I’m Darren Samuelsohn and this is The love, journalism Show. First time visiting? Please sign up for my love letter from the beat.

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I love getting to know why journalists get into journalism. Here’s Beatrice Peterson, ABC News’ National Enterprise Reporter and the 2026 NABJ Journalist of the Year.

“I got into journalism because I didn’t know any journalists.”

Beatrice has had a great 2026. NABJ recognized her body of work including President Trump’s of her hometown of Washington, D.C., and beat reporting about then Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. In 2020, during the pandemic, Beatrice was an embed covering Gabbard, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Kanye West and other presidential candidates. Gabbard went on to join Trump’s second-term administration.

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*ABC News interview with Tulsi Gabbard, Nov. 2025, shown at the NABJ ceremony. Screenshot via NABJ video.*

Growing up in DC, she took the “long way” to journalism. She loved going out with her family to the city’s go-go night scene. She won music scholarships, wanted to be a musician and planned to drop out of Trinity Washington University after her first year. Instead, she stayed. She worked for Rep. Charlie Rangel, before, during and after his ethics investigation when “reporters were following me to the bathroom as an intern.”

She shouts out John Bresnahan’s reporting during the Rangel affair as helping to inspire her to get into journalism. John, Beatrice and I all worked together at Politico. I didn’t know her origin story at Politico until our interview. She walked up to one of Politico’s booths at a Columbia University job fair and pitched herself: “Politico sucks and I can make it better. Hire me.” That’s money.

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*ABC News’ National Enterprise Reporter Beatrice Peterson delivers remarks accepting the NABJ 2026 Journalist of the Year award. Screenshot via NABJ video.*

Writing her NABJ acceptance speech, she scribbled thoughts in the back of a club while on antibiotics as friends celebrated in her honor. Her speech is fun to watch and shares the love, journalism thesis.

“I think the letter from journalism to me is if you’re persistent enough and you have big dreams and you have big goals and you want to do some crazy stuff that nobody believes might happen, you know, it can happen. You know, things change in a heartbeat.”

Please enjoy Beatrice’s story, and we’ll be back soon.

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‘I Got Into Journalism Because I Didn’t Know…