Engel on the Menu: “I Think You Can Still Have a Career as a Foreign Correspondent”

Today on our 100th mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu we were joined by NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, ahead of his move back to the Middle East. Engel spent more than five years in Iraq, and recently reported from Afghanistan. He’ll be back to Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan, on his next trip.

“In Afghanistan, it’s the U.S. troop build up and the idea of an increased American focus to try to turn the tide of the war,” says Engel of the focus in that region, while in Pakistan “the story is can the government hold onto power, and is the government slowly losing control of its territory.”

Engel says despite some closures of bureaus by American networks, the future is bright for foreign correspondence. “I think you can still have a career as a foreign correspondent at the network level,” he said. “There’s lots of news, there’s lots of information to be had. What I’m noticing is there are more and more partnerships taking place. It’s probably a way to expand coverage and save some costs.”

Also discussed: the “show and tell” of appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher and The Colbert Report, the state of the newspaper industry and what’s in his “journalist toolkit” when reporting from dangerous regions.

(note: the podcast begins at the 30 second mark.)

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

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