Edward Moody III, 'member him?
I went to Duluth to interview the former WCCO-TV staffer, who left the Twin Cities after two years to get more balance in his life. Now he's a weekday anchor at Duluth's CBS 3, where he has been for just over three years. "Three years is the longest contract I've done. If there is another contract, it will be two or three more years on that," said Moody. "I will fully admit that by the time I made the move up here, field reporting and I had fallen out of love with each other. I do it when there is breaking news."
Nowadays the most consistent field reporting Moody does is for the "Northern Light Award," a feature "about everyday people, not people you see on TV all the time, who do cool little things."
Such as Eveleth lunch lady Sue Malevich, who buys little toys for the kids who come through her line, so they can have something for their birthdays. "She talks to them when they are having a bad day. She volunteers at her local nursing home. She does good in the community," said Moody. "I did it to honor my grandmother [Nellie Pierson who] died almost four years ago. Her whole life, everybody, friends, family, came to my grandmother's house. She was that person who didn't get recognition on the news but always had extra food to help somebody, a bed for somebody to stay in a few nights."
Moody remains as nice as ever, although, as you will see in my video, his plans did not include preparing me a parking space.
Q: What is the media doing right and what are we doing wrong when it comes to covering Donald Trump?
A: Owhoo. What the media is doing right is being diligent. There are people on the national level who day-in-and-day-out are sifting through paperwork, sources, leads. You have to be completely devoted to him and the storm of things going on around him or you'll miss something. … What I think the media is not doing right is [being] stuck in a way of reporting presidents that doesn't do justice to the president we have. He brags about not being a normal politician; I think in some ways you have to not cover him in a normal way. I try not to call out the president on my social media posts unless it is something blatant. But there are plenty of blatant things. When you get on camera and talk about a group of Nazis, neo-Nazis and white supremacists and say there are good people on that side. No, there aren't. You have to call that out and say, "No, actually the president is incorrect."
Q: If Trump is defeated in 2020, do you think he'll attend the inauguration?
A: Absolutely not. He won't be there and he will tweet awful things about it.
Q: Are you ever returning to the rat race?
A: [Big laugh] I think I have left my rat race days behind me. When it gets crazy, it gets crazy. A couple weeks ago we had the refinery explosion just across the bridge in Wisconsin. I was on air for five-plus hours straight. But I tell you the pace of a city like Duluth, next to a lake like Lake Superior, suits me. I didn't grow up thinking a city like this would suit me, but you get older, you get wiser, and you realize what you need.
Q: You moved to Duluth to have a life with your partner.
A: We got married and bought a house that I am still living in, but the marriage didn't work. We got two years in and we realized that there were several things. We've been together 13 years, moved around the country together. Over the course of that many years there are things that can build up and if you don't deal with them and you think, "Oh, it will go away" — that doesn't always work. So here we are, officially separated, living apart and we share fur babies, two cats and two dogs. We're doing OK, we get along, but the marriage didn't work.
Q: Your hair is shorter.
A: It's more compacted. There is still a lot of hair, I squish it. Anchoring Monday through Friday you are supposed to have a look, a cleaner look. I had the opportunity in the Twin Cities to grow it out longer. I love my hair and like it longer, so I'm growing it out a little bit.
C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on FOX 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count.
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