Profiles in Success  Submit a Profile In-depth looks at life after J-School. Class Notes  Submit a Class Note Shorter updates and recent alumni photos. Sort by Decade Sort by Name/Emphasis Show All 2000-Present 1990-1999 1980-1989 1970-1979 1960-1969 1950-1959 1940-1949 1930-1939 1920-1929 Show All: List by Last Name Graduate Degree Magazine Newspaper Photojournalism Radio-Television Strategic Communication Sort by Decade More Alumni Resources 2000-Present 1990-1999 1980-1989 1970-1979 1960-1969 1950-1959 1940-1949 1930-1939 1920-1929 @mizzou For All We Call Mizzou Mizzou Alumni Association MizzouNet

Rosemary C. Harold, MA '85

What do you do in your job at the Media Bureau of the FCC?
At the Federal Communications Commission, I'm second in command over the staff of the Media Bureau, but all of us ultimately answer to the five presidentially-appointed FCC commissioners. As a whole, we oversee electronic media and help create the rules by which they must operate. We gather comments from the public, including the regulated media companies, and then provide recommendations to the commissioners. Inside the bureau, I directly oversee two divisions. The first, the "Policy Division," deals with making and enforcing rules governing broadcasters, cable operators, and satellite radio and TV. The second, the "Industry Analysis Division," works on media ownership limits and cross-ownership issues.

After leaving Missouri with your master's degree in journalism, you eventually went to law school. How did decide to combine your media experience and law?
My journalism career included stints at the Columbia Daily Tribune, the Miami Herald and C-SPAN. But my interest in media law started before I had any of those jobs. My very first class at the J-School was "Communications Law," taught by Professor Dale Spencer. He was a long-time professor in the newspaper sequence who later earned a law degree. Dale taught Comm Law in the "Socratic method" style of law school, which means that he expected considerable back-and-forth discussion during class. Although this seemed to discombolulate many of my classmates, I quickly got used to it and started to really enjoy the subject matter. Within about eight weeks I thought, "Did I enroll in the wrong graduate program?" But I decided to finish my master's degree and then get some actual newsroom experience-both to become more knowledgeable about media business and also to make sure that law school was more than a passing intellectual fancy. As it turns out, it wasn't. I graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991. I then went to work in the communications law practice at Wiley, Rein, & Fielding, a large "K Street" law firm in Washington headed by a former FCC chairman. I represented media companies and advertising clients before the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and other federal agencies. I ended up staying there for 14 years - the last seven of them as a partner - when I got the opportunity to work for the FCC.

Why did you choose to work for a public agency such as the FCC?
That's a question that several of my relatives asked when they learned I had taken a six-figure pay cut in December 2005 to do it. But anyone who spends time watching the Washington process of law- and policy-making would understand the trade-offs-and the attraction-of this job for someone interested in the media. Work at the FCC is even more demanding and time consuming than I had imagined. I help manage a 200-person division and get to be involved in high-profile issues that have political overtones.

In what ways do you see the media industry changing?
In many ways, obviously, but from the FCC perspective, one of the biggest issues is how changes in the real-world media landscape should affect our existing media ownership restrictions on broadcasters, including those co-owned with daily newspapers and cable operators. We are under a legal mandate to adapt the rules to changes in the industry. We follow media trends very closely, and many media owners - from single-station "mom and pop" shops to the largest networks, video providers and newspaper chains - talk to us about their businesses and what they think will occur over the long term. We also understand, of course, that the Internet is having a dramatic impact on the so-called "mainstream media," but the FCC has no authority to directly regulate Web sites.

How has your work experience in actual newsrooms helped you?
My experience as a working journalist definitely gives me different insights than many of my lawyer colleagues. For example, in thinking about the media ownership rules, I can raise questions that don't often occur to non-journalists about the real-world impact of our rules on the news-gathering and reporting process. I also have a perspective on industry developments that not all lawyers or government officials may share. Watching the corporate death of my old employer Knight Ridder, Inc. was painful for me on several levels. I think my FCC colleagues find my background useful now, particularly my knowledge of the newspaper business, which is not an area that the FCC regulates except in the context of media ownership.

How do you keep up with media industry trends as well as legal trends?
I do have to understand both media and law to be a communications attorney, but to me the two concentrations aren't exactly separate. I used to read journalism reviews faithfully, but I've switched over to the Poynter/Romenesko Web reports a while ago. On the business side, I regularly read Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and several other specialty trade publications. I stay on top of the "law" part of media law by reading legal trade publications and other outlets, including the FCC's own Web site. I also get law and policy information from my network of co-workers and outside contacts. Working in this environment means I'm surrounded by people who talk about these issues constantly.

What advice do you have for students wanting to follow a career path similar to yours?
Having a journalism background is great preparation for law school because it helps make you a better writer. It also helps make you a better questioner; I think the journalism training helps you see the holes in fact patterns and the legal arguments that rest on them. But I would advise any J-School student thinking of a law career to get work experience first. There's no schooling that can substitute for the discipline of gathering facts, thinking them through, and then writing them up every day.

What was the best professional lesson you learned at Missouri?
I've always remembered a mantra from my first newswriting class at the J-School: Never assume anything. In other words, never forget to ask the questions for which you think you already have the answers, because you could be wrong. This has turned out to be a pretty good motto for maintaining a happy marriage, as well as a successful career!

What is something people might not know about you?
I'm a frustrated old-house renovator who has been tinkering, on and off over six years, on a 140-year-old row house in the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood. I'm too busy to do everything I envision and too picky about what I have done. I've painted my living room four different colors; now I'm contemplating a fifth one. As you can guess, all of this is driving my husband bats.