To mark the 15th anniversary of TVNewser this month, Adweek honored the 30 Most Impactful TV Newsers of the Past 15 Years, spotlighting the personalities and execs who were instrumental in the industry’s incredible decade-and-a-half evolution. TVNewser will be presenting expanded versions of each honoree’s interview.
Ann Curry
- Job now: Reporter and executive producer, We’ll Meet Again, PBS
- Job 15 years ago: News anchor, NBC’s Today (co-anchor from 2011-2012); began co-anchoring Dateline NBC in 2005.
Adweek: What were you doing 15 years ago, in January 2004?
Ann Curry: The year after we start reporting about Iraq. I know that the war began in March 2003 and then I started essentially a series of overseas assignments. That experience covering Afghanistan and Iraq and 9/11 set me off in a direction that really focused on what was happening in the world. So I was focusing not just on the Middle East, but I was also turning my attention to Africa, and specifically stories and places and people where I felt too little was known about.
Once of the great failings I believed after 9/11 of journalism was that we had failed to report, despite a number of signs, that America was so hated and in fact targeted by Al-Qaeda. There were number of signs and bombings that indicated this, at least for me. I‘ve always been interested in foreign news and the world, for a lot of reasons. When 9/11 happened, it just made me realize, and I still feel this very strongly, that journalism had really failed the American public. We had not adequately warned the American public that our nation and our values were being attacked. We talked about what happened to the U.S.S. Cole, we talked about the attacks in Africa, but when 9/11 happened, of course the whole world woke up. And I really turned my attention, not just to covering foreign stories and humanitarian disasters, which I had been doing. But really tried to focus on, where were the bad guys? Where were things happening that we really needed to know about? Not just as a threat to our country, but as a threat to what we know is on the right side of history. What kinds of things are happening in the world that are bad for people, harmful? So I spent a lot of time thinking about covering the Middle East. And I went repeatedly to Iraq, and repeatedly into Afghanistan and repeatedly into Pakistan. I also looked at Africa and started thinking about what was happening, especially with genocide, and whenever I saw anything that smelled of genocide. So I spent time thinking about Congo, thinking about Sudan specifically—the war in Darfur was called a genocide specifically by the U.S. government—and soon after 2004, I started going there. So many times I went there. I think 8 times into the Sudan region to cover what was in my view, a clear case of genocide. And then also to the CAR (Central African Republic), where another genocide was happening.
I was also an anchor on the Today Show, and I was also—you might have to look this up—but I also, I’m trying to think of when I started working across all the broadcasts at the network. But I think it was about this time when I started moving beyond just being a news anchor on the Today Show, but contributing correspondent work to Nightly News pretty consistently, and also to Dateline. And eventually became co-anchor of Dateline in addition to being … so in terms of where I was, I was doing all of that.
What is the biggest way that TV news has changed over the past 15 years?
Television news has changed a great deal in the last 15 years. During this time, the transition began to the internet, where what is today called television will eventually reside. This has been I think the overarching impact on television news. This economic change, this in many ways an editorial change, has had a tremendous impact on what we see on television news today. It’s not a pretty story, but I think it will end up being a story that may actually end up strengthening journalism, because we’ll learn perhaps what really matters in journalism. I did a whole TED Talk about journalism, so I’m thinking back to that. But television news has become more watched, I think it’s become more opinionated, I think it’s become more competitive, and I think it’s become more ratings-focused.
Who have you learned the most from in your career?
I’ve learned from many people, often by example. In terms of people who do what I do, I’ve learned from watching others. Perhaps my biggest teacher, from afar, has been Walter Cronkite. Because I watched him growing up and I embraced a lot of the ways he did things. He worked in terms of journalism as a real human being – and it’s something I wanted to be in the work. I wanted to stay true to that humility that I thought he espoused.
In terms of the nuts and bolts of writing and that sort of thing, there has been a myriad of teachers, over many decades. I think one of the problems in journalism is that you are a human being, and you’re interviewing human being, and dealing with facts presented by human beings. And so there’s a fundamental problem that some of your information will not be correct. And that has been a tremendous teacher: how to make sure, how to struggle against all of that, to make sure that you are telling people what you have worked to make sure is true. I think that has been probably the best teacher.
One of greatest teachers I had was an old journalist named Spud. He said to me, “Ann, don’t trust anybody. Not even your family. Not even your parents. Because even they have an agenda. So you should ask questions of everyone before you tell anyone else this information as fact.” So that was probably one of the greatest lessons I learned. When he said, “Don’t even trust anyone in your family.” Because it’s true. Because even people who are good people will want you to understand something from their point of view, and as a result, they may leave out important bits of information that actually are important to know about, to understand the truth. So if your job is to tell the truth, if that’s your job, that’s the career you’ve picked, then you do have to be careful, and you have to understand that everyone has a motivation to tell you something in the manner that they want it presented. And they may be good, honest people. And what if they’re not? What if they’re trying to manipulate you, what if they have a true agenda? Then you have to be even more careful. And that’s the thing that guides everything else, is understanding this motivation that others have. And that’s how you have to think to begin when you gather facts. And that’s what Spud told me. I was a young, brand new journalist when he said that, and it marked me forever.
Which of your competitors do you most admire, and why?
I think Martha Raddatz is a really good reporter. I’ve worked competitively with her on stories from war zones, and I deeply admire her. I think Lesley Stahl is a stunning interviewer. I would listen to her interviews with pretty much anyone. She’s just a good questioner. I admire her. I also think Scott Pelley is a brave reporter. He goes to places that are scary to tell people the truth, so I have always admired him greatly.
What has been your toughest professional challenge during the past 15 years?
I think that may be pretty obvious! (Referencing her controversial 2012 exit from Today). It was very painful to stop doing this work that I believe in so much. And to know that it wasn’t because I had done anything wrong. To know that I believed I was good at it, and to know that I had important stories I still had a desire to fight for, and that I knew the public needed to hear. I take this responsibility very personally – this covenant, really, with the viewer. The hardest part of it, and I hope this doesn’t come off sounding wrong, but I felt my job was to take care of people by giving them the truth. That was my job, that was my contribution. By just not telling them what they wanted to hear, but what they needed to hear, in places that they didn’t even think about. To complete the circle that we started this conversation with. To tell them the stories that maybe were not easy to tell him. I felt that this was a deep covenant, and when I didn’t get to keep doing that, when it was so hard to keep doing that, when I lost my chance to keep fighting for those stories, it was devastating, because journalism to me—and I hope this doesn’t offend anyone, but it’s the honest truth—journalism for me is church. And you forced me out of my church for a period of time, and that hurt.
How did you overcome it and move past those feelings and that frustration?
Ultimately, one of the great lessons for any journalist is that it’s not about you, it’s not about your feelings. It’s about the work. It’s always about the work. So, I started a team when I was still at NBC that did, in one year, such important work, about key subjects, that we garnered 5 Emmy nominations in the first year. We did groundbreaking work on the Iran nuclear deal. And we brought value. Because we were breaking stories left and right on the Iran nuclear deal. We were far and ahead of everyone covering that story, leading up to it and doing it. So it was about the work. And then, thinking about what other kind of work. So that’s where I focused, I focused on finding ways to do the work that needs to be done, to fulfill my covenant, to fulfill my promise to myself. That as long as I work as a journalist, I’ll try to do the stories that matter. And find a way to reach people with impactful stories that tell them something about our world and about what we’re made of. And that ultimately is what journalism is meant to.
Will there be more We’ll Meet Again at PBS?
It’s entirely possible. There are other things that I’m doing, so you will see me at a press tour. We have the We’ll Meet Agains, which are going to continue to air into early 2019. In fact there was a key episode on Jan. 8 about the second wave of the women’s movement. It’s key because of the moment that we’re in in this country regarding women. We will know in January whether they’ll be a third season, but we’ve already done 12 full hours of television for PBS. I also write for National Geographic Magazine, and I have articles coming out next year, and then I have something new that I’m an executive producer on that I’m working on with Lionsgate for TNT. Which is a prime time broadcast that will be airing next year. And there are other things afoot.