THOUGHTS FROM A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302360001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 14, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

:
?Sell Anne Goy!!
w:ilked in with a degree from North-
western Lniversitv and experience is
a Rhodes scholar in Vienna.
When Geyer finally became a gen-
eral assignment reporter. she said the
men saw her as "not very threaten-
ing" and treated her "sort of like a
mascot."
Even so, Geyer remembered that
she felt a sense of genuine cama-
raderie. The 5I-year-old columnist
said newspapering was fun then ?
more so than now ? and that she felt
herself part of a hand of people
"doing a great task together.- Also.
Geyer said there were no yuppie
"careerists" or "adversarial nuts- ?
two categories of present-day jour-
nalists she holds in low regard.
Geyer speculated that although
there ss ore fewer opportunities for
women in those days. it might in fact
have been easier for those women
who sought these opportunities out.
Today. she said, there are "so many
women ss ho are so good- that it's
harder to break in.
In her autobiography, Baying the
Eliftht. Geyer wrote that she
didn't want to become a "clone" of
male journalists. To do so, she noted
in the hook, "would have been not
only to deny my own female identity.
but to lose values that, should he
incorporated into this and every
Aeknow ledging that not all women
would agree that there are particular
11111 1.111111 IIIil 111 I
ST A-r--
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302360001-0
"r`e? rA.,10 144/1"
STAT
SYNDICATES
Thoughts from a foreign correspondent
Columnist Georgie Anne Geyer discusses her 28-year career as well
as the advantages and disadvantages of being a female journalist
I By Don Sarvey
She broke into new spapering ia
the society desk. which at the time
"was the only plate they would hiie
women." and she became a foreign
correspondent when "the idea of a
woman going overseas was unthink-
able."
But syndicated columnist Georgie
Anne Geyer was following what she
loved, and that made all the differ-
ence. It's advice she still gives to
aspiring journalists. "Don't ask what
people need to have done.- she says.
"Do what you love and care about.-
What Geyer loved and cared about
were other eultures, lancuage, and
history. 'The columnist wanted to he
one of those people she describes as
"couriers between cultures.-
Geyer was talented and lucky
enough to carry it off. She was the
Latin American correspondent for
the Chicago Daily New.c from 1964 to
1967 and then its roving foreign cor-
respondent and columnist until 1975.
Geyer subsequently wrote a foreign
affairs column for the Los Angeles
Times Syndicate from 1975 to 1980,
when she switched to Universal Press
Syndicate, her present distributor.
She is currently at work on a biogra-
phy of Fidel Castro.
Though an ardent feminist ? she
was among the participants in last
fall's International Women's Media
Conference in Washington ? Geyer
speaks warmly and somewhat wist-
fully of her early years when she was
one of the few females in a male-tilled
newsroom. ?
In an interview during a visit to the
Harrisburg campus of Pennsylvania
State University, Geyer recalled that
she was relegated to society news at
the start of her career in 1959 because
the city desk of the Chicago Daily
News had a quota on women.
The city desk allowed only two
slots for women ? one covering edu-
cation and one writing "sob stories
about children and dogs," Geyer
said. Both were filled when she
(Don Sarvey is a free-lance writer and
editor based in Harrisburg. Pennsylva-
nia.)
50
lcmale "values,- Geyer said
her belief that women t'011!2 1.0 it)!
nalism with an affinity 1.-1 and, !-
,tanding certain kinds of issues -
including overpopulation and th,.?
exhaustion of resources. She .tdk.2...!
that women "don't come in as rart ,?..
the power structure." so their mind,
are "freer" to grasp the world as !!
really is. Geyer said women aren
"socialized into" getting, holding. ,
and organizing power.
Geyer also believes women
better during interviews and are no,
as confrontational. so they're likely to
learn more.
Geyer's dislike of adversarial jour-
nalists is connected to her impression
that there is a loss of personal integ
rity in AmeriCan life today.
The award-winning columnist con-
siders adversarial journalism a
"major sickness." Geyer stated that
taking an "oppositionist" stan,e il
the reporting of stories is overdone
and often employed "at the service of
personal ambition.- She said a
reporter who recently interviewed
her for a story on syndicated colum-
nists seemed primarily interested
getting her into an argument oxu- t1
exact Dumber of papers she had.
Geyer also doesn't have much-
for those the columnist dubs Nur,:
careerists journalists who c, .II?
calculate their careers in adVance as
don't really enjoy what they're doirw
She stated that she is "appalled" h'.
people who "have their lives
planned out?as if you can plan yot;
life!"
New locale for 13.C.'
Johnny Hart will be bringing In-
"B.C." comic to the new Creator,
Syndicate, E&P learned close to pre,'
time.
The 29-year-old strip, which,
appears in over 1,100 newspapers. ?
the second major feature to come !0
CS from News America Syndicai,
since NAS was sold to the Heitrq
Corporation February 11. Ann 1...o-
ders' column was the other.
More details will appear in ne?i ,
week's issue.
EDITOR & PUBLISHER for March 11 '
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302360001-0