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Christiane Amanpour Speaks to the Atlanta Press Club

When the announcement was made this spring that ChristianAmanpour would leave CNN for ABC News my initial reaction was, there goes someone else out CNN’s spinning door.  But it’s way more than that.  Amanpour is among a select group of respected international broadcast journalists during the past quarter century and you could mount a convincing case that she is the best of her generation.

This August, Amanpour will slip into the Sunday morning chair at ABC “This Week,” the network’s premier public affairs program whose lineage traces back to the legendary David Brinkley.  She will be the first journalist of this kind – international boots constantly on the ground – to hold serve on Sunday.

Amanpour began her distinguished CNN career 27 years ago as a do-everything production assistant.  Now she laughs about early reporting efforts which she says were fairly dismal.   Not one to stay put, Amanpour moved from Atlanta to New York where there were better assignments, higher visibility and a better path toward her goal to become an international journalist.

Amanpour was in Atlanta recently to deliver Georgia State University‘s commencement address and participate in an Atlanta Press Club mid-morning brunch.  You can find edited excerpts on http://mikekleinonline.com/ .  All excerpts are from the Press Club event where she was, as always, uniquely engaging during 45 high-spirited minutes.

Written by Mike Klein

Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.  He was a CNN Executive Producer, Supervising Producer and Vice President of News Production between 1984 and 1998.