Early in her career, before she became a well-known brand in the take-no-prisoners world of political journalism, Tara Palmeri, SOC/BA ’08, had an unglamorous daily routine. She woke up at 3 a.m. to hand out scripts and coffee to on-air TV reporters, Palmeri said during her American Forum appearance at McKinley Hall on October 17.  

During the hourlong event, which was moderated by Jane Hall, professor of journalism in the School of Communication, Palmeri fielded questions from students who asked about her career, what it’s like to cover national politics, and her thoughts on the presidential election.

Palmeri said her career journey has been rewarding but has tested her resilience. 

Working in journalism “wears on you, it grates on you,” she said. “This is a really tough business. There are layoffs, the pay’s not great. But if you love it and you’re passionate about it and you couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” it’s a great job. 

Palmeri moved on from script and coffee duty to work for a number of print, online, and TV news outlets, including the Washington Examiner, the New York Post, Politico, ABC News, and CNN.

In 2022, Palmeri joined the website Puck as a partner and senior political columnist. She also hosts the podcast Somebody’s Gotta Win and appears frequently on cable TV news programs to provide analysis of the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Working as a political journalist is like being in “combat,” Palmeri said. Campaign staffers and advisors “are the most type A people you’ll ever work with in your life. If you’re breaking news, then you’re figuring out things the administration probably doesn’t want out there, or the campaigns probably don’t want out there,” Palmeri said. “If you’re doing your job well, they’re probably not doing their job well.”

Part of her job is to manage relationships with sources who can become testy by her reporting. “I hate being screamed at,” Palmeri said. “But I love my job.”

Palmeri spoke of the seismic transformation journalism has undergone during the past 15 years or so.

“The game has changed a lot even from when I started as a journalist,” she said. “You used to be able to have one job as a reporter, you could write for a newspaper, be a TV correspondent. I have to write a column, I have to have a podcast, I have to have a social media presence, so I make little videos” that appear on Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. 

“I’ll do forums like this or try to connect with people in other ways,” Palmeri said. “You have to do everything now.”

Palmeri sees the election as a battle between the sexes, with the Harris campaign garnering support from many women concerned about their reproductive rights while Trump appeals to young men known as “bros.”

“It’s the bro culture. They just wanna be bros, and Trump has tapped into that, the Joe Rogan crowd,” Palmeri said.