On March 1, 2018, I had the pleasure of touring the CNN Headquarters in the downtown Atlanta area. My tour was to begin at 9:30 am, so I arrived around 9am to be punctual and to get some tea before the tour began. One of the first things that hit me was the sheer size and grand entrance to the building. After being checked by security at the front desk, I walked into the main lobby to this grand open space that resembled a food court at Mall. I sat down and just took in the sight of multiple floors that just seemed to go up and up and up.

A look inside the CNN HQ.

Eventually it was time for the tour to begin, and after our group was checked in by security, CNN writer, Monte Plott, began the tour. Starting off by telling us about the origin of the building and how it was originally an indoor amusement park and hotel which I thought was a really cool fun fact about the building.

We made our way through numerous studios, the control room where the producers all work together and organize the live feeds for television, the actual newsroom where all the writers work to stay on top of stories. One thing that I took away from the newsroom was when Plott pointed out to us one of the writers at their desk, and told us that that one writer was responsible for all of the scrolling text that you see at the bottom of the television when you watch CNN, which was really astounding to me.

However, out of all of the great areas I was shown, the two things that stood out to me were actually being able to see Hines Ward, former Pittsburgh Steeler Wide Receiver, on set, mainly because I am a huge fan of football and the Steelers. Secondly while in the CNN Spanish section, where all their spanish content is created, there was a quote on the wall that read, “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” Ever since I left that quote has stuck with me and really solidified my choice to be a journalist.