ABC News journalist Martha Raddatz (picture above) presented a lecture “From the White House to the Middle East” on Sept. 18. During her lecture, she spoke about her career in foreign conflicts as well as her experience travelling to each country she covers (Courtesy of Creative Commons).
In introducing her role as a journalist, Raddatz reflected on the recent passing of her dear friend American journalist and political reporter Cokie Roberts. In commemorating her friend’s life, she spoke about how Roberts was a role model for her. Like Raddatz, Roberts knew the importance of journalism and dug deep into world issues.
“I’m going to be standing up talking about Cokie Roberts a little bit to start … I think about things Cokie did, I think about what I did, and I think about what she was as a journalist and what I try to be as a journalist as well and give the message that we are fighting a good fight. We know the importance of journalism,” Raddatz said. “Cokie was a political journalist. She knew everything about politics, she knew more about politics than everybody.”
She continued to describe how, for each world story she covers, she travels to the location so that she can be physically present. Some of her best experiences as a journalist have been from meeting those who live in the countries she travels to. She hopes that in the future, too, journalists will be able to travel and meet people who are affected in places of conflict.
“I am a Global Affairs Correspondent, and I report on places I have been and seen and felt and smelled. That’s a really important thing to me and has always been important in my career. It’s not always possible for everyone to do that, but it’s something that I hope survives in journalism … I am absolutely positive that journalism will survive, and that journalism will grow and that there will be a new crop of young journalists who are curious,” Raddatz said. “You learn something every day… It’s a combination of opening up a world to people in [different] ways.”
Following her discussion of the ability to open up the world to people, Raddatz explained how her career covering politics started. She has covered politics since 1988, after her trip to Israel when she truly understood what conflict meant.
“[The Middle East] always has intrigued me. It was the place I first understood conflict and understood why people end up at war. As a young journalist, I first went to Israel, and it was in the first Intifada in 1988 when Israelis and Palestinians were fighting,” Raddatz said. “I’ve spent a whole lot of time in Iraq, and Yemen, and Iran and all those places. So, it’s been the focus of my career sometimes because I wanted to be there and other times because that’s where conflict led me.”
While explaining her experience reporting on the Middle East Intifada in 1988, she acknowledged the need to be physically present. During her coverage, she chose to meet people on both sides of the conflict. She met with families on the Palestinian side who lived there and she also met with families from Israel.
Raddatz emphasized wanting to hear a story for herself and then being able to present what is actually happening; that is what she considers the truth. Even after her visit in 1988, she went back to the Middle East and met with the same families on both the Palestinian side and Israeli side to see how they each evolved. She recalls that while previously she could sense the love within each family, as tensions got worse between Israel and Palestine, the love she once saw disappeared.
Interestingly enough, Raddatz had not initially planned for her career to be headed toward politics and conflict. She first got involved in politics as a TV reporter in Boston when the 1988 Governor of Massachusetts Michael Dukakis was running for President. As a TV reporter, she started covering his race. This opportunity led to covering the Pentagon and then becoming a war correspondent.
“In terms of conflict, I started covering the Pentagon, and I started covering the Pentagon in peacetime. [Politics] is a fascinating beat first of all, because you cover everything. It’s a microcosm of everything in this country,” Raddatz said. “It’s culture, it’s life and death, it’s the most dramatic beat and the most diverse beat, and then 9/11 happened and we went to war. I don’t think I ever planned on being a war correspondent, but the war came to me.”
Raddatz also reflected on her experience as a female pioneer. She acknowledged the responsibility she has of being a good journalist and a role model for young women. She stated how significant it is to be looked up to as someone who does what they are employed to do.
“I know that I am looked up to, and I say that modestly. I say that in a way that I know there’s a responsibility to be a good journalist, to be a good mentor, so I’m proud of that. I’m proud that I see so many women covering the Pentagon,” she said. “It’s important for young women to have mentors and pioneers but it’s equally important for young men to see women doing it, to see pioneer females … you want everyone to just look up to you as a person who does their job.”
Reflecting on her career, Raddatz identified what she considered her career milestone. She elaborates on the importance of feeding herself positive thoughts and encouraging herself to conquer challenges.
“Probably the first time I went into a very dangerous situation which was in Bosnia, that was a milestone. To get beyond your own fears and [think] ‘I can do this,’ but the other milestone was probably the 2012 debate, which was a general election debate and I hadn’t been covering politics,” Raddatz said. “I was sort of like ‘what am I doing here in front of all these people,’ and that was the moment where you think ‘I can do it’ and you stretch yourself and challenge yourself.”
As a journalist, Raddatz had meaningful advice to offer students who are deciding on future professions. The first tip she offered is that people need to be human. Raddatz believes that the best journalists are the ones who invest themselves in the stories that they cover; the ones who feel the emotion and have the heart to listen and understand people from different sides of a story.