CM: [I] was in all-news radio for about five years, but I’ve been in Cleveland television [longer] … I’ve been at WKYC for five years now, and I was at WJW as the I-team reporter — it’s now a Fox station — I was there for 22 years. So, actually next month, I’ll be entering my 28th year in Cleveland TV.


EBC: It seems like people might duck and cover when they see you coming, but in your stories you frequently get incredible access, whether it’s a library manager, police chief or judge taking your pointed questions. So why are people in the Cleveland and Akron area so willing to talk to you on camera?


CM: Well, I’m not sure everybody is, because a lot of times you’re messing with people’s livelihoods and generally making life miserable for people and asking them to comment on stories that they don’t want to comment on. But I think when all is said and done, and despite the confrontations and the video that’s etched in Cleveland viewers’ minds — of me being thrown down stairs by a Cleveland city councilman, or being roughed up on a story — I think people have realized that we at least make an honest attempt to be fair and accurate, and even though sometimes the stories are sensational in nature and sometimes take on a sensational tone, I think that most of the time we’ve been evenhanded in our approach to stories, and I think people realize that.


But they know that we’re not going to back down, either … I remember there was the police chief’s press secretary a few years ago, his public information guy, had a sign in his office when you walked in that said, “You know it’s going to be a bad day when the first person you see in the morning is Carl Monday.” And I always got a chuckle out of that … but I think a lot of that is just television hype. When all is said and done, I think the viewers know that I’m going to try my best to be fair and honest and accurate about a story.


EBC: You also got Mike Cooper and Bubba Naska to admit some incredible things — Cooper admitted that if he were a parent he would be scared of a guy like himself, and Bubba, when told “There’s a warrant out for your arrest, you know that?” replied “I know. There’s about 10 of them, actually.” How did you do that?


CM: I think it’s just a case of engaging in a conversation with somebody, and I think even though they know there’s a camera and a microphone stuck in their face, I think at some point in the conversation they let their guard down, and sometimes even volunteer information. I mean, I had a guy confess to a murder on camera once, believe it or not. Led to a new trial, and the guy, I’m in a conversation with him, and he says, “I want to confess to a crime” … and I say, “Well, what crime did you commit?” And his reply: “Murder.” As I said, you just never know what’s going to come out of their mouths sometimes.


EBC: Whether you intend to or not, sometimes you yourself play an active role in the outcome of your stories — your video of Bubba’s drunk driving, for example, led to his indictment. So do you agree with what Dateline NBC has done recently, deputizing citizens to help make arrests for its “To Catch A Predator” series?


CM: Well, it’s always a touchy subject and we’ve been wrestling with this issue for as long as I’ve been in investigative reporting, and it comes and goes … We go through periods where we vow not to cooperate with the police and withhold all our notes and records, and then we go through a period where we’re riding in the back seat of a cop car. So yeah, it’s always a tough decision to make. Whether or not Dateline has gone too far, I think maybe they’ve gone too far in exploiting that particular subject. I mean, I think it’s being renewed for another 13 weeks. When is enough enough?


Sometimes I think you need it, if for nothing else, for safety reasons — you need to have the police involved. And sometimes it’s the only way to get information. But I think you do have to be careful of crossing that line. I know beat reporters — I’m not going to mention any names — in this town that will not do a story on a particular department, let’s say, because they don’t want to lose them as a source, and I think that that’s when you cross the line.


EBC: Most important of all, is your name really Carl Monday?