INTERVIEW - August, 2019
On Location at CNN: An Interview With CNN Reporter Zain Asher
WRITERS/REPORTERS: Lilah Richman, Semira Robinson, Naomi Lenchner, Kylie Sebastian, Lyla Tipton, Zadie Winthrop, Sammie Dostart-Meers, Ashley Grady, Patrick Lenihan and Joshua Santos. (FROM: Marin Academy, Tamalpais High, Menlo School, Redwood High, Sidwell Friends, San Domenico, IMG Academy, and Urban schools)
When you enter the offices of CNN New York, you are immediately greeted by a stunning palette of sleek blues, reds, silver, and turquoise. Reflective dark floors proceed along hallways filled with cameras, screens, and producers working away on the day’s headlines as they happen in real time. Conference rooms with playful names like “Hogwarts Express” and “Paddington Station” line the hallways between studios, where writers, producers, and editors work together to get to the heart of current events, or as it’s long been called, the scoop.
Observing the inner workings of an American media institution like CNN is awe-inspiring. The sheer totality of resources and person power required to keep the network running 24/7 is staggering to contemplate. Founded by Atlanta media mogul Ted Turner in 1980, it was the first all-news TV channel in the U.S. Its immersive Gulf War and 9/11 coverage made the network a must-watch household name, and today it can be seen in over 200 countries and territories, with 37 bureaus around the world. So, what’s it like to work for this colossus of modern journalism? To find out, we sat down with one of CNN’s rising stars: Zain Asher, a British Nigerian financial reporter who’s breaking down barriers of race, nationality, and gender in an industry long dominated by white American men. With her as our guide, we entered the world of CNN, modern news’ original Goliath.
Asher strode toward us in a sleek pale green dress, charming us with her poise, confidence, and (we admit it) British accent. Even in casual conversation, she radiated the eloquence of a well-informed newscaster. But her life wasn’t always this easygoing. After losing her father in a horrific car accident, Zain and her brother, Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, were raised by their mother in a London suburb. Mrs. Ejiofor brought up her children to befriend and understand people of different backgrounds, religions, and ideas. “My mother sent me to different types of schools and…made me interact with people who were different from me,” Asher said. “It’s certainly really helped me with my job, because part of your job involves travel, talking to everybody, and meeting people who are different from you.” She’s always had an affinity for the marginalized: “As a minority growing up in England, I had that empathy…I could empathize much more, because I wasn’t in the bubble. That was a game-changer for me.”
It also set her on her path to journalism. Telling stories others don’t want told is the mark of a true journalist, and Asher’s determination to pursue the truth has led her from suburban England to one of the most prestigious news outlets in the world. By now she knows the place like the back of her hand. We followed her through the polished corridors of CNN’s New York bureau on the West Side of Manhattan, learning about the history and current state of the company. “We just moved into this building two months ago,” she told us. “It houses CNN, Warner Brothers, and HBO. We’re all owned by the same family.”
We’ve got [CNN] branches all across America... a D.C. bureau... an L.A. bureau... Atlanta—that’s where our headquarters are—and internationally we have massive bureaus in London, Hong Kong, Beijing... Paris. The sheer expanse of the CNN empire ensures that the network is always up to date, and on the scene.
New York is a major center of CNN’s operations. “Anderson Cooper’s based here,” said Asher. “Don Lemon’s based here. They all have their own designated sets.” Asher’s top show is Marketplace Africa, in which she uses her unique perspective as a British Nigerian woman to debunk and re-imagine western ideas about Africa. The most populated continent on Earth is often misrepresented or ignored in the press, which is why it’s so important for voices like Zain Asher’s to be heard. “People don’t have a positive perception of Africa. They see it as poor third-world countries where no progress occurs. CNN International is really committed to changing that perception.” Asher and her team report on more than war and famine—they spotlight Africans who are saving lives, winning awards, and gaining fame as international celebrities. “As not just a black woman, but as an African woman, I have a massive platform here.”
Over the past few years, working at CNN has become more political than ever. “One of the biggest changes is the tension between the media and Donald Trump,” said Asher. Though largely a battle of words, the conflict between network and president has had real-life consequences. “Last year there were explosives sent to CNN…I knew then [that] the media landscape was now completely different.” The fact that CNN’s team keeps showing up every day is a testament to journalistic integrity.
But as a news corporation driven by both journalistic integrity and revenue, CNN faces a longstanding challenge. Ratings are the lifeblood that leads to ad revenue that keeps a TV network running. “It’s a very fine balance at CNN that we have to tread,” said Asher. “Obviously, there’s a business decision to [cover Trump] because everything the president does generates some ratings. But the most important aspect is that power [must be] held to account.” As for “monitoring the competition,” she looks at NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX News, and MSNBC to understand which stories are catching fire and which aren’t. But “integrity always comes first.”
Nurturing that integrity is no small task when the country’s nearly unprecedented cultural and political divisions have made being a journalist harder than ever. “No one’s going to sit here and pretend there were no divisions before Donald Trump,” said Asher, “but I would say that the Age of Trump has made them much more visible.” The president has even called CNN “the enemy of the people” in both tweets and speeches. “Obviously, none of that is true,” Asher said. “No one is going to cave into that false narrative…The media is not fake news and you can’t call it fake news just because you don’t agree with it.” Asked if CNN would alter its reporting in response to right-wing criticism, she said, “There’s nothing that we’d do differently.”
To be a journalist you have to have conviction: a conviction to the truth, to pursuing the stories no one else will. Do you think you have what it takes? Asher’s advice is to “report on what you care about and what sets you apart” to stand out from the competition. That, and don’t stop searching for the truth. If you look for it hard enough, who knows? Maybe one day you’ll be traveling the world, breaking barriers, and keeping the American public informed, just like her. All it takes is curiosity, hard work, and a a reporter’s relentless spirit.
