The Lesley Stahl Interview | 06/23/2009 2:55 pm
The Lesley Stahl Interview: Christiane Amanpour, at the Height of the Iranian Election Crisis
Image courtesy of CNN
LESLEY: Christiane, before we let you go, I know that you’re starting a new program on CNN and I’ve been waiting anxiously for it. Tell us all about it. Will we be able to see it in the United States?
CHRISTIANE: Well, in short, it’s going to be five days a week, five nights a week, on CNN International, which, if you have the right cable system, you can see in the U.S. But it will be one day a week in CNN in America as well, and that’s great. As far as I’m concerned the more foreign news and the more understanding about our complicated world for Americans, the better. It’ll be hopefully bringing my 20 years’ experience in the field into the studio, but also we’ll travel the program. And it’ll be an attempt to put a big issue of the day, or of the week, or whatever, in context, in perspective, and really dig deeper – which is not happening anywhere on television right now. Except, of course, on "60 Minutes, Lesley.
LESLEY: And when will it start?
CHRISTIANE: It’s starting mid-September. I don’t know the precise date, but it’s mid-September.
LESLEY: Alright. Well everybody who’s reading this interview will be anxiously awaiting, and thank you. I know you’re in London. Come home. You live in New York now.
CHRISTIANE: I’m away for the summer, working and spending some time with my family.
LESLEY: Alright. Well we’ll see you in September.
Want more Lesley? Here are a few of her other wOw interviews:
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The Lesley Stahl Interview: Patti Davis
CHRISTIANE: Well, in short, it’s going to be five days a week, five nights a week, on CNN International, which, if you have the right cable system, you can see in the U.S. But it will be one day a week in CNN in America as well, and that’s great. As far as I’m concerned the more foreign news and the more understanding about our complicated world for Americans, the better. It’ll be hopefully bringing my 20 years’ experience in the field into the studio, but also we’ll travel the program. And it’ll be an attempt to put a big issue of the day, or of the week, or whatever, in context, in perspective, and really dig deeper – which is not happening anywhere on television right now. Except, of course, on "60 Minutes, Lesley.
LESLEY: And when will it start?
CHRISTIANE: It’s starting mid-September. I don’t know the precise date, but it’s mid-September.
LESLEY: Alright. Well everybody who’s reading this interview will be anxiously awaiting, and thank you. I know you’re in London. Come home. You live in New York now.
CHRISTIANE: I’m away for the summer, working and spending some time with my family.
LESLEY: Alright. Well we’ll see you in September.
Want more Lesley? Here are a few of her other wOw interviews:
Lesley Stahl sits down with Arianna Huffington
Lesley Stahl interviews Mika Brzezinski of ‘Morning Joe’
Rachel Maddow talks to Lesley Stahl
The Lesley Stahl Interview: Patti Davis
Read more about: Ayatollah Khomeini, Barack Obama, Beheading, Bill Keller, Childhood, Christiane Amanpour, Daniel Pearl, David Rohde, Faezeh Rafsanjani, Family, Iran, Jim Sciutto, Journalism, Kidnapping, Lesley Stahl, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Media, Middle East, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mohammed Khatami, Mohsen Rezaee, Neda Soltani, News, Politics, Q & A, Roxanna Saberi, Shirin Ebadi, Taliban, Terry Anderson, The New York Times
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22 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Christiane and Lesley… two magificent women who tell it like it is. A few weeks back, I watched Ann Curry in Iran. ( pre election). Many things I found interesting. First, so many of the youth not only spoke English but were fluent. How so? Yo develop fluency in any language calls for much dialogue. Also, it was so clear then, their voices were filled with agitation and wanting to be heard…. and for good reason.
The young woman who was so senselessly killed was taking singing lessons underground. Women are not allowed to sing in public. One young couple interviewed by Ann spoke of how they were not allowed to hold hands in public, yet as the cameras rolled, there were many young lovers seated in parks and just strollling.. hand in hand.
It was so obvious there was much discontent before the June 12 election. The election was the vehicle needed to spark their outrage on many fronts. The Iranian regime is nuts to try to kill their voices on Tweeter and Facebook. They know how to get around it. One British tech said, " One out of 3 of the best techs in Silicone Valley is Iranian."
Dawn: Re: your last sentence: We have to do both. We are all in this together––even those tiny little islands that we forget are there and yet may have one of the thousands of bases we have situated all over the world. We are ONE as the that song told us years ago.
Interesting interview. C A is one of the best and we are mighty lucky to have her.
Christiane Amanpour is a such a remarkable, valuable and refreshing reporter. The only disagreement I have with her is that there is, indeed, another place for in depth reporting on TV and that is The Newshour. Every day they have balanced, in depth discussions.
Michelle Mehlhorn
I’ve always had deep respect for Christiane Amanpour. If listening to or watching the news and I hear her name, I stop and listen/watch everytime.
I am firmly in the camp of wishing all journalists kept their opinions to themselves. It’s called the "news", not the opinion hour - just tell me what I need to know so I can form my own opinion.
This may sound cynical, but I think there are a great number of people who have stopped thinking for themselves, simply because there are so many people in the media willing to do it for them.
I’m not sure where and when it changed along the way, but I’m sorry to see it so.