One of the great pleasures and privileges of serving as President of the OPC is enjoying the opportunities to meet journalists from abroad.
So when the State Department invited me to talk with 20 newspaper and broadcast editors and reporters and journalism professors from abroad on June 21, it was an opportunity I could not miss. And, as it turned out, neither could our OPC Board member, Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, the foreign editor of CBS News, who graciously hosted the same group at CBS just hours before I met them at the Foreign Press Center in midtown.
If there ever was a demonstration in the flesh about how much the new OPC website project might link together a disparate group of journalists, this was it: This group should participate immediately. Consider this list of the visitors’ countries: Bosnia, Burma, Chile, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Liberia, Macedonia, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, People’s Republic of China, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, West Bank, Zambia.
Comparing notes, it turned out Ingrid and I each found the group feisty, well informed and eager to figure out how to get more American interest in the news from their respective countries. The visitors also were anxious to try to establish contacts in the U.S. so perhaps they could contribute articles for news organizations here. I tried to give them a realistic understanding of how news judgments are made and what American news people consider to be the most interesting stories from their homelands.
The newsman from Nigeria was concerned about the constant theme of corruption in his home country dominating coverage here. Other Africans present also voiced similar concerns yet agreed with me that with all the oil wealth Nigeria has and the sordid history of its rulers, it is unlikely that perception is going to change any time soon.
I tried to explain that U.S.-based media have a home country orientation and that most of the time, it should. While we might be interested in a “good news” story from Nigeria, it is hard to fathom exactly what that story might be. However, I pointed out that I still do not understand why I have yet to see a story in U.S.-centric media about the effects of the BP oil spill on the Mexican seaside and economy. Could it be that oil only drifts westward and only despoils the U.S.?
With a majority of the guests being journalists from emerging nations, I spent a fair amount of time discussing the assault China is making to corner the natural resources of that continent. Then I inadvertently managed to rile the female reporter from China’s Xinhua News Agency when I referred to the immense environmental damage being done in China as the “rape” of the environment.
Believe me; there is nothing like being the guest lecturer on the defensive. It was a stern reminder that one should never slip to being a rookie reporter; that much of the rest of the audience sprang to my defense was little solace. And I must say, the experience of being challenged by able journalists from around the world was great fun — and I hope many of our members get to experience similar encounters.
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At a separate event on June 1, OPC Foundation President Bill Holstein and I also had the pleasure of talking at the OPC to a group of seven young broadcasters from the University of Hong Kong who were being led by their professor and OPC Board member Jim Laurie.
Laurie, a longtime ABC correspondent in Asia, attended the OPC board meeting for the first time, after raising the money to bring his students to the U. S. Laurie told Holstein and myself that we were a little gloomy in our assessments of the news business and the joys of being a foreign correspondent. Maybe he was right, especially in view of the talent and enterprise shown by his students. Keep up the great work Jim! And yes, his students are ideal candidates to use the soon-to-be-developed OPC database.