The upside for anyone thinking about becoming a professional TV pundit or newspaper columnist is that all you really need to start are very strong opinions -- the downside, however, is that it will take years of very hard, self-motivated and persistent work to turn those opinions into a career.

At least, that is what conservative political commentator S.E. Cupp '00 shared in her lecture, "Let's Talk Politics: Turning Your Opinions into a Career," July 27 in Call Auditorium as part of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions' summer lecture series.

According to Cupp, a weekly columnist for the New York Daily News and Townhall magazine and political commentator for such news outlets as CNN, MSNBC and FOX News, the first main route into a career as a "professional opinion-maker," as she termed it, is through writing a book, which was her entry point into the world of punditry.

Though Cupp wrote art reviews for the Cornell Daily Sun while getting a B.A. in art history, and freelanced for various websites, magazines and travel guides after graduation, it was only after four years in a non-writing position at The New York Times that she decided to pen her first book, "Why You're Wrong About the Right" (Threshold Editions, 2008) with co-author Brett Joshpe '02.

"For some reason, writing a book still carries some cachet," said Cupp, who has since also authored "Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity" (Threshold Editions, 2010), "even if your mother is the only person who ever reads it."

Once she got over the significant hurdle of getting published for the first time, Cupp started heavily promoting her book, establishing connections and building a reputation with producers in the news industry.

She said it took two years of saying "yes" to every single TV and radio opportunity and sending her work to every online and print publisher in her contact list to finally be able to leave her job at the Times and launch a career in punditry and opinion-writing.

Another second route into punditry, she added, is to become an expert in a specific field. Often requiring extensive experience or study in an area of interest, the challenge for the "experts" is not only to position oneself as the "go-to person" in a specific field for news organizations, she said, but also to find ways to make the specialty relevant to current events at all times.

A third route, Cupp said, is to work your way up from within the news industry itself. One could work for five or more years for "no money" at a small newspaper or TV channel, then do the same at a moderate-sized organization, then again at a large, well-established one. "And then maybe, maybe, one day, they will let you write an opinion column or go on air," she said.

Though "it's a very, very long road," she said that this third approach is not without its benefits. "The people who come from many years of news experience, I can always tell who they are," she said. "They are incredibly savvy when it comes to the media."

Other Cupp advice for aspiring pundits: Get comfortable with being very self-promotional, and be ready to be lambasted for your opinions. Above all, know that producers and publishers enjoy people who are "professional and easy to work with," she said.

"At the end of the day, it's still a people business -- they appreciate courtesy."

Paul Bennetch '12 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.