Winning an Emmy: Former Lansford resident receives honor for producing Atlanta morning show

Self-driven may not do enough justice in describing James Curry.

He bought a book when he was 14 years old that taught him how to write a resume. He then landed a job reading the news and operating the studio board during commercial breaks at WMGH radio in Tamaqua.

A student at Carbon Career and Technical Institute, Curry created a muckraking website to publicly criticize the administration on controversial issues within the school. He then became a U.S. Marine for five years which included an eight-month tour of Iraq.

After his service, he earned an undergraduate degree in political science from Troy State University in Alabama followed by a master’s degree in journalism from the University of South Dakota before he began a career in television news in El Paso, Texas, as an associate producer in 2009.

Five months later, he produced the morning news program for CNN International News in San Diego. At age 24, Curry became the youngest producer of an hourlong news program in CNN history, one that was televised in 144 countries and reached millions of people.

He then left CNN to produce “The Morning Show” for CBS News in Atlanta. There, he won an Emmy, after just 10 years in the business.

It’s all on him

The job of producing a TV news program is all encompassing. Curry, 32, picks what stories viewers will see and what sound bytes will be used.

“People will say TV news is always about the bad stuff that goes on in the world,” he said, “and I say no one would watch if we just reported the good news. We don’t look for violence and crime stories. We are issue-driven.”

Curry claimed there is no such thing as unbiased reporting.

“People want fairness in the news, but the fact is that whenever a human being is reporting, you’re going to get some slant,” he said. “We decide upon an angle we will take on a controversial issue. We don’t take a side. We have no agenda. We ask ourselves how does the issue affect most of our viewers?”

As an example, the program tackles both perspectives of police shootings.

“Most of our viewers are white. They don’t fear the police. Many black people fear the police. We try to provide an understanding to our viewers why that is true in many of our cities.”

Coaching the face on the screen

A major responsibility for Curry as a producer is to instruct the program’s news anchor how to report the stories.

“The production value of our show is directly affected by the delivery of the anchor. Sometimes an anchor appears confused or unprepared or robotic. We strive for them to be human and cohesive. Talk to the viewer as if you would be sitting right in front of him in his living room,” he said. “And a good anchor in New York may not be so good in Atlanta with the same style and approach.”

In the TV industry, the human value is called the “Oprah Effect” after Oprah Winfrey who became a “friend” to all races of her viewers because they saw her not as a black woman, but as a human being who could relate to everyone.

A health hazard and an awakening

When Curry had just turned 25, he went to the doctor with a sore throat.

“That’s not a normal thing for me to do,” said the ex-Marine. “I can handle pretty much anything but something, call it divine intervention, told me to get it checked out that day.”

The examination revealed no redness in his throat. An X-ray revealed a 3-centimeter mass in Curry’s chest indicating that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the white blood cells in the body.

“I was told I had a 64 percent chance of dying from the disease,” Curry explained. “Right from the diagnosis, I felt I was going to beat the odds.”

After seven months of radiation and chemotherapy, Curry was free of the cancer.

“I have to admit I was ticked off at God at first. I mean I went to war and come back to get cancer? Now that I’m cured, I’ve adjusted my priorities and I realize the meaning of life is in the relationships we form. I make time to enjoy people now and get my regular checkups. What good is there in anything if you don’t have your health?”

Johnny on the spot

Late one Sunday night in 2011 only Curry and an executive producer were in the CNN studio.

“We got notice that Osama bin Laden was killed,” he said. “There was no one else in the studio, so until the word got out and we could put together a news team, the two of us told the world what happened, totally unprepared and unscripted for over two hours.”

Curry said ever since he was a young boy, he wanted to be in a position of leadership and becoming a producer of television news program fits his persona perfectly.

“You have to be ready for anything and you have to deliver with high professionalism.”

Past and future

Although his mother and two sisters still live in Lansford, he no longer falls into the small-town profile.

“I haven’t been back in a while. I remember the cold weather and the snow we would get, and as soon as we shoveled it out at the end of the driveway, the plow would come and push it all back,” Curry said.

He adds, “My mom is super proud of my Emmy award and anything else that I do.”

He’s excited to go to work every day and for now that’s enough. His career path has already taken him to many places and he says that it’s best suited for single people because you can’t put down roots due to the nature of the industry.

Someday he sees himself in an academic institution, possibly as a professor of journalism even though the future of news broadcasting is in jeopardy.

“TV news programs are dying out,” he said. “Kids don’t watch TV anymore so they won’t be attached to that form of media.”

For now, he will sit back and enjoy his Emmy Award.

“I was nominated, but I never thought I would win. I was the first announced award of the program and with no acceptance speech planned, when I got back to the table I was sitting at, I asked my colleagues, what did I just say up there?”

The Emmy is the highest of honors, selected by industry peers for excellence in news programming production.

“In this business what I do invites controversy and argument. I remember what Chris Parker of the Times News told me when I had started my muckraking website in high school that made some people upset.

Parker said, “If they call you a troublemaker, that’s the best compliment a journalist can ever receive.”

Troublemaking and leadership have earned Curry an Emmy Award in a self-driven career that all started 18 years ago in Lansford when he bought that book about how to write a resume.