Spartan Profiles: Melissa Seckora
RISING MEDIA STAR
UPI recently sent out a story under the headline, “Portrait Of A Rising Media Star.” The story described Melissa Seckora, ’98, as “blessed with brains, beauty, talent and drive” and with having “taken on the New York Times and the academic establishment and won.”
An editorial associate for the Washington bureau of National Review, as well as its online art critic, Seckora shies from such praise. “I’m just getting started,” she demurs. “I’ve been fortunate in getting an opportunity to do some television. It takes practice, and for me, a lot of prep work—reading, research, reporting. The more TV I do, however, the more comfortable I get.”
Despite her youth, Melissa has already scored several journalistic coups, most notably her discovery of academic dishonesty on the part of Emory University professor Michael Bellesiles, whose book, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, won the 2000 Bancroft Prize for history. Melissa lambasted Bellesiles for apparently fabricating his sources, and now the professor is on leave pending an investigation. “His book has been pretty much invalidated,” notes Melissa.
She also forced the New York Times to issue a retraction on a story related to the Boys Scouts. As a result, she made guest appearances on Fox News, CNN and National Public Radio, prompting UPI to observe, “The petite brunette with the porcelain complexion has obvious star quality.”
A native of Frankenmuth, Melissa chose to attend MSU because of James Madison College, where she worked in the office of then dean William Allen. She also touts professors Ronald Dorr and Constance Hunt as being major influences, even today. While a student, she interned as a speech writer for Gov. John Engler. After studies in Germany, she worked as publications editor at the Federalist Society in Washington D.C. before joining National Review. What does she think of Washington D.C.? “It’s another world,” Melissa says, “but it’s one definitely worth trying to figure out.”