[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3231-S3232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tribute to Kim Holden

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I rise today for two reasons: one happy, 
one not so happy.
  First, I want to take a moment to recognize a much admired Louisiana 
journalist. I am referring to Ms. Kim Holden from the wonderful city of 
New Orleans in my State. Kim has just retired from WVUE, which we 
sometimes call FOX 8 News, in Louisiana, and Ms. Holden has been with 
FOX 8 News for 34 years.
  Kim, if I may call her by her first name, is Louisiana through and 
through. She is what most of us would call a star-spangled 
professional. Ms. Holden graduated from St. Mary's Dominican High 
School. I know, to some of you, that doesn't mean much, but it is an 
extraordinarily good school in my State.
  She started out at Tulane University. She wanted to study premed, but 
she realized pretty quickly that premed wasn't for her. She discovered 
her love for journalism, and she went to and graduated from Loyola 
University in New Orleans with a major in communications.
  She took her first job in 1988 as an intern at WVUE FOX 8, and she 
never left. Kim's talent and intelligence was quickly recognized at FOX 
8. She was hired almost immediately after being an intern as a part-
time production assistant.
  Throughout her 34 years at FOX 8, she has worked as a producer, as a 
reporter, as a weekend anchor, and as an assistant news director. In 
2005, Ms. Holden started anchoring the morning

[[Page S3232]]

newscast, and she has coanchored at 5 and 10 p.m. for the last 12 
years.
  It is a very unique thing, as you know, Mr. President, in television 
to work your entire career in one place, particularly in your hometown. 
Most journalists move from city to city--not Kim. She loves New 
Orleans, and New Orleans loves her back.
  I have been interviewed any number of times, with great admiration 
from Ms. Holden--not always with great joy because Kim is tough. She is 
tough as a boot as a journalist. She does her job, but she is very, 
very fair. She is in a world now of agenda journalists who have an 
agenda of their own--not Kim Holden. Not Kim Holden. She called the 
balls and the strikes. I don't even know what party she is in. I don't 
care which party she is in. She was just a pro.
  Kim, as I said, has retired, and she has had an extraordinary career. 
When you go back and look at her awards, she has received an Emmy and 
two Edward R. Murrow Awards for reporting. The Associated Press named 
her Reporter of the Year twice.
  Throughout her career at FOX 8 News, Kim has covered everything from 
the COVID-19 pandemic to hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina, to 
the New Orleans Saints winning the Super Bowl.
  I think, in her next chapter, Ms. Holden is going to spend some 
quality time--she deserves it--with her husband Bobby and her four 
children and her six grandchildren.
  So I just wanted to recognize Kim Holden today and to thank her for 
giving so much to the profession of journalism and to thank her for 
giving so much to my State in Louisiana. And I wish her the best in her 
next chapter.