Connie Schultz is a writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She is most widely known for her commentary work, which has received scores of awards in recent years, including the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary and the Robert F. Kennedy Award for domestic social justice reporting. Connie Schultz is also the author of the forthcoming book,  …And His Lovely Wife: a Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man, about her experiences as the wife of Democratic senator Sherrod Brown during the 2006 Ohio Senatorial election. Connie Schultz will be speaking at Oberlin’s commencement ceremonies on May 28.

Things seem to have gone pretty well for you in the past couple of years — you’ve accumulated award after award, your husband won the 2006 election, you recently finished a memoir, which is being released in June…What are you working on these days?
Well, I’m back to doing just two columns a week [at the Plain Dealer], I’m trying to spend more time with my family…I’m about to become nationally syndicated…Overall I’m just trying to not get sucked into the vortex of celebrity-hood. What really matters to me is my writing, and I think that the writing can get obscured if you just focus on the celebrity aspect of it all. Aside from that, I’m looking at the possibility of writing some fiction — which scares me to death, but I think that being terrified in that uncertain territory helps me run on all cylinders and get things accomplished. [Laughs] I think college students can really understand that.

About your writing: You’ve been described frequently as someone who represents the underrepresented, or as a writer for “the underdog.” Is this how you see yourself?
I think that’s the upper-class describing me. When you come from the working class like I do, you don’t think of yourself like that. And in terms of the term “underdog,” I never use it. I do write about people who don’t get a chance to speak out for themselves, because the privileged already have their spokesmen, they don’t need me. I need to help the people who can’t speak. The people working at coat checks [whose tips go to their management] who I wrote about, the gays and lesbians who are discriminated against by law…I’m not just giving a voice to people, I am just trying to get people to pay attention, and if I can make them a little more aware of the situation, then I think that that’s what counts.

What do you think of the current state of American journalism?
I’m worried about it, but my mood changes every day…I work with a lot of honorable people who believe in this profession like I do, but I’m saddened by all the consolidation and mergers in news sources today. A lot of the larger, competing papers are starting to share stories, which I have never, ever seen in all my time with the papers, and this makes me worry that we’re losing a lot of the competition in the press…I’m very concerned about what corporate ownership has required of the newspapers — investigative reporting is down, many Washington bureaus have been shut down. When I came back to the Plain Dealer [after 2006’s campaign-related leave of absence], it was a different paper…it’s so disconcerting.

And what about the blogs? Do you see journalism moving towards a more Internet-oriented position?
I have a definite love–hate relationship with the blogs. Some are responsible; I think they’re great because they keep journalists on their toes. Although, on the campaign trail, I experienced a lot of the bad side of the blogs, much of it flat-out lies. It’s very frustrating when they’re inaccurate. As far as journalism, I hope we get better at using the Internet, but I hope we don’t end up using just blogs.

 Before your position at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, you were a freelance journalist. What do you think about today’s situation for freelance journalists?
 Well, there are fewer positions out there because of cutbacks. I worry more today about freelancers…When I was a freelancer I was aware of ethics, and if they’re not, they can get themselves and their publications in real trouble. But I think it’s healthy to have people writing for your newspaper who aren’t part of the office.

Do you know what the topic of your speech will be for Oberlin’s Commencement ceremony?
I have some ideas — being in the wake of [the shooting at] Virginia Tech, how impressed I was in terms of how [your generation] handled it…but I’m not one to just get up and do a lecture; I like telling stories, not blind platitudes. But I love Oberlin. They’re giving me an honorary doctorate, which is an incredible honor, and I think it’s a really progressive campus, so I won’t need to spend much time convincing everyone to carry on the progressive causes because people are already doing it.