There’s something different about Savannah Guthrie when she talks to a politician or forces a government official to give her the truth. Not only is it confidence, but it’s also a certain level of accuracy. She hears, then follows up, and she doesn’t let an answer not given go by. You can’t help but wonder if that instinct has always been there or if she learned it somewhere along the way, like in a law library or a lecture hall.
As a child, Guthrie lived with her family in Melbourne, Australia, for a few years. She then moved to Tucson, Arizona, where she grew up. Being in different places and seeing the world in different ways when I was young seems to have left some kind of mark. During interviews, she has said that she was a curious child who read a lot and took school seriously without seeing it as a performance.
It was at the University of Arizona that she got her bachelor’s degree in journalism. Given her future career, that choice didn’t come as a surprise, but it was also just the start. Most people don’t think of Guthrie as more than just a morning show host because she did more than that.
After working as a journalist for a while, Guthrie did something that many would think is very strange: she went back to school. She went to Georgetown University Law Center, which has one of the toughest law schools in the country, and got her Juris Doctor in 2002. Something about her is shown by the fact that she did this while also working to become a journalist. She might have just wanted the certificate. But it looks like she really wanted to learn the law from the inside out.
That training as a lawyer changed everything. Guthrie passed the bar exam in Washington, D.C., and for a while she was a licensed lawyer. However, she eventually gave up her license because her TV career took over. That base, though, never really went away. It’s clear in how she reads a live interview, how she asks a question to get a clear answer, and how she covers legal stories that other reporters might only briefly touch on.
After working at NBC News, she became a co-host on the Today show, which is one of the longest-running morning shows in American TV history. When the network covered big trials and political investigations, her background as a lawyer gave her an edge. During the impeachment proceedings against Trump and other Supreme Court hearings, Guthrie’s voice was often the clearest. He wasn’t dramatic, just honest.
It’s important to remember that Guthrie didn’t go the usual way in either direction. She wasn’t just a reporter who learned on the job, and she wasn’t just a lawyer who got interested in broadcasting. She purposefully built both, even though it took her time and effort. Once you get going at Georgetown Law, you can’t just coast through it.
A bigger point is being made here that most journalists miss. In this business, anchors and reporters who stay credible through changing news cycles and changing audience tastes are usually the ones who brought something extra to the table besides charm or a good presence on camera. For Guthrie, that extra something was a real legal education that he worked hard at and used in real life.
It’s hard to say if she would have had the same job without the law degree. It’s very likely that she would have. But the degree changed the way she thinks, which in turn changed everything else.
