U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Kaine
Puts in a Plug for Heath Hyatt '12
While Talking about New Media

Heath Hyatt '12 happened to be in a holding room when former Virginia governor Tim Kaine gave him (and Claremont McKenna) a shout-out that was captured on C-SPAN. Kain, also the former Democratic National Committee Chair and a current candidate for the U.S. Senate, was talking about news and current events during the Washington Journalism and Media Conference at George Mason University on July 13, where topics ranged from the 2012 presidential field, to gubernatiorial issues, and the debt crisis.
When talk turned to the changing face of journalism and online media, Kaine responded to a tech-savvy teenager in the audiencean editor of his high school newspaper and a heavy user of social media. "I have a staffer here with me," Kaine said in reply, "a guy named Heath Hyatt who is a senior at Claremont McKenna in the Los Angeles area, who is doing an internship with me. He's the editor of the College's paper. It's all done online. They don't do a print version. It has blogging and other capacities, but we're seeing dramatic changes in the way journalists cover politicians because of new media."
Thanks to CMC's Crocker Professor of Politics John Pitney, Hyatt watched the exchange soon after, when Pitney posted a link to it on his blog: http://www.bessettepitney.net/search/label/mass%20media. Hyatt's been editor of the Forum student newspaper since March, and calls the campus newspaper an "extremely successful" online-only publication.
"Publishing online gives students and alumni instant access to the latest news and information at CMC, whether they are on campus or living around the world," he told us. "It also allows our staff to use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and more to further immerse our audience in CMC's culture and community.
"Not only is the online publication more accessible for our readers," Hyatt noted, "it's easier to use for our staff. Instead of meeting an outside printer's deadlines, our writers and editors have the flexibility to publish around our busy academic schedules. After all, academics is the priority."
As for the Kaine internship, well, it's a small, CMC world. Hyatt was in the Washington Program last fall when he first interned for the DNC chair. The experience was so great, he says, "that I had to figure out how I could help him when I heard he was running for Senate." So he flew to the nation's capital this summer to once more work for Kaine.
"I travel with the Governor to almost all of his events across the commonwealth," he says.
And when not traveling, Hyatt works in the scheduling office, and alongside Kaine's campaign press secretaryfellow CMCer Brandi Hoffine '06. (We told you it was a small CMC world.) Coincidentally, Hoffine also edited the Forum during her years at Claremont McKenna, but it was "definitely on paper back then," she quips.
She says Kaine's nod to Hyatt on C-SPAN will "no doubt make him the envy of Pitney students everywhere." In typical CMC form, she says Hyatt's gone above and beyond his job description. "In just a few short weeks, he went from intern to valued staff member," she says. "Heath even earned special recognition for his efforts from the campaign manager."