Linda Ellerbee. Photo by Gordon Munro

"Kids don't live in isolation. They have computers. They have television—they often have control of the remote," says Linda Ellerbee, host of television's Nick News. "After September 11, we talked to hundreds of kids in the next four days around the country and we couldn't find a single child under the age of six who had not seen those images. [T]he idea that you're protecting your child from the world by never talking about these things—it's just wrong."

Prior to the 2001 terrorist attacks, Ellerbee covered a variety of complicated issues for her young audience (like the impeachment of President Clinton), but she has now delved deeply into kids' feelings on war and terrorism, and U.S. policies towards the international community. Meanwhile, the show hasn't shied away from sensitive topics like AIDS and homosexuality.

A respected network television news anchor in the 1980s, Ellerbee was approached by the Nickelodeon network in 1991 about the possibility of hosting and producing a news show for pre-teens. "It was not me who pitched the idea, they came to me and then I thought about it for a while," she remembers. "Did I really want to do this?"

Her conclusion that "serious news for kids was seriously lacking" prompted the creation of the weekly news magazine, which has won numerous awards. Some viewers argue that the show goes too far, while others wish that it would cover issues from a teenage perspective. Ellerbee says that a teen show may be on the horizon, but is adamant that adults need to "let kids know it's OK to talk about these things—give them a voice."

Can parents use Nick News as a tool to help their kids through tough events?

We know that a lot of parents watch the show with their kids. We get so much mail from parents saying, "Thank you for such and such show, I didn't know how to bring that topic up to my kids." The first show we ever did on AIDS, a woman wrote to us and said, "I didn't know how to tell my 9-year old son I had AIDS, so we watched your show together." He said, "Gee momma, do we know anybody like that?" And that's how she told him.

Why do you think that some parents protect their children from certain news issues?

Well, they do it out of love. Every parent wants to protect their child for as long as possible from the big, bad world. That's a natural thing. But the problem is that it's not really possible. You'd have to home educate them, live in Alaska, and have no computers and no television and have them have no congress with other kids.

The Nick.com message boards have some interesting feedback from kids—ranging from sheer adoration to rants like these from Smilegal18 in reference to your coverage of the Iraq war: "[T]he media is being biased to the left. Especially the awful host Linda Ellerbee." What do you make of negative comments from kids?

People—that includes kids—often see what they want to see, particularly on controversial issues. We never are trying to tell kids what to think, we just want them to think.

How do you broach subjects that you realize might be controversial?

When we open up a topic to debate, I'm not going to tell kids that what they think is wrong. I'm going to let them have their say. In fact, we did a show last year about respecting kids who have one or more parents who is homosexual—there was a huge organized campaign to prevent Nickelodeon from airing the show. They felt that simply to raise the issue, they felt that somehow that made me the devil's advocate.

Did it?

No, it didn't. We had kids on that show who spoke their minds who said, "I believe that it's an abomination," others who responded, "I think that opinion is totally wrong." But in the end, kids agreed that the "respect" part was good—that you didn't have to agree with somebody to agree to respect them. So, I don't really worry when I get letters like that. I also get letters that tell me I'm to the right of Genghis Khan. I figure if you're getting letters from both sides, you're probably doing something right.

Were you surprised that the Traditional Values Coalition came out so strongly against that particular show, saying that you were promoting the behavior by covering the issue?

I was, yes, because I couldn't figure out what it was that they were objecting to. We were not espousing homosexual behavior. [Our question was], "can we not agree that children with one or more homosexual parents deserve respect?" Because "fag" is the most common hate word on American school playgrounds. That fact alone made me want to do that show,"

What's the difference between reporting news for an audience of kids, rather than an audience of adults?

There are a few tiny differences. One is, in my copy and anytime we interview anyone, if a word is used that I think a 10-year old might not understand, I wouldn't drop the word. I will use it in a sentence in such a way that its meaning is clear. Or I will simply stop and explain what the word means. I don't want to dumb them down, but I don't want to leave them not knowing. That, for me, is an opportunity to do a little teaching.

Second, when I was reporting for grown-up newscasts, one of the things that I guess I was known for was irony. Let me tell you that irony is lost on kids. So I don't write ironically.

And finally, with grown-up news, you're simply reporting the story. With Nick News, when we do a special, we never do a story without showing someone trying to make it better. The implication there is that when you grow up, you can be one of the people who tries to make it better, or you can choose to do nothing.

I have noticed another difference: those red Converse shoes that you wear during the tapings of most shows.

Now, how do you know I didn't have those on when I was reporting for adults? (laughs) I did start out wearing high heels when I started out at the networks, but I gave that up after covering my first political convention because you try to get through those crowds in high heels. Well, in one way it's helpful because Connie Chung used to joke that her stilettos got her through the crowds because she mashed down on someone's foot. But when you're chasing a Congressman that doesn't want to talk to you or you're on a stakeout for 13 hours, I gotta tell you, sneakers make a whole lot more sense. Especially when the television camera is usually only shooting you from the waist up. The nice thing about Nick News is that I can dress any way I want.

Do you feel like kids respond to you as one of their peers—what do you think they think of you?

I don't know. That's an interesting question. I think maybe like a crazy aunt. (laughs) You know, all lucky children have someone in their life, it's very often a friend of their parents, who they can go to and say anything that's on their mind, and that person won't be judgmental. I'd like to be that person in their lives.

Resources:

• Nickelodeon and Talking with Kids, an ongoing campaign of the Kaiser Family Foundation and Children Now, have teamed up to bring you resources for talking with kids about tough issues [1].
• Teachers can find resources here [2] for creating lesson plans that go along with the stories and issues brought up within Nick News programs.

Rob Capriccioso is a former staff writer for Connect for Kids.