Lara Logan is a journalist and war correspondent.
Besides being one of the greatest journalists of our time, what makes Lara even more special is that, like me, she is South African.
Her résumé is impressive, from CBS, to 60 Minutes, to FOX; and her decades of war reporting – including Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Libya – have been brilliant and brutal.
For example, Lara was attacked by a mob, and beaten, and gang-raped, while covering the 2011 revolution in Egypt, yet she continues to stand strong and do great journalism in spite of the obvious dangers.
Lara was one of the first journalists to report on the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed, including ambassador J Christopher Stevens. Her reporting was credited with helping to bring attention to the attack and its aftermath.
She was one of the few journalists to be granted access to Gaza during the 2014 Israel-Gaza war. Her reporting was eye-opening.
Lara covered the 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed.
Lest we forget that she was one of the most visible journalists covering the 2016 US presidential election. Her reporting was fair and she was not afraid to challenge both sides.
In her conversation with me, she chatted about
- missing being in South Africa;
- Trump understanding the working class;
- the essence of journalism;
- navigating the fog of war;
- fake news, narratives, and facts;
- being gang-raped and the will to survive; and
- the dangers of the post-Covid world.
