Carol Costello

What It's Like to Cover Politics

Award-winning journalist Carol Costello presents a short lecture outlining the duties and responsibilities of journalists covering politics and elections in today's era of deceptive and divisive messaging.

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Bio

Carol Costello is an award-winning journalist and former anchor and correspondent at CNN and HLN. Her distinguished career as a local, regional, and national broadcaster spans three decades, covering a broad range of world leaders, events, and politics.

Carol joined CNN in 2001 as an anchor on “Headline News.” From 2012 to 2017, she hosted “Newsroom,” and previously contributed to “The Situation Room” and anchored “Daybreak,” the network’s former early morning news program.

At CNN, Carol was at the forefront of some of the world’s most significant stories. She was part of CNN's Peabody Award-winning coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2008 presidential election. She also reported on Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, the Boston Marathon bombing, the last space shuttle launch, the Ohio midterm elections, the shooting at Virginia Tech, the tsunami disaster in South Asia, the Russian school hostage crisis, and Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. Carol interviewed four former U.S. presidents: President Jimmy Carter, President Ronald Reagan, President George H.W. Bush, and President Bill Clinton; and she covered five presidential inaugurations.

Before joining CNN, Carol worked at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., where she was an anchor and investigative reporter for five years. Prior to that, she spent three years at WBAL-TV in Baltimore. She began her career as a weekend anchor and reporter for WAKR-TV in Akron, Ohio, then moved to WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, to serve as the station's principal weeknight anchor. Costello earned a degree in journalism from Kent State University in Ohio.

Carol's reporting has been honored numerous times, including a 1991 Emmy Award for a special on crack and cocaine, a UPI award, and several Associated Press awards. She received an Emmy nomination in 1993, then again in 2008 for outstanding coverage of a breaking news story after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. In 2009, she received an individual Emmy nomination for Outstanding Morning Program. Carol serves as LMU's First Lady, where she also teaches broadcast journalism.