Megan Trotter | news editor

I found myself face-to-face with Bob Woodward, a pillar of investigative reporting while covering the 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal’s “Saturday Night Massacre” in Washington, D.C., last year.

Standing in the halls of The National Press Club, suit jacket slightly too tight under my arms and sweat dripping down my face, I knew I had about 10 seconds to get an intelligent and thought-provoking question out of my mouth.

And while Woodward did not give me a lot of his time or share any particularly life changing career advice during our exchange, I’ve often thought that covering this event was a pivotal moment in the development of my love for journalism.

There have been plenty of times throughout the beginnings of my journalism career where I have felt especially green (and I’m sure there are more to come). Surrounded by big name reporters, Supreme Court justices and several other prominent figures of history while covering the event, I was by far the least important and least experienced person in the room.

And damn, did I love every second of it.

I have come to learn that reporting is a career where you will be uncomfortable, stressed, frustrated and at times underappreciated, but nothing feels as good as providing a voice to someone who has lost theirs, crafting a strong lede or seeing the impact and conversation that sparks from your article.

Unlike many of my predecessors I did not join the newsroom as an editor until my junior year. I stepped into my role as news editor without any clue on how to do layout or even experience as a consistent staff writer for The Duke. All I had was roughly two months of an internship with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette under my belt and a promise to expand what the Bluff community should expect to see published in the news section.

It took a little adjusting, a whole lot of edits and several failed articles that never saw the light of day. But now, as I pass on my position, I am honored to have been a part of the news section’s history.

Working for the paper has given me a lot of things, beyond just the typical heavy coffee reliance and deep rooted fear of spelling a source’s name wrong, but also a pride in my reporting, an understanding of journalism ethics and a shocking amount of camaraderie.

You are only as good as your team, and lucky for me The Duke’s 2024-25 editorial staff has stuck with me dutifully, and dare I say even enthusiastically, through every ambitious assignment or potentially controversial investigative article I pitched.

When I boldly announced I wanted the paper to run 24-hour live coverage on election day along with a 16-page special election issue in the same week everyone put on their reporter’s caps, slapped on a press pass and went to town contacting political personnel. I cannot thank them enough for giving up their already limited free time and any chances of a good night’s sleep to help me tackle covering the election season.

It is impossible for me to narrow down my favorite stories I have covered during my time as news editor, but there are definitely a few I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

When President Donald Trump returned to Butler, Pa, the site of his assisination attempt, Opinions Editor Eliyahu Gasson and I piled into his beautiful light blue Fiat 500 and took the drive out to the rally. Eliy and I spent the day waiting in lines and large crowds, since the Trump campaign did not grant us press passes, getting sunburnt and eating cold pulled pork while sitting on the ground. Covering the rally placed us at the center of the presidential race, where we both furiously scribbled notes that would become a deadline article composed in a Sheetz over 45 minutes away from Duquesne later that night.

During election night Spencer Thomas, The Duke’s editor-in-chief and one of my closest friends since freshman year, sat on the couch in my living room counting electoral votes, editing rapidly incoming updates from our reporters and constantly reloading Allegheny County’s X page for updates on polling numbers. It was an extremely long work day, as the two of us had taken shifts editing the 24-hour live coverage during the morning and afternoon, and after the rest of our editorial staff turned in their final updates before heading to bed, Spence and I stayed up to break the news once the election results were called.

More recently, I accompanied Layout Editor Ember Duke on an assignment covering a Pro-Palestian protest after the University of Pittsburgh suspended Students for Justice in Palestine from their campus. In typical Pittsburgh fashion, the weather switched between hailing and raining to sunny and freezing. The two of us wandered around Pitt’s campus for a half hour before we could find where the protestors were organizing. Once the weather subsided, the protestors were off, marching the streets. And ahead of them I ran – camera in hand — and kept an eye out for Ember as she conducted interviews.

Much of the news section’s more recent articles have sparked long debates of journalistic ethics with our advisor Paula Ward, such as whether or not to name a source, if both sides have their voices equally represented and the possible repercussions of not understanding the weight of an article prior to publishing it. Paula’s wisdom has guided me through the ins-and-outs of what it means to be a reporter, and I am beyond lucky to have had her as a mentor during my time at The Duke and going forward as I begin my job at the Tribune-Review.

Being a part of The Duke has been one of the most transformative decisions I have made in my early adulthood. As someone who has known they’ve wanted to be a reporter since an early age, I simply cannot imagine not having had my time at The Duke.

Megan Trotter can be reached at
trotterm@duq.edu.