F or someone who didn’t plan a
career in television and print
journalism, Leslie Cardé has
experienced a very eventful run in both.
Her on-air and in-print communication
skills, combined with boundless
energy and enthusiasm, have taken her
globetrotting all over the map, including
back and forth to New Orleans three
times, breaking and reporting major
stories everywhere she went.
When Pan Am Flight 759 crashed
in Kenner in 1982, Leslie and her
photographer from WDSU Channel
6 News were among the first media
members on the scene and they were the
first ones to find a 16-month-old baby
who miraculously survived.
When chemical plants along the
industrial corridor of the Mississippi
River were discharging toxic waste into
the water supply for New Orleans and
other downstream communities, Leslie
camped out along the river at night and
exposed the worst polluters.
As both a medical reporter and coanchor,
“You Ought
to Write a
Book!”
Leslie Cardé
Having a Stellar
Career in the
Media
By Dean M. Shapiro
Leslie became a familiar face
early in her media career. Her sojourn
has run the gamut from the #1 and #2
media markets of New York and Los
Angeles, to Africa to report on the AIDS
epidemic, to the war zones of the Middle
East, and back to the Crescent City two
years ago.
“People tell me all the time, ‘You ought
to write a book about your experiences,
and maybe one day I will. But not yet,”
Leslie said.
“I didn’t plan this career,” Leslie added.
“I was a psychologist with a practice in
Beverly Hills who ambled into this from
the back door.”
That “back door” opened for her when
she was asked to fill in for an on-air
psychologist who had a call-in show on
KABC Talk Radio in Los Angeles. As she
explained, “I got hooked on it because it was
a very different format than seeing patients
in your office. Suddenly you’re confronted
with having a two-minute time frame to
solve people’s problems over the airwaves.
I thought it was pretty fascinating.”
Soon after that she attracted the
attention of a talent agent. “Her advice to
me was to get some on-air TV experience
in a smaller market,” Leslie said. “After
that, she would try to get me on with a
bigger station in L.A. So I gave up my
psychology practice and went to a station
in Boise, Idaho.” About six months later
her agent landed her a job at KNXT, the
CBS owned-and-operated TV station in
L.A.
A year or so later Leslie got the urge to
be a news anchor but, as she explained,
“You can’t just do that in L.A. The line
forms around the block to be an anchor
there because they pay those people
millions of dollars.” So, at that point,
Leslie did something almost unheard of
in the TV news business: she left the #2
market for the market that was ranked
34th at the time – New Orleans.
“I had only been to New Orleans
one other time before that, during
Mardi Gras, but I thought it would be
interesting,” Leslie said. Landing at
WDSU she found her niche in medical
COURTESY PHOTOS LESLIE CARDÉ
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