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So this morning was one of the coolest parts of Bootcamp so far.

John Pomfret, a career international correspondent, spoke to our group about reporting from war torn nations.  Pomfret reported from China during the tension of the Tienanmen Square Massacre, from Hong Kong, form the Persian Gulf during the First Gulf War, from Bosnia during the Bosnian War and from the Congo during that countries time of war.

John Pomfret talks about his career as a foreign correspondent

Pomfret spoke about the rush he and other journalists get from reporting and covering news while bullets are flying inches above their heads.  I don’t know that anyone who has not been in a war zone can really appreciate what Pomfret and other war journalists go through to report the news.  When reporting from China, Pomfret noted that the Chinese Government tapped his cell phone, land line phone, office and apartment.  The Chinese also tried to pay Pomfret’s assistance to leak details about his report.

Pomfret gave budding journalists tw0 pieces of advice to land a foreign correspondent job:

1. Learn a foreign language

2. Develop an area of expertise like business, the environment or public policy

During his long career, Pomfret had several close calls.  One on occasion a bomb detonated and Pomfret lived to tell the story, while his friend did not.  Danger is a reality for most foreign correspondents.

Later in the morning we had the chance to hear from Chuck Lewis, a dedicated investigative journalist. Lewis worked as Mike Wallace’s executive producer and founded the Center for Public Integrity.

Professor Olmsted introducing Chuck Lewis

Chuck Lewis is the coolest guy we have heard from to date.  Anyone who wants to, “get the bastards’” is a good guy in my book.  During his long career Lewis helped exposed some of the biggest scandals of our time.  Lewis and company broke the story about the no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton.

Chuck Lewis, master investigative journalist

Lewis listed signposts as to how investigative journalism is expanding to include online media:

1. The Pulitzer Prize has opened its doors to none newspaper media

2. The AP invited 4 non-for-profit online media outlets to submit content to the AP and be distributed on the AP network

3. The formation of the Investigative News Network

According to almost every speakers we have heard from so far, the future of journalism looks bleak.  Lewis disagrees.  According to Lewis the “hey day of investigative reporting is yet to come.”

During the afternoon we had time to catch our breath.  I have tried to be a sponge and soak up as much information as possible.  Thankfully this afternoon we had time to work individually with teachers to improve our skills on the blogs.  Everyone needed and appreciated the time we were given.

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