June 5, 2019

Episode 21 – Yamiche Alcindor, White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, delivers 2019 graduation remarks

Before speaking to the LBJ School’s class of 2019, PBS NewsHour’s White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor joined Policy on Purpose to talk about the role and responsibility of the press when covering some of our world’s most defining moments, and how to best balance humanity and objectiveness when covering difficult topics and stories.

Guests

Yamiche AlcindorPBS NewsHour’s White House correspondent

Hosts

Angela EvansDean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin

This is policy on purpose. A podcast produced by the LBJ School of Public

0:02

Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. We take you behind the scenes of policy

0:07

with the people who helped shape it. For more, visit LBJ. Don’t you, Texas?

0:13

Hello, everyone. This is Angela Evans, I’m the dean of the LBJ School and this is our podcast

0:20

policy on purpose. And I am so pleased today to welcome Hamish Alcindor, who

0:26

is White House correspondent for PBS. And I watch her and she’s been here

0:31

at the school at the race summit. And now I have her all to myself for a few minutes before she’s

0:36

going to give our commencement address at our 2019 graduation. So welcome, Munish.

0:41

Yes. Thanks so much for having me. I’m really, really excited to be here. Good. Well, it means you have quite

0:46

a career for such a young person. You know, I keep thinking about and it seems like very early on you had this

0:51

passion for news when you were 16, when you went to the Miami Herald and then you were at The New York

0:56

Times, USA Today, Seattle Times. You know, you do you did a lot in terms of thinking about your

1:01

journalistic background and a lot of different areas of the country covering a lot of different stories,

1:06

some of them very emotional stories. We can get into that a little bit. But what I wanted to talk about

1:12

is this. We use this podcast basically for our students or people who are thinking of getting

1:17

into public policy so they can hear people who have chosen to go into a public sector. Yours

1:22

is public. You know, public television and also yours is thinking about how do you hold

1:27

policy people accountable. So I want you to think about is our students go into

1:32

public policy and as they try to get ahead in there and get into lead positions where their voices

1:38

are heard. What do you want them to know about the role of the free press in their

1:43

in their world? What I want people to know about the free press and about the media is that

1:48

we’re really supposed to be a tool to hold people accountable. I always remind people that my job is in the

1:53

Constitution, that it’s a it really is, in my mind, a fourth branch of government because

1:58

the founders of this country understood that a free media, free press was going to be critical to

2:03

holding our democracy accountable and to really our democracy flourishing. So

2:08

I think that when I talk to policymakers, it’s good to me to have talked to people who are open, who

2:14

talk to me about how they’re making these decisions that aren’t really trying to, in some ways hide from the media, that

2:19

really are trying to put the challenges and successes of their public policy on the table.

2:24

I love interviewing people that can say, look, we did this right. We did this wrong. We tried this policy. It

2:29

didn’t work. We had this intention going in. It didn’t work. We can think about the 1994 crime

2:34

bill. There are people who went into that crime bill thinking this is going to really solve the issues

2:40

of the crack epidemic and these communities are being ravaged. And that was African-American

2:45

lawmakers and white lawmakers. And I think now, of course, we’re doing this 2019 thing where we’re

2:50

looking at the 1994 crime bill. And there are some people who are saying, yeah, that was still great, was I’m happy with

2:55

it. And then there are people are saying, you know what? We had unintended consequences. We didn’t realize that we were going to end up

3:00

with mass incarceration and disproportionate number of African-Americans in prison. So I think those

3:05

are the kind of people that I like to interview, people who can be introspective and talk about the

3:10

intention and and the consequence. Well, this is great that you’re saying that, because that’s those

3:15

are the voices we need to hear. But many times in the media, it’s the saludos

3:20

voice. And sometimes it’s not the most informed voice and sometimes it’s the voice. We did everything right

3:26

and you’re wrong. So the idea that you can bring people who are critical about what’s going on and

3:31

evaluate decisions and then recast those decisions. We we do those decisions,

3:36

amend them. That’s really important. So how do you stay in touch with those people? Because I’m sure there’s a lot

3:42

of folks who, you know, want your attention and want you to come and talk to them just because of your visibility

3:47

and position. But how do you select those folks that you really want to talk to in that are your

3:52

trusted sources? What? I have a really big spreadsheet. You have a

3:57

lot of a lot of different sources that really goes back from the very beginning of my career. So I pretty

4:02

much have almost every single number of every person that I’ve interacted with. And it really comes down to what’s

4:07

going on at that moment. What story am I working on? I want to say I really don’t discard sources because

4:13

there are people whose who might call you up and say, OK, this is a story. And you realize actually that’s not really a story right

4:18

now. But let’s look down the line. So there are so many instances where people have called me up and said, you

4:23

know, you should be writing about this. And I end up writing what that subject in a different way six months later. So I think I really

4:28

in most cases, I don’t really weed people out because I’m always putting people on a spreadsheet and thinking,

4:34

OK, how can I get to this issue? So it’s really up to me about keeping in contact with people,

4:39

but also keeping in contact with people on the ground. There’s the people that want your attention that that are

4:44

obviously going to be emailing you and calling you. But I’m also very interested in the people on the ground that aren’t calling

4:49

you, the communities that don’t have the fancy offices and the PR team to speak

4:54

with you. There are the people that are maybe someone who’s running a homeless shelter or someone

4:59

who is working on domestic violence issues or someone who’s working with sex workers. There are all these different people

5:05

that maybe don’t have the same machines to get in touch with national media that we as reporters should be seeking

5:10

out. Well, I’ve noticed, too, in your career, you’ve done that, you know, so. When you were talking about FAMM,

5:15

when we were talking about family separation, you actually went to the border and you wanted to, you know, talk to the people

5:20

that were affected. You know, you made the time to have the human story. That’s what’s so remarkable about

5:26

you. You have the human element of a lot of your stories and how those intersect with politics and the

5:31

policy scene. And so you have to also be in a place where you’re supported to do the type

5:36

of work you know, that you they do give you time to go and actually get the human story. So you’ve covered things

5:41

like Sandy Hook and Trayvon Martin. You know, I mean, it’s just really, really you get down and you’ve

5:46

got to talk to the people. So in all of the different arenas that you’ve been in,

5:51

have you felt that you’ve landed in places you’ve given you the flexibility to go and explore, you know,

5:57

the human side of the story and not just let it go until they see what you can come up with?

6:02

I feel very fortunate, very blessed as a Catholic, I’ll say, to really feel like

6:07

I’ve landed at places where people said, we’re hiring you because we understand that you want to give a voice

6:12

to people. We hired you because we understand if we put you on the congressional beat, you’re still going to want to be talking

6:18

to people on the ground that if you’re at the White House, you’re still going to want to go the border and talk to people. So I think that

6:23

at all the places I’ve worked, including at PBS, I’ve been working with teams who say this is the way

6:28

that we should cover this story. So I’ve been fortunate in that regard. That’s amazing

6:33

because some people don’t see that. And when you go back to history and a lot of times in history,

6:38

it’s the journalist who brought up all the problems that people haven’t really had time to think about or

6:44

actually authenticate. And you the journalists are often the ones who are identifying those problems early on

6:49

and also bringing us enough of the story that people who really need to get in-depth, an expert to try to fix

6:54

it do that. So people don’t always have that. They have that, as you say, blessed

6:59

to do that. I want to talk to you a little bit about this, if you’re comfortable talking

7:05

about this. You covered, you know, Bernie Sanders in the last presidential election.

7:10

And you you’ve also been covering President Trump. Can you tell us

7:15

how you’re feeling now? If you look at 16 2016 and you look at twenty nine, it’s only three years.

7:21

But as you’re going into the 2020 year where people are trying to make a decision and really be

7:26

really consider things about all the candidates. What do you see? Do you see any differences going into

7:33

this election year that you didn’t see like in 2015, for example? I mean, I think

7:38

the key difference is that people are not really underestimating people

7:43

that maybe they don’t know about, and especially, of course, President Trump. When I came in in 2015 to cover

7:48

Bernie Sanders, he was seen as kind of a candidate. That was a long shot. He was someone that

7:53

was I was a cub reporter on politics so I could cover kind of Bernie Sanders. And

7:58

as a result, what we saw was Bernie Sanders obviously became this phenomenon where he was very successful,

8:03

still got less votes than Hillary Clinton, but was someone who was, I think, a star,

8:09

an unexpected star. And of course, on the Republican side, out of 17 people running, no one thought

8:15

most people, including the president, President Trump, didn’t think he was going to be the one to win. So I think this

8:20

time people are really recognizing that there could be a people to judge. There could be a

8:25

some other person. The mayor of Miramar is running. There could be so many other people that could come out

8:30

of nowhere. So I think that people are getting a little bit smarter about that. And people are getting out of the prediction game.

8:35

I think this is the most of the reporters that I know aren’t trying to predict. Oh, Joe Biden’s definitely. I mean, the front

8:40

runner, because we now know that Jeb Bush was about to be the front runner and we all saw what happened there. So

8:45

I think that people are trying think thinking more critically about this. I also want to say

8:50

that I think as a reporter, when President Obama got elected, we talked a lot and

8:55

wrote a lot as reporters about kind of this. Some people said the post-racial America, which was never

9:00

something I ever used. But I think there is this idea that we did all, I think, as a country thing for

9:06

African-Americans in the White House and African-American families there. We have come somewhere. We’ve we’ve kind

9:11

of move in. We’ve moved forward. And I think that over the 2016 election and

9:16

now in the 2020 election, I think we’re more apt to look at what are still the racial divisions that

9:21

are really holding our country hostage. What are the things that that people are really fearful

9:26

of for the future of America? So I think that question of what we want to be as Americans is even

9:31

more central in 2020 than it was in 2016. Do you find the electorate is more informed?

9:36

Like if you go when you cover and there’s a town hall meeting, there’s a big rally. Do you see people

9:42

really listening critically and are they prepared to ask more substantive questions?

9:47

And they did, because part of what we hear is people are more engaged now or they’re more aware anyway

9:53

of what’s going on simply because of the environment, the political environment. Do you find that when you’re covering

9:58

stories, when you’re covering candidates? I think people have. I think people have

10:03

been knowledgeable. I think in 2016, I can remember going to Pennsylvania, going to a Trump rally, and this woman

10:08

in Pennsylvania was talking to me in detail about the Iran nuclear deal. So I think.

10:13

There are people who have been really knowledgeable of the issue, of course, is that, of course, more people

10:18

are definitely more engaged. I think in twenty because of. I really think that might be the White House

10:24

by being something that’s on there, on their front pages and in their local news or on their TV and

10:29

national news all the time. But there’s this polarizing issue where people pick the news that they

10:34

want to watch. So if you’re watching one network, you that’s missed this. That is showing,

10:39

frankly, misleading information that you might be someone who watches the news, thinks you’re informed, but actually

10:44

is and isn’t correctly informed of the facts. You obviously have a president who has said there’s

10:49

fake news out there. And I said, you know, listen to what I’m telling you. And at times, he’s been misleading and

10:54

frankly, lying. So there are I think more people are definitely engaged. I don’t know if people are more knowledgeable,

10:59

because if you’re picking and choosing your news or going to other news, that maybe isn’t

11:05

that is just news that is not portraying things accurately, that maybe you’re not any more knowledgeable.

11:10

All right. That’s a very good point. Well, how do you grab those? How do you think that’s the group we need to grab

11:16

in the sense of Leach least tried to talk to them about and have them look for PBS? Let’s

11:21

say, OK, how can we get them to watch PBS or listen to PBS?

11:26

That’s that’s supposed to be a place where we’re talking about it is an objective and as neutral as you

11:32

can be or as bipartisan as you can be and, you know, working with information that’s authoritative information,

11:37

trying to get different perspectives and experts, how do we get people to

11:42

look at places like that, to go to those places to double check

11:47

what they’re thinking? I think that’s a big challenge. I think it’s a big challenge. I have to say,

11:52

as a reporter, I don’t spend that much time thinking about, like, how am I going to get people to read this story or how am I going to

11:57

get people to click on this tweet or how am I getting people to watch PBS? Because I think then you start getting

12:03

into you’re serving up what you think people want to watch. Yeah. Instead, for me, it’s how

12:08

do I report on things in a way with integrity that no matter what party you are, you

12:13

think, OK, this person really set out to just tell a story. I’ve interviewed Republicans and Democrats who are

12:18

nervous about what I was asking them during the Kavanaugh hearings or during some other controversy.

12:23

People would be wary, very, very wary of talking about those topics. And then when they watch my pieces, most of the time

12:29

people say, oh, actually, you were very fair. And even if you were critical, even if there was, let’s

12:35

look at them. And you’re right. And you were putting tough questions to me. You’re still someone who I think is I’m doing your

12:40

job fairly. So I’ve interviewed the president, I should say. I’ve talked to the president since I asked

12:45

him questions rather than interviewing him. But in my interactions with him, I’ve

12:50

kept it very professional. And I’ve said, you know, here’s what it is. What about Middle-Class Tax Cuts? Because to me, what

12:55

I think is important is to really just bring people to information and not have such a personal,

13:00

I think, investment in it. As reporters, my job is to be a professional witness. It’s not to

13:06

insert myself, insert my opinions and try to get click bait, try to be flashy and

13:11

get people to follow me even. And all about my ego. I think it should be more. I think that that

13:16

that gets you into muddy waters and frankly, just isn’t a service to anyone in

13:21

this country. That’s exactly what we try to do. And I was going to say raise our students

13:26

to do, because that’s the world they’re in. We want them to have. We don’t want them to have an opinion.

13:31

We don’t want them to be advocates that are not informed advocates. You know, we want them to be able to

13:36

talk both sides of an issue. Use authoritative information. And what you say, sometimes

13:41

it just takes time for people to see you, to work with you and establish this kind

13:47

of foundational relationships that they I can trust you meet. I know we may disagree,

13:52

but I know she’s gonna be fair there. Just takes time. That’s not something you walk in the first day. And just because you’re

13:57

and you either and journalist for a paper or you’re on a PBS news hour, that people assume that

14:02

they have to have their personal relationship and it takes time. And that’s really

14:07

important. That’s very important. And I think I’ve been lucky at PBS to have really good

14:12

role models to do that. I mean, when I fill the lake when I fell was a mentor to me. She was

14:17

so about the facts and about really giving viewers a doing

14:22

a service to viewers. And now we have Judy Woodruff, of course, is now solo anchoring the show on PBS

14:27

News Hour. And she’s someone who is also setting an example, watching her interviews. And luckily,

14:32

I’m someone who Judy can if I’m doing a big interview. She’ll look at my questions with me and talk through.

14:37

How do you want to get this interview? What do you want to get out of this interview? And I think that that’s critical to really

14:43

be learning from the generation that came before you, because there have been a lot of journalists who have been really doing this well

14:48

for a while. I’m a nation. You shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel because there are really good

14:53

and accurate journalists out there. Exactly. And finding good mentors and people that a good team, people,

14:58

people you can work with, very essential. So choosing wisely, the next step in your career

15:03

is also very important. You just done such an incredible job when I’m looking at your history.

15:08

So I wanted to talk to you about the press corps. The White House

15:14

press corps, because people will be interested in that. So you’re there in the White House with the press corps. Tell

15:19

me if you can just give the people are listening as sort of bird’s eye view of what the environment

15:24

is like there and how you work within that environment. Well, the environment is kind of at this

15:29

point, it’s sometimes chaotic because as people are watching the news, they know that

15:34

the things white the White House beat, I think, used to have a rhythm to it.

15:40

I’m used to you know, there were briefings and then the president would come out some time and there was the front row

15:45

where these networks sit. And then we can we can kind of have this kind of formal back and forth

15:50

with the administration. What we have now is really a lot of chaotic, kind of one off in

15:55

one off conversations with with administration officials. So Sarah Sanders has it briefed

16:00

in in months and instead certain, of course, being the White House press secretary. So instead,

16:05

we have officials that are talking in the driveway who might take five or six minutes

16:10

to talk to the press. Then we have the president who is actually really taking a lot of questions from reporters,

16:16

even though he hasn’t done a formal briefing. What he has done has is have a lot of pool

16:21

sprays, which pool sprays are when the media comes in and they take pictures of the president maybe meeting

16:26

with someone. Yes. And then you can shout questions. And he often uses those times to become kind

16:31

of mini press conferences. He also when he’s walking out on the lawn before

16:36

for my planning cover, President Obama. But most times people said President Obama never stopped to talk to the reporters

16:42

in that setting, in that lawn setting, because he had just had a scheduled sit down.

16:47

Yes. Conference with someone. In this case, the president often talks when he’s walking to the helicopter

16:52

to go to a trip. So there’s that chaotic side of it. But then I think there’s really a fellowship

16:57

and a community with White House reporters, because we really realize that. And I think it’s it’s

17:03

been a realization that’s become clearer and clearer as the time has gone on. We have to stick together,

17:08

not so much that we have to be having some sort of shared agenda. But it’s really we we all want to be

17:13

asking questions of the administration. We all think that this administration owes the American people questions. We

17:18

are the representatives of the American people asking these questions. So I think that there is a

17:23

camaraderie there where people I think as much as we’re still competing with each other to get the best

17:28

stories. There’s also, I think, a real sense of community that people that we’re all in this together,

17:33

that we’re all trying to get the best stories, that we could all just be a little bit more gentle with each other. So

17:39

and you’ve also probably why if you’ve watched the president be questioned, there are a lot of times where one

17:44

reporter from one outlet will ask a follow up question from another outlet that’s been really critical.

17:49

And I think that in the beginning, people would say, well, why are they switching subjects? He didn’t even answer the first question.

17:54

So I think a lot of reporters have also done that where I’ve if I get a question, I’ll say, OK. But what about this

17:59

question from ABC? You didn’t quite give us an answer there. And so I think that that’s

18:04

really also been very critical. I’ve noticed that because I’ve. Because the first thing you’re saying when you’re really

18:09

answering questions on the fly, either you’re in the beginning of another, meaning that, you know, there’s all these microphones

18:14

and people are just in in a room that’s about to meet and something else. Or when the president is walking out

18:20

to the helicopter or or to a car or something, it’s like a quick question.

18:25

And then he answers and he moves on. And but I’ve noticed lately that people are probing

18:30

more because in a press conference, you have to give and take. You can you can’t do follow up. If people are in

18:35

a room, it’s more of a intimate setting. So I was going to ask you about that. You just answered. It is like, you

18:40

know, having a country of people who together say there’s something that we need to get to. And if

18:45

you can’t get to it, I’m going to try to get to it as well. So it’s a very different way of operating off

18:50

in the White House. My guess is that the press corps. Well, I think that people I mean, there are also obvious

18:55

questions of the day that so if if if the president is sending hundreds

19:00

of Erb’s are planning, maybe thinking of sending hundreds of thousands of troops to Iran and the poor first

19:05

person to ask about it, that’s probably also on three or four other. Right. Right. I think most White House reporters,

19:11

we all write down our questions and sometimes our questions are very similar. If there was a still shooting in New Zealand

19:16

happened, then in the manifesto, the president was named. Everyone wanted to know what did the

19:21

president think about being named in a manifesto where someone went and killed people at a mosque?

19:26

How does the administration feel about that? So I think we have to as reporters there, I think very

19:31

obvious questions. So I think it is very important to be asking follow up questions. But the key

19:37

thing that I think people it’s sometimes I want to make sure people understand the press corps is

19:42

asking for briefings, not because it’s great to just kind of sit down and it’s easier to do our job. It’s because

19:47

it’s so much harder to dodge questions when you’re sitting in a formal briefing

19:52

instead of the president saying, you know what, I don’t like that question. I’m going to move on or I’m going to act like I didn’t hear that, or I maybe

19:57

really didn’t hear that question because of the choppers. The president is often saying, speak up because

20:02

I can’t hear you over the helicopter. That’s also a real issue. So I think, yeah, there’s there’s there’s a

20:07

there’s a problem when you’re not doing an informal setting, which is why we have a briefing room. And I think why.

20:12

In the past and administrations in the past have put that briefing room to use. Yes. Yes,

20:18

I have another question. You’ve covered a lot of defining moments, moments where

20:24

we can recall when we were hearing very hard news, for example, tragic tragedies

20:29

like Sandy Hook school shooting. So tell me about what goes on in your

20:34

head when you have a responsibility to tell these stories in there. NSA

20:39

is the intersection of human emotion and, you know, a policy perspective or a public

20:44

problem. How do you try to pass that out? I. I

20:50

really try to take the personal out of it. Newtown was probably one of

20:55

the hardest stories I ever covered, the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. And I think it’s because

21:00

I don’t have kids. I’m not someone. It’s not like I was seeing my children in a shelter. And it was just a human

21:06

emotion to see six year olds in elementary school children going to funerals in

21:11

these little small suits. I think that it was just a really, really tough thing. So I remember doing those stories

21:16

and writing those stories, but also taking time to cry in my car, frankly, taking time to feel those emotions.

21:22

I think you have to let yourself feel sorrow and feel sadness. And for me, that’s part of the

21:27

hopefully the humanity that I bring to reporting. I am not someone who is just gonna say, oh, I’m cold. And, you know, I

21:32

don’t know. I remember when I first started reporting, I had to really get a hold of myself because I would go to

21:37

press conferences and cry if some person was missing or if some person had been murdered. And I had to

21:42

realize, you can’t do that in public. You have to kind of hold it together, do the story. You owe

21:47

it to that family and to people all across the country to tell the stories with a clear mind. Yes. And then

21:52

afterwards, let yourself feel those emotions. So that’s how I’ve been able to bounce it. And I’m lucky I’ve

21:57

just got married a year and a half ago. I think having my husband to talk, to, invent, to and to come home

22:03

to has been a really critical part of covering these stories, but also covering this administration.

22:08

When I feel like things are feeling personal, I can go home and talk to my husband about that.

22:13

So I think that that’s been critical. So allow yourself to feel some of the things that are going on. Yeah. And I think that’s what comes

22:18

out in a lot of your story is the human side. But it comes in a context of a very balanced

22:23

narrative, which is what I really wanted to try to get with you today, is to understand how you do that. And a lot

22:28

of times of physicians do the same thing. You know, they’re they’re saving lives and they’re seeing things and they’re trying

22:33

to keep that human connection. But at the same time, step back and do their craft. And

22:38

I see this is the same thing with journalists need to be doing to say, I have a final question

22:44

and it’s this. You said this. Sometimes you have to will yourself to your own talent.

22:49

You have to kind of talk about yourself in your own skin and get people to see you,

22:54

you know? What advice do you hear for our graduates and getting into an arena

23:00

where they have to appeal to a lot of different people, but yet they have to be true to

23:05

their core and who they are? I think that then it’s part of hopefully we’ll be a little bit about

23:10

what I see on commencement. It’s so critical to first know what your purpose is, to really

23:15

try to take time to understand what you think. You were put on this earth to do. And then once

23:20

you figure that out or even as you’re figuring that out, because that’s a lifelong journey and a lot of ways and your purpose can

23:25

change maybe at different times. But I think to figure out what your purposes. And then walk into those spaces

23:31

knowing that the universe is working thing outs, working things out for you. I really believe in telling

23:36

yourself out that the universe is on my side, that I am in this space because I belong in the space,

23:41

that I’m in this moment because this is where I should be. And don’t let anyone push you aside. I think

23:46

as a woman, as a person of color, I’ve had to push people aside at times. I’ve had to say, you know,

23:51

this person thinks I’m not qualified. This person thinks I’m not confident enough. Guess what? I can do this job because I know

23:56

that this is my purpose. And I think that that’s that’s critical. And that’s going to be, I think, what hopefully

24:02

people around this country should be thinking about as they walk into their purpose and they walk into

24:07

these spaces. I am so pleased because we were talking when you when we talked together

24:12

at the commencement. I’m saying the same thing. Not the way you’re saying it, but it’s about purpose

24:17

and it’s about your drive and being courageous. And we talk about the school. We talk about being in the arena

24:22

like the Teddy Roosevelt speech that says you stepped in and you step in. You make a commitment

24:28

and you’re not worried about what people say. You’re gonna get bloodied. You’re gonna fall down. You have to get up.

24:33

And what I loved about that speech is people who don’t get in the arena don’t matter. Right.

24:38

Thank you so much, Jimmy. I really, really enjoyed speaking with you. And and I hope our audience

24:43

and listeners do the same. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Yes. This is Policy

24:49

on Purpose. A podcast produced by the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas

24:54

at Austin. We take you behind the scenes of policy with the people who help shape.

24:59

To learn more, visit LBJ, you Texas study. You can follow us on Twitter or

25:05

Facebook. LBJ. Thank you for listening.

25:10

Tags

Alcindor, Correspondent, lbj, NewsHour, pbs, White House, Yamiche, Yamiche Alcindor