding that, you’re going to have a very narrow focus of what counts and what doesn’t count and what we should be talking about and what we shouldn’t be talking about. As you bring other people in, we’re going to expand the dialogue, and say, “Wait, this is what we should be talking about.” Look at this sad situation with this Harvard professor [Henry Louis Gates].
MP: Yes.

JVM: Luckily, we have a lot of people of color in news today that said, hey, that’s a big story. If this had happened 40 years ago, it might not have even gotten covered. That’s a great progress; that’s why it’s so important to have a diverse newsroom.
MP: That’s part of the reason I’m so interested in media. It’s a way of giving people’s voices a weight or a certain validity. I am honored to hear that it is a privilege for you, and not a responsibility that you feel that you’re tied to, to speak out, and to use your voice. That was really moving for me today.

JVM: Excellent. Thank you so much.
MP: Thank you.

JVM: I think you had some great questions and I hope it’s a great article. I’m sure it will be.
MP:Thank you so much.

JVM: Have a good one.
MP: You too.

JVM: Goodbye.
MP: Bye.