I think some of the best reporters are the ones who can really illustrate the differences between societies, at the same time trying to connect the fact that there are a lot of shared values in addition to those differences.
From John Pomfret
One of the problems that we have as American journalists is that we bring the American cultural baggage with us and we plop it down and it follows us around and that's just a fact of life.
I was posted to China in the summer of 1988, which was the greatest time ever, I think, to have been in China.
My main form of transportation at that time was a bicycle, because bicycles could move though the crowd.
And when they do spin out of control there are important ramifications that affect America, not just its direct national interest but its broader interests as a nation which has thought of itself as a beacon to other nations, of freedom, liberty, democracy, whatever.
I think that's the main threat in Bosnia and Rwanda and Zaire. There doesn't seem to be much willingness to engage these problems unless they directly affect national security interests.
I've been shot at on numerous occasions.
The one indication that I got that I was doing the right job in Bosnia was that at different periods of time all the factions came down very hard on me.
I had my life threatened by Bosnian Serbs on numerous occasions.
Srebrenica was a horrendous war crime and it had to be uncovered.
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