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MEREDITH LAND \u201999<\/b><\/p>\n
Eye on the Storm<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> By\u00a0Ross Phillips \u201920<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Land has weathered storms and crossed oceans to become the top news anchor she is today<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> \u201cMy parents always taught me to go after what I wanted.\u201d In 1999, Meredith Land started as an intern for NBC Charleston; from day one, she knew it would take grit to become a journalist. Today, she is the main anchor at KXAS-TV (NBC5) in Dallas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":22277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[2798],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-22276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","category-my-clemson","tag-summer-2020-alumni-profiles"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/06\/Meredith_Land.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22276"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nIn 1999, Meredith Land started as an intern for NBC Charleston; from day one, she knew it would take grit to become a journalist. Today, she is the main anchor at KXAS-TV (NBC5) in Dallas.
\n\u201cI was an English major, journalism minor. No way did I want to be on the television,\u201d Land says. Land had kept a journal as a girl and would have preferred to write for travel magazines instead of reporting on geopolitics. That changed when she was a shy freshman at Clemson, making friends with a few ambitious women, all of whom encouraged her to aim higher. \u201cI always credit [my friends] for helping me get my wings,\u201d she says.
\nAfter graduating, Land snagged her internship with NBC Charleston with the hopes that she might eventually become a journalist. Her big chance came in the form of a storm.
\n\u201cHurricane Floyd was barreling toward the coast, and everyone was evacuating, including my family. The station needed people to stay and cover it,\u201d Land says. Few people would volunteer to remain in the path of a Category 4 hurricane.
\nLand watched as seasoned reporters packed up and left. \u201cI thought, \u2018Well, this is my chance to shine,\u2019\u201d she says. She raised her hand and volunteered to stay.
\nThe hurricane wound up missing Charleston, but Land\u2019s resolve won over her general manager. She became a reporter.
\nThree months later, she got the morning show at 22 years old. From there, Land could have played it safe. Instead, she reached out to her contacts at Charleston Air Force Base and asked if they would let her travel with local soldiers destined for Afghanistan, hoping to cover developments on the war. They agreed, and Land soon found herself on a C-17 flying through the night.
\nAt Bagram Airfield, Land lived among her fellow Charlestonians, covering the day-to-day experiences of the soldiers and their living conditions for several weeks. She also followed them on humanitarian missions to deliver MREs to villages: \u201cIn tanks, we saw the children of Afghanistan and gave them food. That was impactful for me.\u201d
\nA few weeks later, Land returned home. \u201cIt was incredible to see the sacrifices of these people, leaving families back home in South Carolina, a lot of them during the holidays,\u201d she says.
\nOne year later, Land made it to KXAS-TV (NBC5) in Dallas, where she has been reporting on local events ever since. She\u2019s gone on to interview the likes of former President George W. Bush and the late T. Boone Pickens. Through it all, she has focused on the importance of being genuine.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re always wondering if you\u2019re likable to the viewer, if you\u2019re somebody they\u2019d like to watch,\u201d she says. \u201cAt the end of the day, the viewers can just tell when you\u2019re authentic. All people really want is someone who\u2019s real.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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