Ellerbee marks decade of kid news
By John Rogers
Associated Press
Linda Ellerbee worked nonstop for two days putting out a report on the terrorist attacks, then went to work re-editing her 10th anniversary special.
Associated Press
The hourlong program, "Turning Ten: A Nick News Celebration," airing Thursday on Nickelodeon network, will now be bookended by stories on the Persian Gulf War and the events of Sept. 11.
The anchorwoman of Nickelodeon's "Nick News with Linda Ellerbee" is marking the 10th anniversary of the show with a retrospective, airing Thursday. Ellerbee is a pioneer in creating news shows for children.
"It's kind of like we've come full circle, a circle we never wanted to be in," she says, recalling how she began bringing news to children.
"It started with the Gulf War 10 years ago," said the anchor of Nickelodeon cable network's long-running "Nick News With Linda Ellerbee."
"Geraldine Laybourne, who was running the network then, called us about three days into the Gulf War and she said, 'I'm terrified for American kids. No one is talking to them. ... I know your company and I know your reporting. Would you put together a special for kids?'
"I said, 'Geri, I don't know anything about producing children's shows,' and she said, 'We don't know anything about producing news; we'll work together."'
Ten years later, Ellerbee is still explaining the news each Sunday to youngsters who tune in to a network best known for its nighttime reruns of popular old TV shows and its lighthearted daytime children's programs, including "Rugrats" and "SpongeBob SquarePants."
'Turning Ten: A Nick News Celebration'
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With Linda Ellerbee
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8 p.m. Thursday, Nickelodeon
A recipient of Emmy and Peabody awards for "Nick News," she had finished editing "Turning Ten: A Nick News Celebration" when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon occurred.
The veteran journalist and former NBC News anchorwoman said her emotions have fluctuated wildly in the tragedy's aftermath, from the adrenaline rush of covering the story to the heartbreaking reality that 11 members of a neighborhood fire station were killed.
Ellerbee, whose home and company, Lucky Duck Productions, are within walking distance of the trade center, chokes up often as she tries to talk about it. She broke down and cried for half an hour, she says, after stopping at the firehouse to pay her respects.
As she has talked with children over the years about school shootings, President Clinton's impeachment, the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma, and AIDS and HIV, it has struck her how closely even some very young children follow the major issues of the day. That is largely the result, she believes, of saturation TV news coverage.
"If you're over the age of 7 or 8, there's not a single kid in America who hasn't talked about, who is not aware of these events, who hasn't seen that plane crash into that building a zillion times," she said.
During her recent special on terrorism, the 57-year-old Ellerbee listened to the children's concerns, and although many said they were angry, not one called for violent retaliation. It surprised her at first, she said, but probably should not have.
"Since the Oklahoma bombing and the school shootings, we as a nation — parents, teachers, schools — we as a nation have gone out of our way to teach children that violence isn't a mature answer. And I was shocked to learn they were listening to us," she said.
In her 10th anniversary special she talked to several students she had reported on five or 10 years ago as they stood up against people producing pro-Nazi video games or discriminating against those with AIDS. She found that they were still working to make a difference.
