“I wanted to see it for myself,” says Lara Logan on reporting from some of the most dangerous cities on Earth. Logan has reported from Afghanistan about the Navy Seal’s hunt for al Qaeda, she lived in Iraq for almost five years during Iraq War, and she covered the Ebola crisis in central Africa. Last Wednesday, Logan was interviewed by Professor Donna Shaw in Mayo Concert Hall. She spoke honestly about journalism, and gave TCNJ students a realistic perspective on what it’s like to be a female reporter.
Logan has been CBS News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent since 2008, and has been contributing to 60 Minutes since 2005. On the topic of journalistic integrity, Logan says one thing that benefited her was her ability to listen first, and then ask questions. “I wasn’t the person who just said you know let them talk and then afterwards, you know characterize everything they said through my on prism,” she says. Logan notes that the role of a journalist is not to find the facts or sources that prove your case. “There’s no courage in assuming the positions that everyone assumes,” she says. Logan noted that journalists are not activists or lawyers, and they are not responsible for changing public opinion. “You follow the facts where they lead you,” she says.
Logan says she’s had to walk away from big stories to preserve her journalistic and personal integrity. “And I’m proud of that,” she says. “Because I can look at myself in the mirror every day of my life and I know that nobody handed me anything.”
In 2011, Logan was sexually assaulted while reporting about the Egyptian Revolution in Tahrir Square. Despite this, she doesn’t discourage women from entering the field of journalism. Logan says that no matter what field they’re entering, young women should focus on what they believe in and the principles they stand for. She also urged young women to not fear the unknown when it comes to entering the workplace.