Rhodes shares broadcast news insight

By Kevin Lin     3/18/10 7:00pm

A vice president at Fox News Company at 32, David Rhodes (Will Rice '96), who spoke March 11 to a full crowd of students and faculty, has been one of Rice's fastest-rising recent graduates. Rhodes, the current head of U.S. television operations at Bloomberg L.P., spoke at Farnsworth Pavilion about his career and counseled those in social science majors about their prospects after college.

He began the lecture by talking about the choices he made after graduating from Rice with a double major in economics and political science. Rhodes directed much of his talk to the social science majors at Rice and advised them to broaden their horizons.

"I didn't really want to do the obvious things," Rhodes said. "They tell you you're a social science major; maybe you should be a consultant. It's kind of like getting diagnosed with mono. I want to talk to you about the other opportunities."

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Since graduation, Rhodes has focused his energies on the broadcast news business.

"I originally worked on a network that was not on the air and had no viewers and no distribution," Rhodes said. "I ran the teleprompter and I did a really bad job."

This startup network would later grow into the multi-million dollar news giant known today as the Fox Broadcasting Company. Rhodes described running the assignment desk, where he was responsible for assigning breaking news stories to other reporters, as his breakout moment at Fox.

"Whatever be said of the politics of that channel ... there have been some real accomplishments there and elsewhere in TV news," Rhodes said.

Social scientists are especially well-suited for the news profession, Rhodes said.

"This is a career for people who are skeptical," Rhodes said. "It's for people who look at the world a certain way . and it's a world that allows you to be a participant."

Rhodes also described his own career at Bloomberg, a 25-year-old company that sells financial data plans and has hired 1500 journalists around the world. Rhodes said business news is converging with mainstream news and believes that business news has huge potential for growth, but he cautioned his audience not to dismiss the current news media as obsolete.

"I think it is fashionable to say that television is where newspaper was five years ago, ultimately doomed," Rhodes said. "I think part of that is not true - there's actually still no replacement for the impact of television on a big event."

Rhodes described news today as a commodity and said the burden falls upon news agencies to present it in an interesting manner.

"What's wrong with journalism on its worst days is that everyone wants to have the same story," Rhodes said. "You should be looking for something else."

Students in attendance said they were encouraged by Rhodes' success.

"It's great to see such a young accomplished Rice alumni doing so much in the world," McMurtry College freshman Hana Wang said.

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