♪ >> Jim Deeks: Hello everyone.

Thanks for joining us on the inaugural episode of our third season of Canada Files .

I'm Jim Deeks.

I'm very happy to say our first guest of the season is someone familiar to all our viewers, I'm sure.

Ashleigh Banfield is currently the anchor and producer of the primetime news program, Banfield, on the NewsNation cable network throughout the US.

A veteran journalist and anchor, previously on MSNBC , NBC & CNN Ashleigh is a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Another in a long line of distinguished Canadian-born international news correspondents.

>> Jim: Thanks for joining us on Canada Files... from your Banfield studio.

>> It's great to see you.

Thanks so much for the invitation What an absolutely charming way to start my day!

>> A pleasure for us.

I just introduced you by saying you are one of a long line of distinguished Canadian news correspondents.

I wonder if you're aware of some of the famous Canadians who've been successful on US tv.

And if any of them had an influence on you?

>> Great question and yes.

The biggest!

Peter Jennings.

When I was travelling around the world in 1991, I had a stop-over in Moscow, when it was still the Soviet Union.

Peter Jennings was there for a summit with... not Yeltsin but Gorbachev.

I sneaked my way into the convention area with a made-up ID and asked if I could volunteer and work for ABC .

They said we'll take a free hand.

I ended up worked directly with Peter.

He rewarded me with a line on my resume saying, "For reference, call".

I think it was very helpful.

<< Unlike many journalists, you came from a prominent family in Winnipeg.

Give us some detail on your upbringing and education.

>> I always thought it was nondescript.

Winnipeg is one of those places where you might only know for the Winnipeg Jets.

It's a great place to grow up minus the -40 in February.

I was really fortunate.

I had a great upbringing.

I went to public and private school.

I had a mom who was a tour de force .

A real estate broker, owning her own firm with all women partners, back in the 70s.

When women barely worked!

So I had this great modelling in my household, where women could be the head of the household.

Women could be the bread winners and highly respected, and still be feminine and delightful... which my mom was.

I took my lessons, mostly from her.

And that incredibly resounding community that Winnipeg is!

They really are a village that supports their own.

All throughout my travels through Canada in broadcasting and in the US, I've maintained that piece of Winnipeg DNA.

>> You went to university and primarily majored in French.

What sparked the interest in television?

>> I think I'm one of the luckiest people in the world.

I had an epiphany very early in life...9th grade.

I was sitting in Mrs. Sharp's history class and she was talking about the British history curriculum.

Which isn't the most enthralling curriculum for a 9th-grader.

At the same time, King John and Magna Carta ...

I thought, "Who wrote all this down?"

Who was the first person to see all of this?

Who actually had eyes on the Magna Carta ?

I want to be the guy that gets to tell everybody!

You'll be important and matter.

You'll be relevant, have a stake in history.

At the time I didn't realize it but that's literally news before it's history.

So I made that commitment, early on at age 14.

That's what I want to do!

In the back of my mind, I was watching a lot of Beirut on the CBC News with Knowlton Nash, thinking foreign correspondence would be an exciting way to exercise my foreign language muscles, interest in current events, performance capacity, and this incredible opportunity to be the scribe of history!

>> Looking over your resume you've worked for many of the top news organizations in the US-- NBC, MSNBC, CNN and now NewsNation .

You've also had some ups and downs along the way.

Tell us about your career path, not in full detail, but along the way and whether some of those downs were really down for you.

>> You'd need a Netflix series to get in-depth for that one.

If you are in the tv business and you have not had the prodigious peaks and devastating valleys, I don't know where you're working.

It's a job I've never seen.

I've had some really life-shaking downs.

Devastating!

Nothing like waking up to the front cover of the business section of the New York Times saying you're a loser.

I think they used more articulate language than that.

But I've had a really interesting path.

You mentionned earlier that lots of Canadian journalists would love to be working in the US.

That's great but put on your elephant skin.

Get your resilience fine-tuned.

It's a really difficult career, physically and mentally.

You don't sleep.

Eating is terrible.

But it's extraordinarily rewarding at the same time.

Like childbirth... why would we do that twice?

I took some stands early after my foreign correspondence.

Saying the media shouldn't be jingoistic , cheering on war effort.

We're not on a team.

This is not a sport.

And quickly realized jingoism sometimes is the name of the game, if you're going into war in a big country like America.

It didn't serve me well to try to be outspoken about being unbiased.

Go figure!

That was a lesson learned.

Not that I would change anything.

What I found bizarre was it seemed to be twisted.

Perhaps the details weren't digested enough by the management at the time, that I was criticizing my own colleagues.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I was extraordinarily proud of NBC and MSNBC' s coverage.

My team--I've never seen anyone more committed to journalism at their own personal risk, when I was overseas with my team.

For whatever reason, NBC management thought I was critical of NBC people.

It wasn't true.

I got taken to the woodshed for that.

>> On the subject of your ups and downs, was there a time during the downs, that you thought...

I should chuck it all and go back to Winnipeg or Toronto.

Where you might have easily landed a major network role, based on your success to that point in US tv.

You hung in instead of coming back to Canada.

Did it occur to you to do that?

>> Great question.

There was one point early in my career, I thought maybe I should get with the program.

Maybe I'm not cut out for this.

I keep getting kicked in the teeth.

I took the Canadian Securities course thinking, my brother has been really successful, maybe I have some talent here too.

That was one of my worst decisions in life.

Although I'm happy I completed that course and have some financial knowledge because of it.

I was never cut out to be a broker, or to be in the financial markets, but to do exactly what I am doing.

For that reason, I hung in.

Because I knew I'd chosen the right path-- I love it.

I'm committed to it.

I know I'm good at it.

Those are the things in the cocktail that you must have in order to make a great drink.

I knew if I had more resilience and thick skin, I could continue to succeed in the business.

>> Talking about resilience, you've worked in a number of capacities during your tv career.

You've been a field reporter, international correspondent, an anchor, interviewer, a legal and crime specialist.

Is there one that you found most compelling over the years?

>> Add to the list, a managing editor and producer.

Everybody does this job a little different.

I am at heart a producer.

I spend the first 10 hours of my day before I'm even on air, producing.

That makes a good anchor.

Who are you to be bringing this material to the public if you haven't got your fingers dirty in it first?

Figured what matters... gotten to the details.

The devil's in the details so if you didn't catch those, shame on you!

Producer has been the person who served me best inside.

The rest of it has been window dressing.

I'm a good performer but producing is my best skill.

Not in keeping a rundown, and a live time.

I was terrible on headsets and in the control room.

I always ate up 3 minutes of the sport guy's time.

He was always so mad.

>> What's the most difficult or compelling story you've worked on in these 25 years of US tv?

>> I would be foolish not to say 911 .

A lot of people who worked that day say the same thing.

I had a particularly unique experience in that I was under the North Tower when it fell.

I saw my life flash before my eyes.

I feared that I was dying.

That is a profound experience.

I've been in other situations where I've been fearful... facing down 14 year-old Taliban soldiers hopped on heroin, with a knock-off Kalashnikov pointed at my head laughing.

That's scary!

But for whatever reason, I didn't feel like I was about to die in those circumstances.

I felt I was going to die on the day of 911.

I also felt the lifeline to the world was lost.

Phone lines couldn't get out.

No-one knew where I was.

I felt the building I had found refuge in, in the collapse of the North Tower was about to come down too.

Trying to keep it together, when your entire person is revolting against you, is a tough thing to do... and still do your job.

People always say, "You did such a good job that day.

You were the calm in the storm."

I think, "Who were you watching?"

I was not calm!

I was losing my lunch every minute.

I was a bucket of tears, most of the time off camera.

I must have put on quite a show that day.

>> You've recently been in the eye of the storm... a controversy involving Katie Couric.

Who we remember as the host of NBC Today , for 15 years in the 1990s and the 2000s.

Katie just published an autobiography in which she accused you of being after her job.

In 2003, when you were a very hot commodity on NBC News .

That was her perspective.

I gather you have a very different perspective.

>> I do, especially the timeline.

It was 2000 when the incidents began.

In 2000, you could barely find a headline about me.

I wasn't a big deal.

I was one of those sycophantic kids, new at NBC .

Who looked up blinkingly at Katie Couric, thinking "One day, wouldn't it be amazing to be close to her status."

As a preface, she remains number 1 in my eyes, in morning show hosts.

I don't know there will ever be one that surpasses her ability, guts, tenacity ...and sheer talent.

She was a force to be reckoned with on morning tv.

Her stats speak for themselves.

I have long admired her ability to do that.

Especially at a time when women were supposed to be a female version of Cronkite.

Even then, you were mocked.

She said I'm doing it my way.

I'm going to be funny, adorable, hilarious and an authentic me.

I've got this crazy smile and I'm not going to hide it.

I thought that was extraordinarily brave.

I modelled myself in ways, after Katie Couric.

I disagree with her with why she felt the way she did about me.

Because at the time she was doing things, I was no-one.

There was no reason.

I wasn't gunning for her job.

I was at the associate producer level.

She was the executive president.

>> Moving on, I think you would agree that over the decades, in tv news, both local and national, in Canada and the US, tv news has been largely populated by attractive, primarily Caucasian women.

That has changed in the last several years.

Are good looks and charm still a prerequisite for women to get jobs on-air generally in tv today.

>> Generally speaking, you'd better look presentable.

That's for sure.

I say that about people going into job interviews too.

Comb your hair.

Fix your face.

Put on a nice suit and make a good impression.

For audiences, they probably feel the same way.

What's overtaken that is authenticity.

Gone is the Cronkite-ian facade who has gravitas .

Now the more popular is the endearing...be yourself, authentic.

Be honest-- about your flaws and everything.

I interviewed Gayle King for my mentorship program called Rising Tide .

She laughed about a boss telling her her butt was too big on the air.

She regularly poses in a bathing suit on a beach.

At 66 years old.

She always weighs herself in the 170 lbs range.

Which women would never ever do!

But Gayle is one of the most successful women in tv doing exactly that.

To your point, Gayle is a woman of colour.

That was a very poignant thing for her to say that she never imagined that as a woman of colour, she would reach these prodigious heights that she has.

I had a different track than a lot of other women... than the widely-accepted narrative.

When I was in Canada, in the early 90s, I struggled to get a job because I was white.

I was told by one news director in Toronto, using the quote because it was seared, "It's a shame your last name isn't Chung because you would dilute our mix."

I didn't get hired.

He'd said all these laudable things about my resume, background and abilities.

Literally.

Face-to-face!

I've heard over and over again in my career, "Not hiring white right now."

I have struggled against that.

Not to say I don't have privilege.

As a white person in America, I've enjoyed immense privilege that my African-American and colleagues of colour have not.

I have found it a stumbling block that I am white.

>> Let's talk about NewsNation, the network that you're with now.

Most Canadians aren't aware of NewsNation because we don't get it easily in Canada on satellite or cable.

There may be Americans who aren't familiar with NewsNation because the network name is less than 1 year old.

Using an old marketing term, what's the unique selling proposition for NewsNation for potential viewers?

>> NewsNation was very alluring to me because it has a mission that should always be there for everyone but apparently is gone.

That is, to approach news with an unbiased eye.

To allow all sides to be on one program.

Gone is the day where you have to constantly switch your channels back and forth between media silos to get the other side, or the full story .

NewsNation has a mission to give the full story in every story we do.

For that reason, I was over-the-moon to join that organization.

As a viewer, I hate that I'm switching around every few minutes to hear different versions of the same story.

>> The 3 main US networks-- CBS, NBC, ABC andPBS NewsHour go to great lengths to ensure they are unbiased, fair and balanced in their reporting.

On the other hand, Fox News on the right, MSNBC and CNN on the left, don't try to hide their particular perspectives.

How do you feel?

Whether biased journalism, which we're getting from those networks I just mentionned... is bad for journalism?

For public discourse?

>> I wish they wouldn't call it news.

It's fine to be in a club... to have a show.

But for godsake, stop calling it news!

That's been my greatest frustration-- watching this slow slide, first at MSNBC.

Who used to employ Michael Savage who had no qualms calling me a slut on the air.

That is a right-wing broadcaster, who on my airway where I was still employed, called me a news slut with a big pair of glasses.

Who was not punished for it.

I was whisked out of the president's office for complaining about it.

That was the network that was not liberal at the time.

Has slid completely into the liberal silo.

MSNBChas some company with CNN .

They have slid left.

Fox has maintained its position.

Newsmax has gone way off to the right as well.

Thank God for us.

I'll tout our horn.

NewsNationdoes see some market position here that is viable.

We hear all the time that it is refreshing for viewers, who feel that same way I do-- tired of switching channels all the time.

The news landscape today is sad.

Because all the voices that are completely legitimate keep calling themselves news.

And it's not.

It's talk.

>> You must get approached by a lot of younger people, particularly young women, who ask you for advice, counsel, connections for getting into television.

What do you say to young people today who want to be the next Ashleigh Banfield?

>> For a lot of people, the advice is slightly different.

I usually like to know who I'm talking to.

I don't like to dispense homogenous advice.

There are solid golden rules we could all live by.

I wanted to do something, instead of a half-hour or hour that I spend with one person, who for whatever reason, got through to me.

I wanted to scale this to talk to more people.

Not just offer my advice.

I haven't had the greatest career trajectory.

There's all sorts of things I wish I did differently-- different positions at different times.

I decided to launch a mentorship program, a monthly seminar called Rising Tide .

A JFK expression, "A rising tide lifts all boats".

I've always believed one of the most powerful things in a person's professional career is to help others.

For whatever reason, the magic comes back to you in spades.

In that way, I'm now able to enlist important people from my Rolodex-- these VIPs of broadcasting.

They join me one-on-one every month to answer hundreds of people in the audience.

Questions specific to their career needs... their career advice, the value they see in my guests.

I'm the interviewer and throw in jewels every so often.

>> You've been living in the US for about 25 years... not quite half your life.

You became an American citizen in 2008.

After all these years, are you still Canadian at heart?

>> I have the tattoo, which I got before I left.

So yes!

It's funny.

I see the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York.

I think those folks are still Puerto Rican even though they are Americans.

I see the luck of the Irish.

I see how they brandish their charm.

I think I'm no different.

There's no Canada parade.

Maybe I'll start that as another hobby.

Canada never leaves you.

What you grow up with... the wonderful essence, and community spirit.

The Winnipeg DNA I was talking about.

That never leaves you.

I have a Canadian on my staff.

We regularly inject some Canadiana into our meetings.

Whether it's comedy, discourse, or opinion.

Canada is still such a huge part of my life.

I insist my children are there for at least a month every year in the summer.

So they get their Canada on, know their family and roots.

I'm there at least once or twice a year.

One day I hope to retire and maybe spend half the year in the cold climes of Central Canada.

And the other half somewhere warm like Florida.

>> It's every Canadian's right to go to Florida in the winter.

So you're given a pass on that one.

Has your Canadian upbringing given you a different or unique perspective on news and the US political issues?

>> Canadians are slightly agnostic when compared to Americans in politics.

The most right-winged Canadian tends to be slightly liberal here in the US generally.

I can't brush everyone with the same stroke.

I've been able to bring that sense of balance into who I am here.

Not only at the kitchen table with my family but on air, with my job... and speaking with my staff.

There's a reason Canadians are generally loved around the world.

As a whole,they're a pleasant happy, kind people.

Walk into an elevator, typically someone will say hello.

It's just how we are.

I don't know how it works with 35 million people knowing those secret society rules.

We bring them with us.

We don't lose them.

You never can lose them.

My first 27 years were in Canada so it's a big part of who I am.

>> Well said.

Thank you so much for doing this interview.

You have a busy schedule.

We appreciate the time.

>> Thank you, Jim!

>> Thank you for watching.

We hope you'll join us on the next edition of Canada Files .

♪