This cynic feels right at home in DC

WASHINGTON -- I’m like a lot of people who end up in journalism. I’m a born cynic.
 
Cynicism can be a crutch, a coping mechanism. If it’s too relentless it can get you down and define your approach to everything in life. If you’re not careful, you can end up bitter. You need to work to be positive, to find a way to put your cynicism to good use and feel good about things every once in a while. A cynic has needs, too!
 
Journalism is one cure. It’s altruism for cynics. Especially in Washington, a journalist needs that jaundiced, skeptical eye to sort through the abstracts, totems, duplicity, caricatures, and polemic that have been the hallmark of political speech since the first candidate stood on a tree stump.
 
So as a born cynic, I get to feel good about myself every once in a while. Folks get down on the media in its various forms, but when it works the way it should it is vital to the health and vibrancy of any society and government. Transparency and accountability aren’t just buzzwords. Politicians must be held accountable for their votes, their views and their conduct, the things they say and the things they promise. They, and the bureaucrats who carry out policy, hold a trust to act honestly and in the public’s best interest. People must have faith in their institutions for the whole thing to work.
 
That’s where we come in.
 
I’m not in this to feed anyone’s confirmation bias. It’s human nature to choose up sides, yes. But one side isn’t right every time. Sometimes both sides are. Often times, it’s neither.
 
But the bottom line is that you have got to trust the news consumer to make up their own mind when presented with the facts. It’s kind of an old-fashioned notion, but it’s making a comeback.
 
For all the bad news we hear out of Washington, Americans still expect – and certainly deserve – a government that is honest and responsive. I think it’s their baseline assumption. Look at it this way: News is the unexpected. And it’s still unexpected, and therefore news, when a public official is caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing, or doing the opposite of what he or she said he or she was going to do.
 
I don't say this lightly: Our system of government is the product of genius.

Congress, for better or worse, is a reflection of our society. It's intentionally designed to be a forum for the passions of the day. Members channel the emotions of the masses, vent on the House floor or in the committee room. The place doesn't get enough credit for being a sort of national steam valve, a catharsis ... though lately that role has been co-opted by former House members hosting cable shows. Coincidence? I think not.
 
I’m the White House correspondent for Al Jazeera America. I’ll be covering much of Washington in addition to the White House. We’re going to have a top-notch news-gathering team here in Washington. I’ve been a White House correspondent before, and I often feel that you can cover Congress without covering the White House, but you can’t cover the White House without covering congress.
 
In a sense I am pursuing a family legacy. My grandparents settled on Capitol Hill when they emigrated from Spain and Italy. Two of them were raised in a place called Schott’s Alley, where the Hart Senate office building now stands. My father was born in a row house near the Capitol and my mother was raised in that neighborhood, as well. There are pictures of my great-uncles (taken in 1911 by famed photographer Lewis Hine) that hang in the Capitol, part of an expose of child labor practices of a century ago. The Capitol was their playground. They all helped build this city. So I was sort of born into this. Washington is in my blood.
 
For the last 23 years I have seen that world from a different perspective, covering politicians in their natural habitats in the Capitol and at the White House.

It’s been an unconventional trip for me. A lot of people start in a local market as TV reporters, but I never did that. After college, I strapped on a backpack and ended up in Japan teaching English. I traveled around China and Southeast Asia for a while as a tourist, and when I returned to my hometown Washington, I was desperate for a job. A friend of mine got a job as a producer at a Japanese TV news bureau in Washington, and I copied his example and got a job with NHK. I then started an internship and ended up as an on-air correspondent in both English and Japanese. Seven years later, I started freelancing at NBC, chasing Monica Lewinsky’s mom around the federal courthouse in downtown Washington and following that whole drama. One thing led to another, and NBC made me a White House correspondent. I did that for close to four years before coming to Al Jazeera America, so it’s been a unique and satisfying journey.
 
At Al Jazeera America, we’ll bring a fresh perspective and a reexamination of the role of journalists and their relationships to the American government. There will be more substance, giving people what they need to know on a daily basis in order to enhance their lives through relevant information.
 
I think once viewers see what we have to offer, they’re going to understand that something has been missing in their news diet and we’re here to nourish them. We not only report from the White House and Congress, but also 11 other bureaus around the country. I mean, who else is opening bureaus in Detroit and Nashville? Seattle and Denver? Once people see the approach we’re taking to our storytelling and how we’re looking through the eyes of the people who are affected most, they’ll be hooked.

-- Mike Viqueira,
Al Jazeera America White House correspondent