News Reporters?

Question

Considering that most News reporters read from a teleprompter, how much of what their job entails takes intellect and how much is just their own personality and 'off the cuff' reporting?

Answer 1

Top news reporters write what goes on the teleprompter, so they have to know what they're talking about. And when they do on-air interviews, they have to know their topic and their subject, to come up with the interesting questions, the probing questions and the revealing questions - and to know when their subject is waffling.

They also have to have intellect, experience and awareness to handle on-air breaking news, and deal with it on an ad-hoc basis