President Obama calls on Rutgers Targum editor Dan Corey during College Reporter Day at the White House last Thursday. (Video by the DC bureau of The Record)
A college journalist from Lincroft has landed one of the biggest “gets” in the media world: a sit-down with President Obama.
Dan Corey, a 19-year-sophomore at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and editor-in-chief of the Daily Targum, asked for the interview when the president called on him at a White House event last Thursday, according to a report by NorthJersey.com, the website of the Record of Hackensack.
As the first journalist called on at College Reporter Day, at which Obama made an unscheduled appearance, Corey told the president that the Targum is the nation’s second-oldest college newspaper, and had just won a referendum that will take it to its own 150-year anniversary. The newspaper is not funded through the university budget, but via a fee charged to students that must be approved every three years.
Then the Middletown South graduate asked for an interview in conjunction with Obama’s visit to Piscataway on May 15, when the president is scheduled to give the commencement address at High Point Solutions Stadium  — the first time that a sitting president has done so at the 250-year-old institution.
“That’s a good use of your time right there,” Obama replied, eliciting chuckles from the other college journalists in the room. “I have to say that normally I coordinate carefully with my press team before we grant interviews, but I am favorably disposed towards giving you a little bit of time. It may not be a really long interview, but I figure we can give the college newspaper a little bit of play.”
Corey told redbankgreen on Sunday that he “still couldn’t believe it happened.”
Corey had not had a chance to discuss a line of questions for the president with his Targum colleagues, he said.
[UPDATE, May 13, 2016: Here’s the full transcript of Corey’s interview with Obama, and here’s his news story based on that interview.]
