🎙️ The Reporter Who Never Backed Down: Hank Plante vs. America’s Politicians

He asked George W. Bush if he was smart enough to be president., confronted Dick Cheney about his lesbian daughter and gay rights mid-campaign, and gave Gavin Newsom both his best and worst interviews.

This week on Life After News, Jason sits down with legendary San Francisco political reporter Hank Plante for a wide-ranging, conversation about power, politics, the AIDS crisis, and why both of them chose a new chapter in Palm Springs. 🌴🎙️

Hank Plante is an Emmy- and Peabody-winning journalist who spent 25 years at KPIX in San Francisco. An openly gay reporter covering AIDS from ground zero in the 1980s and ’90s, Hank’s work helped shape national understanding of the epidemic and the LGBTQ community. Today, he’s “retired” in Palm Springs (doing everything but sitting still), writing, volunteering, and staying deeply engaged in local journalism and civic life.

🎧 In this episode

Jason and Hank dig into:

• 🔥 The Bush & Cheney moments:  asking George W. Bush point-blank if he was “bright enough” to be president and what happened after the cameras stopped rolling. Pressing Dick Cheney on running on a platform that discriminated against his own lesbian daughter.
• 💥 Gavin Newsom’s best and worst interviews:  why Hank believes he did both Newsom’s strongest and weakest on-camera moments.  How tone and intention can make or break a politician on TV.  What Hank thinks of Newsom’s evolution and his obvious presidential ambitions.
• 🦠 Covering AIDS from the front lines:  what it was like to report on AIDS in San Francisco when the federal government wouldn’t even say the word. Nurses taking care of patients without knowing how the virus was spread. The discrimination, the funerals, the fear and the PTSD Hank believes many in his generation still carry.  How activism and groups like ACT UP forced change and saved lives.
• 📰 Why local news is the future:  Hank’s first gig taking over Bob Woodward’s old job at a chain of weeklies.  Why both Hank and Jason believe local journalism is more important than ever and how the business model still hasn’t caught up. The role of organizations like the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation in funding real reporting on school boards, city councils, and communities like the Coachella Valley.
• 🌵 Life after news in Palm Springs: how Hank and his husband ended up in Palm Springs and why it just “felt meant to be.” The pace, the beauty, the nonstop events and why being in a deeply gay-friendly town matters at this stage of life. The joy of doing work that mostly doesn’t pay… and why that’s made him “very popular.” 😉

👀 Next week on Life After News

Jason sits down with Randy Lovely, president of the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation and longtime Gannett editor and executive, to talk about:

• What the future of local news really looks like
• How communities can step up and fund the reporting they say they want
• And what’s at stake if we don’t

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