Those of us fortunate enough to be asked to be on the “journalists” panel during the breakfast session that kicked off the second day of the Walk to Washington knew the deal.
Michael Aron was going to be more than just the moderator. He was going to be the emcee. The ringmaster. He was the dean of the New Jersey press corps — and this was his show.
We were all better off because of it.
The few questions Aron asked … he usually answered himself. And each answer invariably led to a series of insightful anecdotes about all the governors, legislative leaders — really, anyone he interacted with on the beat — going back to the Brendan Byrne and Tom Kean gubernatorial administrations.
Everyone in the room was captivated — and in stitches. The man could tell a tale.
“It often became an hour of Michael telling stories — stories that only he knew,” said Ray Zardetto, a former staffer at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce who organized the event for many years.
“What I remember is that he was always up to speed, not only on the big issues that were going on in Trenton, but the behind-the-scenes stories attached to each of them. There was nothing that got by him. He had a knowledge base about the stories, the people and the history that was incredibly impressive.
“He always said, ‘New Jersey doesn’t disappoint.’ I can tell you, ‘Michael Aron never disappointed, either.’”
Aron, who covered Trenton for public broadcasting (New Jersey Network News and NJ PBS) for four decades before (semi) retiring in 2020, died Tuesday after a long illness. He was 78.
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A graduate of Harvard University and Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, Aron began his journalistic career as a writer/editor for various publications, including New Jersey Monthly, Harper’s and Rolling Stone.
He quickly moved to television — and he soon became a standout.
Aron moderated the first New Jersey gubernatorial debate (along with Diane Allen) between the incumbent Kean and challenger Peter Shapiro in 1985.
He wrote a book on the 1993 gubernatorial campaign between Jim Florio and Christine Todd Whitman.
And, of course, he was the longtime host of “Reporter’s Roundtable” and “On the Record.”
With Aron, however, it wasn’t about what he did, but how he did it.
Competing in an era when politicians were not simply a text away — and when “working the phones” meant you were willing to sit by a landline, hoping it would ring or someone on the other end would answer — Aron worked Trenton better than anyone.
He knew everyone — and everyone knew him.
Aron not only worked the room, but he knew the best place to get the best stories was in backrooms that only he seemed to be able to gain entrance to. (See a great anecdote of a chance meeting with President Bill Clinton by the New Jersey Globe here.)
That’s why Aron was such a natural on the Walk to Washington. He could work a crowd of any size. In fact, he was so good at it, he was asked to give the keynote during the 2016 trip.
State Chamber CEO Tom Bracken called him the GOAT of New Jersey journalists.
“Michael Aron was a New Jersey political broadcast legend,” Bracken said. “It was always great television when he hosted ‘Reporter’s Roundtable’ or ‘On the Record’ — and when he provided in-depth commentary on political happenings over the many years of his outstanding career.”
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Aron was an old-school journalist in a profession desperately needing more reporters like him.
Tributes from both colleagues and those he covered — and everyone he interacted with along the way — poured in on Tuesday.
Briana Vannozzi, who succeeded him as the lead anchor at NJ PBS, called Aron a mentor who was the “North Star” of the newsroom — a true renaissance man.
“He could talk equal parts David Bowie and state politics,” she tweeted. “I’ll forever miss him and his wisdom.”
Veteran journalist Brian Donohue said a few words from Aron meant the world.
“A journalist in New Jersey could win whatever award you think of, and none of them would mean as much as when Michael Aron turned to you and said, ‘Hey, that was a good story you did.’”
Aron’s words impacted everyone.
Mike DuHaime, now a veteran political operative, thanked Aron for helping him — and so many others — grow in their career.
“Aron was the dean of the press corps and treated young operatives and reporters with total respect, making us feel like pros,” he said.
Scott Kobler, the longtime chair of NJ PBS — and a lifetime fan of journalism — simply gushed.
“Michael remains the gold standard of civic-focused journalism,” he said. “He was brilliant, prepared, incisive, elegant and, most notably, fair. The story, correctly told with all of its detail and nuance, mattered most to him.
“Not coined lightly, he deserved being known as the Dean of the State House Press Corps. He inspired me as a college student 50 years ago to know about this thing called Jersey-vision, or NJN. May his memory be a blessing and a constant inspiration to journalists and their allies.”
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Shortly after I helped found ROI-NJ in 2017, I got a call from Aron.
“What is ROI?” he started. “Why did you start it, how did you start it and what do you hope to accomplish?”
Before I could answer, he cut me off.
“Let’s talk about it on my show — more people need to know about this,” he said.
Like any good journalist, Aron saw others in the industry as colleagues, not competitors. The only team he rooted for was journalism itself.
A few weeks later, I came to the studio to go on the show. Aron and I chatted before we went on the air — but not about ROI.
He told me he hated the preinterview conversation. He said he wanted to go in fresh — and be able to react and respond to answers as he did in the field.
It was true journalism, he said.
Anyone who went on the air with Aron knows the result: People you haven’t heard from in months, or even years, invariably reach out because they saw the episode.
It’s impossible to measure the impact of that segment, but it’s fair to say that my early appearance helped bring ROI-NJ into the consciousness of many in the state’s ecosystem.
We are forever grateful.
Aron, of course, wouldn’t understand the fuss. To him, he was just reporting the news that people needed to know.
It’s the most basic principle of journalism — one Aron performed as well as anyone in the state for more than four decades.
