Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 22, 2005|Volume 33, Number 27|Two-Week Issue

Christiane Amanpour

Unbiased reporting is not always
noble, CNN journalist says

In the more than two decades she has worked as a television journalist for CNN, Christiane Amanpour has been in virtually every war zone or nation-in-crisis around the globe, including the Balkans, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Somalia, Rwanda and Iraq.

Early on in her work as a foreign correspondent for the television network, Amanpour was forced to question what she had previously taken for granted -- the "golden rule" of journalistic objectivity, she told a packed audience at a Morse College master's tea on April 11.

Sometimes criticized for providing "biased" coverage of the war in Bosnia, Amanpour says she had to "redefine" for herself what "objective" reporting really meant in the face of genocide.

"[When demanding objectivity], what are you asking me to do? Are you asking me to be neutral, to treat each side -- the murderer and the victim -- the same?" she asked. "No, objectivity means giving all sides an equal hearing, but never equating sides -- particularly the victim and the aggressor -- because if you do, you are then complicit. And when you are complicit in something like genocide, there's a deep stain. If you are complicit, you can, in fact, encourage it to go on."

She recalled that during the four-year siege of Sarajevo by Serbian militias, she saw Muslim civilians suffering daily mortar attacks, and women, children and elderly people being killed "just for going to get water.

"When you see civilians being attacked, it changes your perspective," the journalist remarked.

Amanpour, whose reporting from the Balkans also won her numerous journalistic honors (among them an Emmy Award, two Peabody Awards and two Polk Awards), said she is less proud of her coverage of Rwanda -- which she admitted, "there wasn't enough of.

"Rwanda is one of our great failures as journalists and as governments, and it will be a stain for a long, long time," she said, referring to the initial refusal of both the media and foreign governments to identify the killing in that country as "genocide" until it was well underway, and to the lack of political intercession during the massacres. Likewise, she asserted, news coverage focused on other events at the time, including the situation in Bosnia, the O.J. Simpson trial and Nelson Mandela's election as president of South Africa.

"One million people in Rwanda paid the price," for that lack of attention, the journalist said.

Amanpour's visit to Yale came on the heels of her coverage of Pope John Paul's death and funeral in Rome. She addressed a mostly student audience in Morse, sharing anecdotes about her rise at CNN from an entry-level position in Atlanta in the network's nascent days to become its chief international correspondent.

She recalled how, in an effort to gain more reporting experience, she practically begged her boss to be allowed to cover the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco on her own time and with her own money. She also described how, desperate to become a foreign correspondent, she wrote "beautiful, weepy letters" to her higher-ups, threatening to resign if she was not given a position in New York, where she could gain the reporting experience she needed.

Amanpour managed to get the New York assignment and later was sent to CNN's Frankfurt office. From there, she got her first major foreign assignment: covering the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. She spent time in Saudi Arabia, covering the U.S. military buildup in the region, and also reported from Baghdad.

"I was one of the only TV journalists to see the war from both sides," she told her audience.

While covering the first Gulf War was an eye-opening experience for the then-unseasoned foreign journalist, her experience in Bosnia proved to be an even bigger revelation, Amanpour said.

"I started to realize that being a foreign correspondent was not just the adventure of seeing the world," she said, "but that it carries enormous responsibility and enormous power: where what you say matters, where you say it matters and how you choose to do it matters."

Amanpour also became attuned to other realities of reporting from the world's hotspots, she said, noting that some of her journalist friends and colleagues have been killed or murdered.

"The tragic reality is that the leading cause of death among journalists is deliberate targeting -- assassination and murder," she asserted. She and other foreign journalists often wear bulletproof vests, have bodyguards and travel in armored cars, she said, noting that while these precautions "hamper our ability to tell news, kidnapping hampers our ability more."

Amanpour also discussed the concern that television news reporting has become sensational and narrowly focused on one issue, citing the Terry Shiavo case and the pope's death as examples of what some might call "excessive" coverage. She expressed her own chagrin over the fact that corporate-owned television networks' "first duty is to the shareholder," and asserted, "the desire to eke out maximum profit from the news is immoral." She contended that in this era of more emotional news reporting, "We in our profession are getting lazy about reporting facts."

Equally alarming, Amanpour said, is that "lines are being blurred" between the news and politics. She decried both "paid shills who spout government programs and pass themselves off as independent analysts" as well as "various arms of the government producing their own news."

The Iranian-born journalist also spoke about the future of her native country, from which she was banned several years ago for a report she made about reforms in the country that showed young people drinking alcohol, which is illegal there.

She said President Mohammad Khatami missed an opportunity to bring about true reform in Iran and predicted that the next president, who will be elected in June, will be a conservative. Amanpour added that while the Iranian people desire reform and want "the mullahs out of the bedroom," they are not likely to respond well to any intercession on their behalf by the American government.

"It is one thing to want to be free of a dictator, and another to be occupied," she said.

Despite the dangers of her job, the criticism she sometimes faces for her reporting and the personal repercussions, Amanpour said that she attempts to remain true to her own goal as a journalist.

"I, in my own little way, try to do what I believe to be true," she said. She added that she believes that journalists provide "a vital public service" by arming people with information and knowledge, and said that the public also has a responsibility to ensure fact-based and comprehensive news reporting around the world by demanding excellence from news networks and organizations.

"Some people think that viewers don't care anymore [about international news], but I do think people care," Amanpour said, "If you tell stories in a compelling way, it resonates. ... We have to provide quality, and people will respond."

-- By Susan Gonzalez

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale increases its voluntary payment to city

Levin appoints new V.P. for Development: Inge Reichenbach

Event honors former Yale chaplain's ministry, activism

Thomas C. Duffy chosen to serve as interim dean of the School of Music

Link between stress, insomnia and obesity shown

Event explores unique singing tradition shared by disparate groups

Conference explores historic impact of global quest for oil

Unbiased reporting is not always noble, CNN journalist says

Veteran coach with over 400 wins to head women's basketball

Symposium honors chemist's '30 years in the trenches'

The drama school stages 'The Real Thing' . . .

Yale honors 116 staff members at Long-Service Recognition Dinner

Juniors honored for their scholarship, contributions

IN MEMORIAM

Biologist Dr. Alvin Novick, noted advocate for people with AIDS

Lloyd Reynolds, shaped fields of labor relations and economics