NLP establishes national advisory council

Alisyn Camerota of CNN, Pierre Thomas of ABC News and Marci McCue, an executive at Flipboard, are joining the News Literacy Project as the inaugural members of NLP’s national advisory council.

Alisyn Camerota, the co-host of CNN’s “New Day,” visits the Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria in Queens, N.Y., to deliver a news literacy lesson for NLP. Photo by Damaso Reyes

The council will offer guidance on outreach and advocacy to NLP staff and board members and will support NLP financially and through introductions and appearances at events. Members will serve an initial term of four years.

Camerota is the co-host of CNN’s morning program, New Day. She joined CNN in 2014 after 16 years at Fox News Channel, where she was co-host of America’s News Headquarters, a co-anchor of Fox & Friends Weekend and a contributor to the Fox & Friends weekday franchise. As an NLP volunteer journalist fellow, she spoke to students at The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria in Queens, New York, in December 2017 and wrote about her experience for CNN.com.

“At a time when Americans are increasingly confused about which news outlets to trust, I am proud to be part of the News Literacy Project’s effort to empower students to differentiate between fact and fiction,” she said about her role on the national advisory council. “Not all news is created equal. The News Literacy Project is here to remind students of the vital role journalism, free speech and the First Amendment play in their lives.”

Thomas is the senior Justice Department correspondent at ABC News, where his work covering law enforcement, terrorism and homeland security has received some of broadcast journalism’s highest honors, including Emmy, Peabody and Alfred I. duPont–Columbia awards. Before joining ABC in 2000, he was a Justice Department correspondent for CNN and a reporter at The Washington Post. He was one of NLP’s earliest volunteer journalist fellows, participating in NLP’s classroom lessons in Washington, D.C., area schools and serving on NLP’s D.C. advisory committee.

More recently, Thomas interviewed student users of the Checkology® virtual classroom at an NLP reception in October 2017. A month later, he spoke about covering race and justice in America on behalf of NLP at the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies in San Francisco. “An informed citizenship is integral to democracy,” he told the educators, adding that NLP helps students to “master core skills about news literacy so they can make decisions about what to share, believe and act on.”

McCue is the chief marketing officer at Flipboard, a news and social media aggregator, where she supervises the development of all outbound communications, editorial curation, social media, public relations, product messaging and partner marketing, and consumer support. Before joining Flipboard, which her husband, Mike McCue, co-founded, in 2010, she held communications positions at Tellme Networks, Excite@Home and Adaptec.

“The News Literacy Project teaches fundamental civic values that need to be more deeply integrated into our educational curriculum,” she said. “I believe deeply in this mission and, as part of the NLP team, hope to encourage others to engage in the work ahead — ensuring that young people across the country understand what real news is and how essential it is to the life we enjoy in our democracy.” She and her husband recently supported NLP with a personal gift of $50,000.

Alan C. Miller, NLP’s founder and CEO, said he was looking forward to working with the council as NLP expands its programs across the United States and around the world. “The national advisory council will help us elevate our profile and command new resources at this crucial moment,” he said. “We’re honored to have Alisyn, Marci and Pierre as our initial members.”