A Profile By Charlotte

When talking about ABC News correspondent Judy Muller, the word "wit" always comes up. This trait seems to be vital to Muller's character � not only as a person and a single mother, but also as a journalist. Somehow, Muller miraculously takes the events in her life and manages to see the witty side, the humorous perspective, the entertaining angle. She manages to turn everything into a gripping story. Which, of course, is what makes her a first-rate journalist.

And what a life she has been leading. Born on March 31, 1947, Muller claims to be reborn everyday. Her father was a navy captain and consequently Muller and her older brother moved every two years � she went to three different high schools! A 1969 graduate of Mary Washington College, Muller has raised two daughters single-handedly. She has dealt with alcoholism and is a Unitarian Universalist turned Buddhist. She recently finished her first book, an autobiography, called Now This: Radio Television�and the Real World. Most importantly, she has faced the demands of being a woman in a career historically dominated by men. Through it all, Muller has become successful, despite the fact that she is not your average journalist.

Muller began her journalism career when she was on maternity leave from teaching high school English in Metuchen, New Jersey. Having "come from a family of storytellers," she "decided to try [her] hand at writing a column for a smaller newspaper, the sort of paper that gets tossed into your lawn every week whether you want it or not, meaning the free kind, used primarily to line bird cages."

To stay home with her two infant daughters, Kristin and Kerry, Muller quit her teaching job. She began writing for larger newspaper publications: the "Colonial News" in Freehold, New Jersey, and then for "Today" in Parlin, New Jersey. In hopes of a more substantial salary, Muller decided to try working for a local radio station, WHTG.

She was fired before her first day. When she inquired as to why she was being fired, she remembers her employer saying, "To tell you the truth, they�re worried that a woman with two small children might be unreliable." Thus began Muller's career in radio news. Muller was hired by WHWH in Princeton, New Jersey, at a time when, and probably only because, there was "growing pressure to add women to the mix."

When her soon-to-be-ex husband was transferred to Denver, Muller worked for KHOW in Denver as a morning news anchor. In an almost completely unequal world when it came to gender, Muller was hired not just because she was a woman, but because she was a woman who sounded like a man. She reports her colleagues have said, "Hey! She sounds like a guy!"

After her divorce in 1981, which Muller reports was "a blessing," she worked for KWBZ as a talk radio host, but was soon unemployed as KWBZ went bankrupt. Upon being divorced and fired, almost back to back, and struggling to make ends meet while raising two daughters, Muller entered a period of emotional depression. In a metaphor that only an English teacher or a journalist could create, and that a future English teacher/journalist can admire, Muller wrote in her autobiography,

Muller�s honesty and eloquence (and dare I mention her use of alliteration and simile?!) not only illustrate why she is a successful journalist, but also demonstrate that she is human � not just a name in the bylines, a voice on the radio, or a face in the news.

Realizing that she had to make a comeback, if not for herself then for her daughters, Muller was soon found herself employed at the CBS Radio Network in New York � a job and a salary she only dreamed about years before, even if she was working the "graveyard shift."

Muller and her daughters, after an emotional custody battle, moved back to Metuchen, New Jersey. In her book, Muller turned to Robert Frost for help describing the demands of her CBS job. "I have been one acquainted with the night," Frost writes. Muller amended Frost�s statement to say that she has become "intimate" with the night. Muller�s CBS job consisted of traversing the Jersey Turnpike at three o�clock in the morning, finding childcare at weird hours for her children, and giving up any hopes of a social life.

At this point, Muller fought to balance raising her daughters with meeting the demands of her job. Her personal sacrifices, while sometimes extreme � like the time she had to spend Thanksgiving in the CBS studio with her daughters, for instance � seem to have paid off in terms of her career. Working for First Line Report, Muller had unique opportunities to interview people involved with breaking news stories, often at unthinkable hours of the morning, in order to meet 6:30 AM deadlines. Interestingly, Muller found that waking people up and asking them demanding questions often resulted in better answers, from her perspective, than if they were already awake when she called.

Through CBS, Muller covered the 1988 presidential campaign, specifically following soon-to-be President Bush. In 1989 she covered the Bush inauguration and the inaugural ball. Soon, Muller moved up the ranks and was promoted to the daytime shift. Besides First Line Report, Muller also anchored Correspondent�s Notebook and The Osgood File. Additionally, she contributed to CBS Sunday Morning and CBS Weekend News.

Muller describes these years as her "manic years." Not only was Muller working for CBS News, but she was also a single mother, trying to do everything, all by herself, as many single mothers try to do. One of Muller�s classic "single-mother" stories was the battle she had with the squirrels that decided to live in the side of her house. Muller devotes five entire pages of her book to describing the "The Squirrel Wars." Once again, this anecdote humanizes Muller. It gives her a personality and character to meet the voice we hear on the radio and the face we see on TV. Moreover, Muller�s personal motto of "just do it � yourself," paid off in some ways. Muller was selected by the National Mother�s Day Committee as one of the "Mothers of the Year."

Life never stops for Judy Muller. Maybe that is one of the most remarkable things about her: when the going gets tough, she gets going. She has come to realize that, "No matter how miserable the moment, there is a small figure in [her] brain who pulls up a chair, whips out a notebook, and whispers, �Hey, at least it will make a great story!�" And so, when alcoholism intertwined itself in Muller�s life, she was forced to keep going, and eventually she wrote about it. In Now This, a chapter is devoted to her experience as an alcoholic. Taking "one day at a time" became Muller�s new motto, epitomizing her "now this" mantra.

In 1990, Muller was offered a job with ABC News � the television side of the network. The new job brought her to Los Angeles, where she relocated with her daughters. Moving, starting a more demanding job, and establishing a new life almost brought Muller�s alcoholism over the edge. She decided to get help and was able to find a local alcoholics support group where she "gave it up."

Working for ABC offered Muller amazing opportunities. No longer was she at the bottom of the media food chain (which is what she considers radio to be), but she was promoted close to the top. Soon after her move, Muller was reporting for Nightline, 20/20 with Barbara Walters, and World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Most notably, Muller covered the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the O.J. Simpson case, for which she and her co-workers won both an Emmy Award and a duPont-Columbia Award. Her coverage on Columbine and her experience at the scene only hours after tragedy struck, she says, have been most life changing, as a reporter and as a mother (Muller�s daughters would have attended Columbine High School had they stayed in Colorado).

Muller is disappointed in the direction TV journalism is heading. "I work for evil people," she says, only half joking. She says she does not like the "magazine" programs like 20/20 and 60 Minutes, but instead the real, straightforward news broadcasting. In terms of advice for aspiring journalists, Muller says "write, write, write!" She also says to be passionate about representing people and their truth, not yours. She complains that there is "way too much ego" in journalism these days.

Another major event in Muller�s life was the California earthquake that occurred in January, 1994. Muller not only lived through it, but also managed to report on it, despite her apartment and most of her belongings being virtually ruined. She couldn�t get to the studio because the road had been destroyed, but she called New York via cell phone and reported live on Good Morning America. The earthquake reports continued throughout the week. After that week, one colleague � David Brinkley � described Muller as "indefatigable."

Other people describe Muller as "brisk" and "sharp." When she walks into a room and begins to talk to people there is immediate laughter. She is considered down to earth, or like "down home folks." When she is on the air, fans say there is "nothing wishy-washy about her reports." One fan eloquently said, "In a male dominated world she is doing magnificent things." Muller is also a perfectionist, deadline oriented, "floundering but enjoying it," a "good writer," "in touch," and "very Californian." And, of course, "witty."