Kelli Stavast on the old school rule that shaped her entire broadcasting career

Pete Weissner was from New York. That detail matters to Kelli Stavast, or at least it explains something. Weissner ran the broadcast journalism program at Chapman University in Orange, California, and the sensibility he carried into that program was shaped by an older version of the profession, one that predated social media, the personality-driven anchor, the reporter who makes themselves the story. He passed that sensibility on with some force.

The rule was simple. The reporter is never the...