Amanpour

I absolutely love Christiane Amanpour, so I was thrilled to see an article about her in Vanity Fair.   For those of you who don't know who she is or how amazing she is, she is CNN's chief international correspondent.  She has reported for 25 years and she is my hero.  If it weren't for people like her we wouldn't know what's going on around the world.  I know that it's depressing to hear about other countries because they are so screwed up (not that we aren't too), but you have to imagine being a person living in a backwards society. Imagine being alone with no one out there to tell your story or do anything about your situation.  It's these brave reporters that give that isolated person a voice and who spark change.  I always wanted to work for CNN and I even thought that I might like to report in dangerous situations, but I don't know if I would have lasted a day.  Plus, my teachers told me that I belonged on a morning show and that I was too bubbly.  I hated that!

Christiane was born in London and raised in Tehran.  Her mother is British and her father is Iranian.  She grew up speaking English, French, and Persian.  The article says that they left everything after the Islamic revolution in 1979 and this sparked her interest in journalism.  She was in the middle of everything and was fascinated.

When asked if she is ever afraid on assignment, she said "It's what you do....We're in a country's backyard, literally reporting in real time about the atrocities that are being committed.  You always think about the worst that could happen-getting tortured , or maybe raped.  Certainly as a woman, that's a big fear.  And otherwise getting injured or killed.  I've been lucky."

She spoke briefly about the journalists who are being tortured and killed.  She said that this has been a bad year for them because other countries are trying to shut them up; they are killing the messenger.  914 journalists have been killed in trouble spots around the world since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.  Seventy percent of the deaths were deliberate murders, nine percent were tortured from death.  Just a side note.....This is what kills me about people when they pick up a paper....they take the stories in it for granted.  Thank God we have people out there who were willing to search for the truth.  It isn't easy, it isn't safe, but it is so necessary.

She was asked about the common view that foreign correspondents are "war junkies" and she answered "That's the biggest pile of crap."  She said that there are other careers that require adrenaline for survival and that there are certain people attracted to those fields.  (Like athletes, astrophysicists, or soldiers.)  Journalists need adrenaline as well for their survival.  She said "If you want us to be the eyes and ears in our field-not people spinning in the blogosphere or sitting in armchairs opining about what's going on in the rest of the world-you need people who are willing to go to the battlefront."  Yeah.....I wish I were one of them. She is so amazing.

Here is the most amazing thing that she says: she says that journalism isn't about being fair, it is about the truth.  This alone is why she is the most amazing journalist on the planet.  I get so sick on all of this bias, right-wing, left-wing reporting crap.  CNN versus Fox.....ummm, it shouldn't be this way.  The truth is the truth.  Give me the facts, not your opinions, unless I am watching an editorialized show.  I have always been intrigued with how different paradigms can paint a totally different picture until no one knows what the truth is anymore, but I think that people need to consider the fact that the truth is still there, even among different perspectives.  If ten people see a car crash, they will all have a different viewpoint, but the facts should stay the same in the big picture.  That's the way I look at journalism.  The facts are there, you just have to dig, and your sources are people.  It isn't as easy as everyone thinks it is to get to the bottom of a story and come out with the truth, especially when dealing with liars or people with egos or something to lose.  When we get the truth, we are lucky, and we are lucky to have people who dig for it.

We should all be happy that there are journalists out there who want to serve as the fourth check and balance of the government, and a check on the world, and in my opinion, they deserve more respect than they get.  Well, the Amanpours do, anyway.  You should choose your reporters as carefully as you would choose a car, in my opinion.  There are lemons and then there are the Amanpours.